The engine management light came on in the dash and i was told, "engine fault - do not drive" After being assured by the helpfull receptionist at fiat that its "fine to drive" I was then charged £58.75 for the diagnostics check, this showed up that i needed a new Air pressure Sensor. Fiat, however, would like to charge me £208 + vat to have this done.

Is this about right? i thought it was a tad steep for a sensor (I know nothing about the mechanical side of cars - thats why i bought a stilo!)

Cheers

No,your being ripped off,sensor is held in by 2 screws (5 min job) all they probably done was updated the ECU (for pressure sensor-bulletin on this) & said it needed one to cover themselves.Leave it until light comes on again (it's a stilo it will-but probably for something else) then take to another garage.

cheers. Im an apprentice earning no money at all, so when i told my dad (whose scottish) the price he nearly dropped to the floor! I was hoping it would be something like that. The light has now gone off in the dash, so im keeping my fingers crossed!

Is that also a bit expensive for a diagnostics check? As i said i know nothing about cars, but my boss (whose probably in the same boat as me as far as cars are concerned) said all they do is plug it in a computer for 2 minutes.

Price for diagnostics about right,more than a 2 min job though if done correctly(wiring checks etc).Nothing wrong being Scottish mate-most generous folk I know.

If your car is still under warranty you shouldn't be paying for the diagnostic!

In fact i think its just down right wrong to charge for a diagnostic regardless, afterall its not there to benefit you.... its there to help the garage diagnose a problem, 'cos these days the staff have no skills.

Sorry mate need to disagree with you there,
1)It is impossible to diagnose a fault(especially intermittent)on modern systems,you just end up guessing & parts ain't cheap(& it's the customer who will foot the bill !)
2)Proffesional diagnostic equipment isn't cheap,your looking at £6-10,000 obviously with that kinda outlay you have to recoup it.
3)Staff do have skill but yet again this cost money,training courses are very expensive,likewise you have to recoup this outlay & continual training.
4)Diagnostic equipment requires constant software updating which can cost up to £300 per month for each machine.

In the end you get your car fixed unlike the council tax where you get your bins emptied once a week(if your lucky!)for £110/month

I disagree with the £50+VAT charge.

As an accountancy practice, we get a lot of people in off the street for advice. HOWEVER, the first hour is free - this is potentially worth £100 or so. If we pick up the business from that, then fair enough; if we don't, well, an hour lost.

What happened when there was no such thing as diagnostic equipment? You would take car in, ask for a quote, and get a price?! This quote was free, surely, or did I miss something here. Ok, garages have had to pay for the additional equipment & training, but THIS IS recovered by the labour charge accordingly IF the garage gets the job.

BTW, our black bins emptied fortnightly - great

well when the RPM sensor on my Stilo went awol my local dealer put it on the examiner for free (as they have in the past when any sensor faults etc. have been displayed). It was diagnosed as having an INTERMITTENT fault and they replaced it under warranty.

Obviously different dealers have different policies but this still doesn't make the charge acceptable!!!

Fair points but remember the labour rate can be as much as £85 in some London dealers(i'm not saying Fiat)so £50 isn't too bad?
There has always been diagnostic equipment(ohm meters/amp meters/volt meters etc)but they are only as good as the person operating them like modren day diagnostic equipment.Tools such as 'Examiner' are just tools,they are a aid to diagnostic procedures & the technician should(if hes any good)follow up with wiring checks to confirm the fault codes read out.
What if people just came to your accountacy firm for hints/tips/help for a hour the buggered off never to be seen again & got some dodgy back street account to do their books on the cheap,after a while you would think 'sod this' i'm charging this guy! Hand on heart...have you ever though i'd charge this guy a extra hour cause he looks/is rich? Be honest
It's amazing how many folk walk into workshops asking for help then go off to halfords/autoshops for cheap parts,carry on like this & you'll be out of business....knowledge is power in todays world,which is why forums like these are so valuable to us & hated by dealerships,and whose going to pay for the shiny new dealership buildings

Green bins here m8

T14086 said:

What if people just came to your accountacy firm for hints/tips/help for a hour the buggered off never to be seen again & got some dodgy back street account to do their books on the cheap,after a while you would think 'sod this' i'm charging this guy! Hand on heart...have you ever though i'd charge this guy a extra hour cause he looks/is rich? Be honest

Click to expand...

A lot of firms advertise first hour free - and how would we charge them? Until they say they want us to do the work, sign engagement letters and 64-8s, then we can't really charge them, and don't. Just got to bite the bullet, lol. Also, a lot of our work, although charged out on an hourly basis, still has a market value attached to it, so any extra hours are lost unless justified

Its people like you (stuart) that made my heart fall out my arse when i heard the price lol! im an apprentice accountant earning roughly £8000 p/a . Well for the next few weeks any way :spin:

A garage can simply say 'you aint getting your car back till you pay the bill' which does somewhat put the customer at a disadvantage.
Modern dealerships are like i'm sure you are aware(being a accountant)on figures,a technician for example on has 8 hours labour booked out yet worked a 9 hour shift....who foots the bill for having the tech doing nothing for a hour...the manager.So unless he can juggle figures around the dealership productivity is down....& technician gets a word in his ear unless his a DET where it is not expected.Being under this 'pressure' often has a negative effect with technicians who are more worried about times/keeping their jobs than fixing a customers car right first time,result is mistakes are made & customers are often unhappy.Having a job like yours where the company can 'bite the bullet' is definately an advantage(less stress?)& creates a more customer friendly business,therefore they will come back to you as they can count on you(COUNT on you..accounts joke?)& everyone is happy.
15 years ago technicians enjoyed having a chat with the customers & were often on first name terms,productivity wasn't so important,showing a end of year profit was,sadly nowdays this isn't the case & like everything in life its poor joe public who foots the bill.

£8000 apprentice dont knock it Paul,I've been in motor trade 17 years (specialist technician) and only just earn more than you....any jobs going at your places

modern garages tend to rush jobs in/out quick as they can to get more jobs booked each day, these i find are the larger dealerships like reg vardy who couldnt actually give a **** about the customer excpet there money (the bosses, not the technicians). so problem jobs that need a level of diagnostics can take a chunk of time out of 1 guys days bookings , so these jobs are "not welcome", as they cant re-coup the time spent to money lost ratio, and the technician is told to "plug it in, see what it says, cancel the error and well tell em to try it", then is given a large service to do which makes money for the firm. I know of a small family type run dealer that understands this and has no problem leaving a technician for whatever time is needed to diagnose a fault correctly, in turn it has had many customers from other dealers in the surrounding area who have been "let down" by there usual dealer goto them, get the problems sorted and now use them as there main garage for servicing e.c.t., so a few hours lost in diagnostics 1 day can lead to a new customer, plus that customers friends and family another day for general servicing needs. (yes they do charge for diagnostics, but if a job takes 6 hours to diagnose they charge 1-2 hours labour rate on it, another point is their labour rate is almost half that of a large dealer rates)
as stated before, these days its not as simple as plugging a computer in and instantly getting the fault diagnosed, the fiat examiner is as some1 correctly stated "just a tool", however in the right hands and with all the added plug-ins and add ons that are available for it its a very powerful tool. its just unfortunate that theres still alot of ppl in fiat dealerships that havnt got passed the "cancel the error" stage in its functions.
i spent 3 hours training 2 guys on some of the functions of the examiner and some of the equipment that goes with it, at the end of it they simply said "we only need it to cancel air-bag errors", maybe i should post the dealer they work at so you guys can avoid it!!

Well if it aint Vardys you work for theres only one other large dealership it could be

In reference to the 'just put the light out & tell the customer to try it & see' well as you well know the customer comes back complaing light is on again & its the tech that gets it for not doing a proper job even though the controller/manager told him(her?) to do that...no win situation which is why I have a grievence against 'suited' staff who work at garages most who never had a spanner in their hand in their lives.
How many times have you said 'I need another hour to get this sorted' only to be told to get light out & f**k them.....happens everyday but in the end the customer think the techs are useless(no doubt some are)when this is not the case.How many techs use this forum to give out & gain information from others....that to me sounds like alot of techs do care but are restricted by the money grabbing management & are not allowed to perform the correct procedures in diagnostic work.
Does this sound familiar......
Tech 'I traced it down to the throttle body or throttle body wiring so I need to run through wiring checks first'
Manager 'To hell with that customers paying just fit a throttle body aint got time for all that'
Week later customer returns.....do I really need to carry on with the rest?

Paul

What were the symptoms of your car ? engine fault light.. no power when its below 9-10 degs outside

Rob.

Paul check it yourself with a multimeter & look for a rise in voltage under load,easy.