Gondor's Grumblings

[zenrat]

Fixed or Repaired Daily is what I was told...

[Pellson]

From a quality perspective, European Ford has actually had better ratings than all of the VAG group for more than 20 years now. And Mazda, being an integral part of the Ford group, shares loads of technology with Ford. Hence, if you can find cheap parts for your Mazda 6, then you should be able to source equally cheap parts for your Mondeo, f.i. Best quality on a standard, mass-produced cars still however seems to be a Toyota thing. Which is unfortunate, because I've always found them to be unbearably boring to drive. With some obvious exceptions, obviously, but generally speaking. And my life is too short for boring cars, it seems.. 

[PR19_Kit]

And my life is too short for boring cars, it seems.. 

Absolutely! 

I'm with you 100% there Mr. Pellson. 

[Nick]

Talking to a mate yesterday who said that if you want parts for an Alpina, look up the same part for a standard BMW. Quite often it's the exact same part with different number and a higher price for being an Alpina.

Same goes for Lexus and Toyota,  Mercedes and Maybach etc

Nissan and Renault share their engines. VW, Seat and Skoda all share common parts and engines.

[Gondor]

Got my car back from the Garage. It was very expensive due to the brake callipers only being available from Suziki and costing £420 each and both needing to be replaced.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

They must be made from unobtanium! NO way does it cost that much to make them, sheer profiteering. 

[kerick]

My son is an auto body tech and complains that Ford and Chevy will use the same parts for years while Dodge redesigns everything every year. Makes getting parts a real pain and drives up the price. And same story for a Lincoln vs Ford and GMC vs Chevy.

[PR19_Kit]

At one time I ran an early Chevy Corvair (got it cheap from a USAF Sergeant from Croughton  ) and it got through fan belts like no tomorrow, as they bent through 90 degrees twice on each rev! They cost a fortune from the ONLY dealer in the UK, Lendrum & Hartnum in London, until I found out that one from a Bedford truck fitted exactly and cost 1/4 of the amount! 

[Gondor]

They must be made from unobtanium! NO way does it cost that much to make them, sheer profiteering. 

The government will have its cut from that I suspect VAT is in there somewhere. The main thing is that the car will stop when I apply the brakes rather than like last week when I almost had to put my foot to the firewall to stop the car. It had also passed it's MOT at the start of the month.

Gondor

[Wardukw]

Course here if your car is a high end brand ..Mercedes..BMW  and so on ..prices go nuts 🤪
$350per hr plus .

When you think about it, there's no logic for those higher labour prices, all cars are built the same way these days, and if you know how to fix a Peugeot 305, you can fix a BMW M5 too. It's just 'what the market will bear', or in another language, 'Corporate Greed'.

I know why first hand Kit ...luxury euro car workshops are very picky about who works on their cars ..alot of professional mechanics are trained at the manufacturers own schools so to speck..so Mercedes will send a mechanic from here to Germany to be fully trained and then certified...there's the money bud..professionals can then be charged out at a huge rate compared to a git like me .
Course the higher the brand ..the higher the price ..to service a Lamborghini Aventador here is $25 grand ...eee gads   

[Wardukw]

Got my car back from the Garage. It was very expensive due to the brake callipers only being available from Suziki and costing £420 each and both needing to be replaced.

Gondor

I'm still scratching my head about those calipers Al...420 quid is like $ 926 nz ..mate I can buy Willwood calipers for that sort of money and those are ten times better than standard Suzuki ones ...that's pure robbery mate ...I'd double check them out ..get a online price check for em .

[Wardukw]

Here's a thing mate...tell me what ya drive and it's yr and I'll tell ya what I can get those calipers for .

[Gondor]

Here's a thing mate...tell me what ya drive and it's yr and I'll tell ya what I can get those calipers for .

No point, they are fitted now.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I know why first hand Kit ...luxury euro car workshops are very picky about who works on their cars ..alot of professional mechanics are trained at the manufacturers own schools so to speck..so Mercedes will send a mechanic from here to Germany to be fully trained and then certified...there's the money bud..professionals can then be charged out at a huge rate compared to a git like me .
Course the higher the brand ..the higher the price ..to service a Lamborghini Aventador here is $25 grand ...eee gads   

Oh sure, I know that's what they do, but I bet you could have the Lambo apart and sorted just as well as the Lambo trained guy.

At Pressed Steel we had all sorts of cars in FVE (Foreign Vehicle Evaluation) all made by OTHER manufacturers and we stripped them down to the last nut and bolt and put them back together again. Only rarely did we run into problems where we COULDN'T get them back together properly. The Ford Corsair story was a zinger! 

[The Rat]

Let's not forget the much-vaunted overengineering that's popular in some circles (lookin' at you, Germany) that makes things difficult to fix.