£417.52 Service & MOT!

Hi,

I took my 1993/L Cinquecento for a MOT and full service today at my local garage, I normally take it to the garage near my parents house 100 miles away.

However it failed its MOT and it needed three new tyres and a new drive shaft boot kit. The MOT fail certificate proved this, so I don't think the garage were having me on. It was done at a MOT test station separate to the garage. It passed its MOT second time round.

The summary of the receipt is below, just wondered if it seems a lot, or its normal.

Work Done:

• MOT Test
• Renew three tyres
• Renew the nearside outer drive shaft joint boot
• Carry out yearly service

Parts Supplied:

• 1 x Drive shaft boot kit £12.95
• 1 x oil Filter £7.06
• 1 x Air Filter £5.54
• 4 x Spark Plugs £3.98 (£15.92)
• 1 x Forte Advanced Formula Gas Treatment £10.40
• 1 x Forte Advanced Formula Motor Flush £10.40

• Labour £131.45
• Parts £62.27
• Lubricants £25.50
• Tyres £96.60
• Disposal Charge £3.00
• Sundries £2.50

Subtotal: £321.32
VAT: £56.20
MOT: £40.00

TOTAL: £417.52 !!!!!!!

I am thinking the Forte treatments were a bit over the top, I think if this happens again I will scrap the car!

Its actually seems reasonable to me. They did a fair amount of work and the pricing seems reasonable but sure it's not insignificant if you weren't expecting it to be that much. Forte isn't cheap and it's one of these little extras that make them some money and might improve your car a little. Some people swear by it some people think it's a waste of money.

£412 tho... coulda bought a whole new Cinq.......

Maybe I just don't know about the prices of these things, because I never pay anywhere near that, but still..... £400+ seems harsh.

That seems a little steep to me. I had a full service on my Marea 20V at a local garage in February, total cost of less than £170. The last MOT was expensive because of the exhaust front pipe but normally its between £40 and £100.

For a car of that age and engine size I would have thought a bill for MOT and service would be around £175 plus any repairs.

My tip would be don't let the garage servicing the car sell you their tyres, they add their profit margin to the basic cost, phone around to get a better deal.

1997 Marea HLX 2.0 20V saloon

I always take/took my car for MOt at a nearby trye place & it always passed (S reg civic with 30k on the clock).
Last test failed on 2 front tyres badly worn (which I knew about) & CV boot.

A pity it started lashing down just as the guy told me it failed else I could have done the CV boot myself.
Anyway.
MOT, 2 tyres, tracking & CV boot - £300 & a few quid.
MOT was £40, tyres were £25 each, CV boot was £20, rest was tyre disposal, tracking & labour.

Had to pass the MOT as I was PXing it for a doblo a week later!

With regards the engine flush, I would always run some through the oil in an old car if I'd just got it but buying a car from new & pouring fresh in each year ... I don't think it's essential.
Gas treatment? Well, I'm not sure about that one. I think if you buy branded fuel, it already contains plenty of additives anyways whereas supermarket fuel tends to contain less additives - so may benefit from a squirt of redex or similar (remember when you could put a squirt of red into your tank at the pumps?) now and then to cleanse the jets etc.

You're lucky.
Took my 98 Bravo 1.8 for it's MOT last month.....
Total Bill £880

2x brake drums
2 sets brake shoes rear
2x front brake discs
1 set front brake pads
2x shock absorbers
2x front tyres
front o/s ball joint
front under wing brake pipe
front brake clip set
brake fluid
Labour
Sundry Items

I only paid it because I like the car so much.

Remove the cost of tyres and MOT fee, and the true cost of the service is around £260.

chinq tyres are a awkward size too, i think thers only two makes that produce them that are easily avalible.
pirelli and mitch i think (maybe wrong)
the forte is reasonably priced becasue ours is only 1 or 2 pounds cheaper.

How often is your car serviced or do you do it yourself? Its unusual for all of that to come up at once, especially all the work on the brakes.

Nah, this is an 899 we're talking here, which has 145/70/13 tyres as standard - easily and cheaply available

The Sporting has 165/55/13 as standard, which are available cheaply (Nankang). Goodyear and Pirelli also produced them. A lot of people fit 175/50/13 tyres, which are much more widely available.

i had absoloutly loads done to my Sei last time she went in the garage, cant remember exactly cos i cant find the invoice, but engine seized on way back from a stoke meet. aswell as getting that sorted they did full service and stuff.

among things was

• new cam belt
• new front discs and pad and rear shoes
• new plugs and all filters changed
• they re did some of my wiring with my undercar lighting
• adjusted tracking
• tightened handbreak
• summit to do with the clutch

among other bits!! seriously did loads, engine died cos of loads of little bits, not one huge thing. and everything they did to her cost little over £450 i think.

its a garage my dad uses for all his cars, and this car and past one have always gone to this guy. dad used to go to school with the guy, and tbh, wouldnt trust our cars with anyone else. know he aint gonna fleece us!

I usually do any minor stuff myself. I only travel 5-6K per year and changed the place where I have my MOT done. They said it looked like it had been in need of doing for a while but the other garage "Missed it"
A bit strange as my previous MOT's only needed things like a wiper blade and a bulb.
Maybe the original garage owner was either dodgy or could not be bothered... Either way, he's closed down now.

the labour charge is not that unreasonable imo. this job would have taken 3 hours, so £45 per hour isnt that bad.

for parts they charged £62.27. the parts on the receipt add up to £41.47 that leaves £20.80 which i assume covers the Forte ripoff fluids (that i greatly doubt were really used)

for lubricants they charged £25.50. i guess thats just for engine oil, if it is thats double what it should be even for premium oil. if that price also includes antifreeze and brake fluid then it is not a bad price. do you know if they changed all these fluids?

for tyres they charged £96.60, thats £32.30 per tyre, not bad.

£40 for MOT is about average.

its not the cheapest job in the world but you cant say they've ripped you off, this is what you'd expect at an average garage for this job.

next time do the service yourself (£50) and always get the MOT done yourself (£40). then all you'd need is tyres and a cv boot. fit the CV boot yourself and you'd be looking at a total cost of under £200. you'd save over £200 for less than one day of your time.