Wheel bearings

[sarg]

Originally Posted by Turbo Tony

I don't feel you should need to pay a diagnostic price to get a quote for a job.

Back in my Vauxhall owning days, the garage back then would also insist on doing their own diagnostics but they would at least tell you that, for example, "if you're certain that's what you want done, a wheel bearing would be £xxx. We'd prefer to diagnose it ourselves though, for which the cost would be £yyy, plus the repair".

This, price the job, if the price is fair then you can diagnose it yourself before going ahead with the work, no problem.

As for charging for a diagnosis, this is a big no-no from me, any dealer that does so doesn't see a penny of my money. I found most Audi dealers would want an hour's labour just to plug it in to the OBD reader but I have found it varies from dealer to dealer though.

You wouldn't expect to pay for the shoe shop to measure your feet, nor the tailor to measure you for a suit, even in my trade, an IFA will generally offer a first meeting to discuss requirements free of charge, so will most accountants and solicitors, so why the motor trade thinks this is somehow beneath them is beyond me

My BMW dealer was pretty fair with this and would happily quote over the phone for a job based on my diagnosis. It might just be that you need to have built that relationship with the personnel first, I always dealt with the same guy which helped, there was a certain amount of trust there.

For example, when my sunroof was leaking and they had to strip it down to find the cause, I wasn't charged for that, and BMW picked up the tab for the repair