Stew Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 My Navara (2007, 48k miles today) went into the former Nissan Dealer up here. It's part of the Evans Halshaw group, now only sells Renaults as a franchised dealer but is still an authorised service centre for Nissan. Anyway, the car went in for replacement wheels under a safety recall. They performed a free 'safety check' which turned up that I needed a new front propshaft and all four driveshafts. Possibly rear propshaft too. Did I want to go ahead and do the work...... I declined but got the parts list etc. Total price £1200 but if rear prop was needed (75% chance apparently) it was another £1100. Anyway, I took the car away - against there advice as it was hugely dangerous apparently. I went to my mates garage and let him have a look. Driveshafts fine. Rear prop looks ok. Front prop dodgy (I knew this as I could hear it) so it'll need new Universal joints. I went away and ordered two new universal joints for the front pop and got them delivered to my house by a 4x4 specialist for £38. My mate and I whipped off the front prop - a whole 8 bolts and 10 mins, he got the old UJs out, we tidied everything, greased them up and popped them into the propshaft. Bolted it back up and paid him a few quid for his time. Moral of the story is, if you smell a rat then get a second opinion. This is the reason why I only use people I trust and would NEVER use the main dealer for anything. Hopefully some happy motoring without big bills for me... fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarmac@TarmacSportz Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveparkin Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Scammers - but how many people do they get like that? I bet their waiting list for the work to be done would be a couple of months, due to being booked-up with all the 'extra' work they've drummed-up as a result of the recall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 FS mate... I would march back down and let them know... that is shocking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexx Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I truly hang my head in despair when we get members on here saying they would take their pride and joy to a Dealer rather than an independant "because they are always better and know more" Further proof if ever it was needed right here. I'm betting if they quoted you aruond £150-200 for the work you may have gave them the go ahead. I have had arguements with various dealers over this exact practice. My Zed went into an EH dealership for a warranty issue. They told me it required full pads and discs all round, as well as having a blowing exhaust. The car had less than 5k on the clock at the time I had it out with the warranty manager there and then and asked him to come look at my car and show me exactly why they needed replacing an where my exhaust was blowing. He declined repeatedly just saying "Our trained mechanic this..." and "our specialised mechanic that" really really boils my pi$$ that they can still get away with treating customers like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Truly shocking!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred-z33 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Yeah the dealers are buggers. The only reason they carry out a "free health check" is to try and sting you with a big list of upsell parts (brakes and tyres being the main ones obviously). Unfortunatly a lot of dealers have a bonus incentive to the technicians and service advisors regarding how much upsell they can get in a week etc. Shame really. Thats why I had to quit my post as a nissan mastertech - got fed up with with getting bollocked for not ripping people off every week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Thats disgusting, good work for calling them on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 That is an absolute scandal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 shocking mate, when are these dealers going to learn that they are cutting their throats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Don't know why people are still shocked by things like this, it's just the same as taking your computer to PC world or phoning up a PPI company or allowing your car insurance to auto renew etc etc so many ways to have your pants pulled down these days. Look at moneysavingexpert.com the guy made millions pointing out the completely obvious to stupid people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Had the same thing with an independent down here for Joy's Audi, the daughter of the owner told her it needed new discs and pads all round, quite ironic really that we had the whole lot changed less than 2k miles previously, needless to say they got both barrels from Joy, and I know from experience that is not a good thing Scumbags I truly hang my head in despair when we get members on here saying they would take their pride and joy to a Dealer rather than an independant "because they are always better and know more" Further proof if ever it was needed right here. I'm betting if they quoted you aruond £150-200 for the work you may have gave them the go ahead. I have had arguements with various dealers over this exact practice. My Zed went into an EH dealership for a warranty issue. They told me it required full pads and discs all round, as well as having a blowing exhaust. The car had less than 5k on the clock at the time I had it out with the warranty manager there and then and asked him to come look at my car and show me exactly why they needed replacing an where my exhaust was blowing. He declined repeatedly just saying "Our trained mechanic this..." and "our specialised mechanic that" really really boils my pi$$ that they can still get away with treating customers like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HEADPHONES Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 There should be an official complaints procedure for such fraudulent behaviour especially for big dealership groups/chains. I'm sure this behaviour can't be legal. It's not like we are talking poor customer service. The stories in this thread aren't of people getting duped by opportunist door to door tradesmen. It's people paying a premium going to main dealers for service. If the dealers charge twice that of an independant for a service there's nowt wrong as the customer isn't being duped into anything. They just feel safe in the knowledge (rightly or wrongly)that they are recieving a certain level of service by paying a premium price. But these stories are so wrong I'm surprised there's no mention of reporting these dealerships. STUFF LIKE THIS GETS ME PROPER VEX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bounty Bar Kid Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 My dad used to have a BMW mini with a tiptronic gearbox. He took it into BMW and they said five grand to replace and fit. His mate was like that's a joke. So he got involved as he's in the car industry. BMW dealership dropped to three grand. Then after some more arguing about two grand. Dad's mate still thought it was too high for a three year old car. We went to BMW head office. Turns out they were gonna supply the gearbox to the dealership for free so all we should have had to pay was 800 for labour. Dealership apologised and charged us 400 for labour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vik54 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Stew I would wipe the floor with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 In fairness with the props, perhaps it's procedure that they change out the whole thing instead of changing out the parts. I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisS Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Letter to EH head office, letter to NMGB and copies to Trading Standards. If you want some fun, get/ask Ricey to write them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Letter to EH head office, letter to NMGB and copies to Trading Standards. If you want some fun, get/ask Ricey to write them. Do it and let us see them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayhoop Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 The sad thing is that the majority of motorists probably fall for the convincing scaremongering that the dealers spew out. My diesel Accord (worth approx £1500) threw up the ABS, VSA & Traction Control lights a few weeks back... On the way home I popped into the Honda Dealership in my Z... without seeing the Accord they said "Its likey to be the VSA module @ £1900... and our driver will not bring the car in as our insurance wont cover driving it with the VSA etc kaput... so you will need to pay us £100 for the tow truck, £70 to diagnose and then we will leave you to decide what you want to do?" They were trying to convince me the car will be only worth scrapping, and to consider a new/used car (as I had been in the previous week looking at replacement options)... I took it down to Japex who diagnosed a faulty ABS sensor, supplied (Honda original @ £130+vat) and fitted for £225. The job included drilling out and re-tapping a few "problem" bolts on the front suspension for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff-r Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 This is the reason I will only take my cars certain places for MOTs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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