not retro just a good moan

Sorry mate I know you own one but I had nothing but problems with the 2 picssso's I had. Both with the car and the various main dealers I went to.

picassos been a good car for us (her) - still faily low mileage (25k)and no probs until now. i've just checked prices on web - i can replace all four discs and all pads for less than what they're quoting to give them a good clean! - i still cant convice her that older is best - currently got a cinq sporting 23k 1 owner FSH £700 - had it a year and its cost me £12 for a clutch cable! - last motor was a volvo 940 estate - paid £300 for it, had it 18months and sold for £700 with 180k on the clock - only cost was £40 for new pads all round! - she always has a moan when i spend some time in't garage but still cant see that mine don't cost £500 for a service and replacing a few bits and bobs!

My dads got a 52 plate C3 1.4HDI thingy, we had alot of problems with the main dealer trying to sell us stuff the car didnt realy need or just charging to much. the cars done 110K now so we are now using a small local garage which is much better £200 for the cambelt not £600 etc

Edit just rembered at about 60k citroen wanted to replace both headlamps at £180 each! he refused, took the car home and used a hair drier on the old lamps

An old volvo I had last year had £5000 worth of service history dating from 2000 to 2005. The presvious owner had had EVERYTHING done at the main dealer, MOTs tyres, everything! Anything that was suggested that needed doing was done. The best receipt for work I found was £38 for a brake bulb. The bulb itself cost 80p, the rest was labour!

The previous owner part exchanged the old 940 estate against a used V70 at said dealer. I bought it directly from the dealer for £200. Still don't know why I ever sold it. It was a fanstastic car, obviously with all that history it drove perfectly.

I'm so glad other people spend fortunes on cars so I can snap them up dirt cheap

the 940 estate i had also had FMDSH - i admit i regret selling - but the way i look at it - the Cinq in reality only cost me £300 as the rest was volvo profit. i've got all paperwork for the cinq including the original bill of sale- a Fiat dealer near me had a cinq sporting a year older with 66k on it on the forecourt for £1799 - i just couldnt resist going in an telling the salesman what i paid for mine - his face was priceless!! made my day!!

my local volvo dealer fit the blubs for free they just charge the price of the bulb. They have done this on both my parents s40 and mates 740.

my local dealer just gave me the code over the phone - no charge! - also gave me full service history print out for nowt!

I hate main dealers.

Does anyone know more about the legislation that came out last year saying you don't have to take a car to the main dealer for the warranty to be valid?

Brakes on the C4 have started honking and shuddering. Dealership told me the pads were gone and needed replacing.

I asked them why a 19,000 mile car needed new pads and discs and whether or not PSA were making the pads out of poo.

The best dealership run in I had was when I had to take my 306 into have the airbag warning light reset (it was a main agent job, take it or leave it, nowhere else would touch it 'because it might explode').

So I gave them my hundred pounds and got a very amusing advisory sheet when the car was given back to me, added up to well over £1000. I wondered why they were taking the wheels off.

Best ones included a 'bent' plastic droplink which they wouldn't show me ('customers aren't insured in the workshop'), a 'snapped' subframe and a 'completely inoperative' instument panel (the alternator tacho connection was loose, that was why the rev counter didn't work).

What annoys me is that had it been my mum she would have been scared shitless and paid for them to 'sort it all out'.

They missed the fact that one of the wheel bearings was smashed to fook (I knew that, it just amused me that they didn't spot it while they were writing their great works of fiction).

The place? Abbey Peugeot in Sale.

My local independent garage took a photocopy of the sheet and framed it as 'the biggest load of curse word I've ever seen in thirty years' and then passed another copy on to trading standards, and my mate angus rang the garage up and called the service manager a prick (as did I).

Avoid.

Brakes need a clean? What were they going to do, take off the linings give them a shampoo, Tcut, polish and then refit them? Every full service I do I always remove all the wheels to check the brakes properly, and in the case of drum brakes I clean out the dust, peel back the cylinder dust seals to check for leakage. I also always ensure the cylinders and handbrake linkage are free moving. Then I set the shoe adjusters as the automatic ones rarely work. All part of the service. I've lost count of the number of cars I've serviced that were previously maintained by dealers where I've had to use a club hammer and a block of wood to remove wheels that have corroded to the hubs...simply because no-one had EVER removed them as part of maintenance.

One thing that always annoys me is those garages that adjust the hanbrake cables before ensuring the shoes are correctly adjusted. You end up with a reasonable handbrake and a poor footbrake.

I could rant all day about garages that hammer the wheel nuts/bolts back on with air guns.

How many garages check the gearbox oil? Not many from what I've seen!

I run a small workshop and I insist that servicing is done properly. We may not be the cheapest, but it's done properly. You just know that those garages that offer a full service for £60 or whatever can't afford to do the job properly, yet so many people believe they are getting a good deal when in fact they aren't!

Sorry to rant....I get really annoyed at seeing peoples cars bodged up by garages that give the motor trade such a curse word reputation and make my job more difficult!