RIPPED off wildly - please help

[Blitz_Silvia]

Guys my GF took her `02 astra to claridge holden in SA and got slugged $550 to change coolant and fit a new thermostat.

This cant seriously be right ???

Im very pissed off right now.

[MatsHolden]

Unfortunately dealers are known to rip people off. Would it be worth $550? Of course not. But just the way it is with most dealers. Probably should've gone with her. Can almost gaurantee it wouldn't have been $550 then...

[Blitz_Silvia]

yeah no shit.....

hopefully ppl will read this and be warned.

[Shaun]

I'm not sure if you guys realise but its quite labour intensive. And with labour rates at most dealerships up arround the $90.00 / hr mark it sounds about spot on. Alot of other items need to come off from my understanding that are in the way of the Thermostat. Also remember the Thermostats electronically controlled meaning they wouldnt be cheap either.


I wouldnt say you were ripped off.

[Blitz_Silvia]

Funny u say that cause cause i rang another dealer in adelaide today and booked my car for its 30,000km service and i explained to them wat happend and they told me it should have been about $100 less ??

[Noir]

I wouldnt say you were ripped off.

I agree with Shaun. Labour at Holden is expensive and be prepared to pay when visiting a dealership.

Not all dealerships charge the same, remember they still have competition against each other and quotes will vary.

[Shaun]

Funny u say that cause cause i rang another dealer in adelaide today and booked my car for its 30,000km service and i explained to them wat happend and they told me it should have been about $100 less ??

Dealerships are entitled to charge different Labour rates. $100 could be the difference in Labour rates between dealers or hours taken.

If you have a dispute with the dealership price that you paid ring the dealership. Ask for the service Manager and have a chat to him or her.

[USC]

I'm not sure if you guys realise but its quite labour intensive. And with labour rates at most dealerships up arround the $90.00 / hr mark it sounds about spot on. Alot of other items need to come off from my understanding that are in the way of the Thermostat. Also remember the Thermostats electronically controlled meaning they wouldnt be cheap either.


I wouldnt say you were ripped off.


$90 an hour for a mechanic sounds too expensive! unless its someone experienced diagnosing a fault with your engine!

coolant: may be $30 for part, time do do: about 20mins
Thermostat: may be at most $80-$90 for part, wouldnt take more than one hour to do!!

you should have done it yourself....things like that are quite simple. or buy genuine parts and get your local mechanic to do it.

$500 is a joke! I would tell them to get F**(d.

[Blitz_Silvia]

yeah if there gonna charge that much they should know wat there doing and get the job done quickly, also it took them 24hrs to get it all done !

My mates dad is the manager of the service dept at another holden dealer where i have now booked my car for a service as he said he will look after me, even he said it sounded too much for what she had done.
The only reason i didnt send my gf there was cause its on the other side of town.

[Shaun]

$90 an hour for a mechanic sounds too expensive! unless its someone experienced diagnosing a fault with your engine!

coolant: may be $30 for part, time do do: about 20mins
Thermostat: may be at most $80-$90 for part, wouldnt take more than one hour to do!!

you should have done it yourself....things like that are quite simple. or buy genuine parts and get your local mechanic to do it.

$500 is a joke! I would tell them to get F**(d.

$90 an hour is reasonable. Sit down and look at it logically. Wages. Cost of running power etc the building Lease maintaince cost. Workers Comp all have to come out of the $90 / per hour per job card.


You all may think the workshop in the dealership is making a Huge profit out of this $90 an hour but realistics of it are they would be lucky to make $25 dollars an hours net profit.

[Blitz_Silvia]

So how can other mechanics do it cheaper, and thats not the point they put 4hrs labour on the invoice, i seriously doubt it should take an experienced and qualifed mechanic to do a job like this that long.

the fact is ive spoken to enough ppl now to know she was charged too much and ive had someone else tell me their gf went there for a log book service on her vy and they gave her a list of things they said needed fixing that totaled $900 not including the service, she paid for the service and went and got the other things checked by another mechanic and found that none of those things needed doing - taking advantage of unweary females i think!

[Shaun]

So how can other mechanics do it cheaper, and thats not the point they put 4hrs labour on the invoice, i seriously doubt it should take an experienced and qualifed mechanic to do a job like this that long.

the fact is ive spoken to enough ppl now to know she was charged too much and ive had someone else tell me their gf went there for a log book service on her vy and they gave her a list of things they said needed fixing that totaled $900 not including the service, she paid for the service and went and got the other things checked by another mechanic and found that none of those things needed doing - taking advantage of unweary females i think!

Again. Ring the Service Manager and he or she will explain it to you. $90 is the avarage going price for labour these days at dealerships.

[Blitz_Silvia]

im not asking u to justify this im just saying i think its overpriced and more to the point it took too long to complete.

[Shaun]

Have you ever worked on a FWD german built car? Do you understand the Labour intense bit i mentioned? Its not as simple as a Asian built car. European built tend to have things built in the way of others. When they build a car the build the body on the upper section of the plant and the engine transmisson and diffs on the lower section of the plant. they then meet each other down the line. and come together. The design normally has other parts that need to be removed.

Ill give you an Example. on a Mercedes Benz Vito Van (FWD models) to do a gear box you need to pull the engine out. Radiator you need to pull the front end apart.

I would say the Astra would have needed something else that was in the way pulled off and refitted.
Do you follow what im saying now?

[Dee]

my god some of you bang on....

moral of the story - ring around and get prices before getting things done to the car - there will ALWAYS be a huge price difference

[Blitz_Silvia]

yes i understand i just think they could have at least mentioned it to her that it is labour intensive and may take a few hrs to fit, all they said was its was fiddly and u need small hands !! sounded like a lame excuse.

[Shaun]

yes i understand i just think they could have at least mentioned it to her that it is labour intensive and may take a few hrs to fit, all they said was its was fiddly and u need small hands !! sounded like a lame excuse.

I think they pretty well much answered it for you. Maybe it wasnt the right way to word it but they did answer it .

[bornwild]

$550 is a joke. Ripped off for sure.

[shoey85]

$90 an hour for a mechanic sounds too expensive! unless its someone experienced diagnosing a fault with your engine!



well i took my mrses astra g to holden in cannington and they charged us $115 per hour, 2 hours just to pop the bonnet as they had to remove the bumper so $230 for 2 hours.

so $90ph would have been nice

[xplosv57]

Wow $90 per hour is cheap compared to what more high end dealers charge!!!

Not too sure if the charge is correct or not, but i can only double up what Dee said, best to ring around and get a few quotes before getting something done!!!

You'll know now for next time!!!

[USC]

well i took my mrses astra g to holden in cannington and they charged us $115 per hour, 2 hours just to pop the bonnet as they had to remove the bumper so $230 for 2 hours.

so $90ph would have been nice


I think they are employing crappy mechanics...2 hours to get a bumper off..come on?????
they are supposed to have been trained on astras! I dont care if they are german built or not, they have to know or have the factory manual to tell them everything. The astra H has been around since 2004! damn it! its not even a new design....u would think that by now the dumb mechanics at holden would know the car by now!

Regarding the mercedes van, thats just very very poor design(it costs a lot more to design a vehicle that can be serviced easily and they have decided to save money there!)...come on...mercedes vans are not the best either....they are badly built! if u want a van, get a toyota.

A lot of asian cars are much better built than the astra or any german cars...for example a lexus is much better built than a bmw!

[bornwild]

A lot of asian cars are much better built than the astra or any german cars...for example a lexus is much better built than a bmw!

bwahahhahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahha:D

[low astra]

i found i was better off getting holden to tell me the probablem with the astra, then id take it to kmart and let them do the work, lets face it kmart dont charge much and there all mechanics so at the end of the day your getting the same quality work done for general repairs and servicing,

[xplosv57]

bwahahhahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahha:D

X 2.....

I so beg to differ with that statement, but that would bring this off topic!!

[USC]

bwahahhahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahha:D


lol....ok, things like mitsubishi etc are pieces of shit..but hondas and toyotas are pretty well built! acurra, lexus etc are excellent too!

[Shaun]

I think they are employing crappy mechanics...2 hours to get a bumper off..come on?????
they are supposed to have been trained on astras! I dont care if they are german built or not, they have to know or have the factory manual to tell them everything. The astra H has been around since 2004! damn it! its not even a new design....u would think that by now the dumb mechanics at holden would know the car by now!

Regarding the mercedes van, thats just very very poor design(it costs a lot more to design a vehicle that can be serviced easily and they have decided to save money there!)...come on...mercedes vans are not the best either....they are badly built! if u want a van, get a toyota.

A lot of asian cars are much better built than the astra or any german cars...for example a lexus is much better built than a bmw!

I wont dissagree about the Old Mercedes Benz Vans. anything Vito Pre 2005 and Sprinter Pre 06/07 were not there best attempt. But The new Sprinter and Vito are taking it to the others. Vito has won Van of the year 2 years running. Lexus are a Luxury brand and you would expect there product to be up there with other Luxury brands.

[Calibrated]

My machy charges $80ph, and does really good work. im willing to pay, because i know, that when i have to do work, i charge aswell.

If you complaining about this, dont ever own a calibra. you'll pull your hair out and take a 2nd loan.

[Wraith]

moral of the story - ring around and get prices before getting things done to the car - there will ALWAYS be a huge price difference

Agree with the above statement !

Blitz Silvia, by now you'd be very aware of the fact that dealer service is not cheap and this applies across the board and from different manufacturers as well !

Next time ring around 1st and also try other places like Ultra tune etc. or licenced mechanic work shops, this way your warranty if any, will remain intact.

If your car is out of warranty, there are alot of services works which you could easily do yourself and save heaps of $$$.

You can always ask for help/advice here, there is a wealth of knowledge and lots of how 2's :)

Off topic thingy above about Lexus is actually true, they currently have the 'World car of the year' in their line up, it concorquered all including Mercs and Audis which themselves are better built than Beemers ;)

[JohnBu]

Guys my GF took her `02 astra to claridge holden in SA and got slugged $550 to change coolant and fit a new thermostat.

This cant seriously be right ???

Im very pissed off right now.

there's got to be more to it.

scan us the invoice.

[daaaaavek]

Sounds like a story for Today Tonight to me .. yeh scan the invoice so we can email it to Channel 7

[RudeOne]

Have you learnt something from all this?

before i even let any mechanic touch my car i ask for a quote or even just a verbal approx and i tell them if any extra work is to be done that is outside of the scope to call for my approval or i wont pay it!

just remember you have options outside of Holden! Ultratune know the astras well, so do others like Kmart etc. it does not void warranty.

[cbrmale]

All motor vehicle manufacturers publish flat rates, which is the standard time to do a routine job like replace coolant or replace a thermostat. I have a Vauxhall / Opel CD manual at home, and the times to do standard servicing and repair jobs are on this CD.

To me, even given the labour rate per hour (inflated by current skilled labour shortages as a result of our federal government cutting funding to Tafes over the last 10 years), the amount you were charged seems excessive.

My wife has a 2004 Barina which needed a new starter and key lock barrel fitted, and Slaven Holden quoted us the parts and labour cost to the dollar (labour quote obviously from the CD). This is one of the reasons why you pay a premium to a Holden dealer for repairs, you get the resulting vehicle expertise to quote and perform the job to the dollar. The labour cost was reasonable by the way, and I was quite satisfied with how the dealer handled the repair.