Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Gulp.....HOW MUCH???

[Jools]

Opted out of the company car scheme in 2001 and thought "If I'm buying my own car, I want one that'll be good for 8-10 years. 'cos I don't do much mileage working from home and I don't want to take the hit on PXing low mileage cars every few years".

So I got a Volvo C70 convertible, it was my first convertible and also my first automatic. Stylish enough and goes alright in a kind of "arm on the sill cruiser" type of way, which is all I want from a car 'cos I've got a Ducati to go fast on. And it's a Volvo right? Built like tanks, should last forever if looked after right and take 50,000 miles before it's run in properly...well that's the popular opinion.

So 8 years and 50,000 miles later (told you I didn't do much mileage) it's failed it's MOT for the first time. Why?

"Needs two new front discs sir, and the pads, well past their service limits, and the rear discs and pads are in the same state, and one of the rear coil springs is broken. The power steering pump is leaking so the steering could suddenly lose all assistance, very dangerous if you're in mid corner sir, Oh and we've found a small bulge on the inside of one of the rear tyres. And the cause of the occasional poor starting turns out to be the antenna ring on the immobiliser - you don't need that for it's MOT though sir"

So how much is that little lot going to cost me then?

Front Discs and Pads fitted: 266.00
Rear Discs and Pads fitted: 243.00
Power steering pump fitted: 505.88
Rear Coil Spring fitted: 107.00
Antenna Ring fitted: 112.00
New rear tyre: 125.00
Plus the MOT and service

Total £1471.00

All this on a car that only gets driven to a customer visit in Slough once a week plus a few weekend trips to the shops. Average of 6250 miles a year, and quite a bit of the total mileage was down to some very occasional holiday trips to Ireland and Devon. Nearly all the driving I do is on the motorway where I hardly ever touch the brakes except on the slip roads and if the traffic comes to a complete halt, the rest of the time I try to anticipate the traffic conditions so that I don't have to be on and off the anchors all the time, and how the feck does a coil spring break when all it does is plough up and down the motorway with only me in it, especially when I've never clogged this car - just wafted around in cruise mode.

I've had 'lesser' cars like Peugeots that I've thrashed mercilessly bouncing of the rev limiter around potholed old A roads, slamming on the brakes and doing high mileage - the last Peugeot had 168,000 miles on it after 3 years and it never cost me this much in it's life - and I never wore the discs out.

I think there's more than a bit of **** taking going on here - Dealers can't flog new cars to anyone at the moment, so just look for service customers to give a good shafting to.

Rant Over.

Mrs Jools needs a mobility scooter these days anyway, and you can't get one of those in the back of a convertible or into her Smart, so I was going to take the car with the top down on a nice sunny day to a dealer with a Grand Espace worth around the same as the Volvo and see if I could persuade them to just do a straight swap....just wish I'd done it last month

[Fordie]

I've move from getting my MOT at a place I've used for 15 years it seems every time I took it in there was all ways a wheel bearing or some thing needed doing. Two years ago it was the same ,wheel bearing on the outside needs changing. Took it to some one else and it passed and has done for the last two years. Ford Motor Co wanted £1100 to replace the clutch mass fly wheel assembly after the Focus had only done 46,000 miles, seem a weakness on the design according to some meccanics. Ford Motor Co are making a killing replacing the same unit on the TRANSIT Van after the same mileage. I had a good independant meccanic do the job for under £800 including a full service. Very suprised about the Volvo though.4D

[Magpie]

ouch.

i've had worse, the last service on my 748S was £1600!

Seat quoted me £660 to supply and fit front discs and pads on my Cupra R, i had them done for £220 by a local independent specialist suppying original parts. suggest you bin the main dealer and find a decent local chap more in need of the work.

good luck.

Can't explain the rear spring though

[bradders]

just think of all the dosh you've made in mileage claims and car allowance!! should soften the blow

maybe try one of the swedish car parts specialists

[keith888]

Speaking from experience, Volvos are not that reliable and the dealers are expensive! BUT our 13 year old 940 turbo has now done 150,000 miles and still mostly still drives like a car only a few years old (even the air con still works). Parts are fairly cheap via eBay and via Motor Factors and when you dismantle Volvos they go back together again without things breaking. You're handy with the spanners so why not go the DIY route? New disks all round and pads should be only £50-£100 and an hour or two to fit. Power steering pump only slightly more. All the money you save can then be poured into the 888!!

Keith

[YMFB]

i was just thinking that it wasnt too bad for a car thats five years old, however, £125 for the tyre sounds pricey

People at work have started using a moble mechanic, his rates are minuscule compared with local garages and he has a place to take cars if the job is too big to do on the drive.

My X5's last service cost £475 thats the most expensive its cost so far and its done 50K

[Ray]

Wouldn't trust some car dealers any further than I could throw them. It's a regular occurence to get a job list as long as yer arm when a car has gone in for attention.

They look at you as if you are some kind of loon when you decline their kind offer to fix all yer car's faults, or are crazy enough to tell em that you are more than capable of undoing a few bolts to fit yer own discs or that you are quite happy to take the car away with its worn out sliding spline sproggle gromits

I'd guess main dealer rates are around £100 and hour for Volvo if you include the VAT.

I've not see a power steering pump itself leak, more often than not its the pipes that have rotted or fractured.

The other way of looking at it though is that you should have year of trouble free motoring, some cars lose £1500 or more a month in depreciation

Ray.

[khushy]

Originally Posted by Jools

Opted out of the company car scheme in 2001 and thought "If I'm buying my own car, I want one that'll be good for 8-10 years. 'cos I don't do much mileage working from home and I don't want to take the hit on PXing low mileage cars every few years".

So I got a Volvo C70 convertible, it was my first convertible and also my first automatic. Stylish enough and goes alright in a kind of "arm on the sill cruiser" type of way, which is all I want from a car 'cos I've got a Ducati to go fast on. And it's a Volvo right? Built like tanks, should last forever if looked after right and take 50,000 miles before it's run in properly...well that's the popular opinion.

So 8 years and 50,000 miles later (told you I didn't do much mileage) it's failed it's MOT for the first time. Why?

"Needs two new front discs sir, and the pads, well past their service limits, and the rear discs and pads are in the same state, and one of the rear coil springs is broken. The power steering pump is leaking so the steering could suddenly lose all assistance, very dangerous if you're in mid corner sir, Oh and we've found a small bulge on the inside of one of the rear tyres. And the cause of the occasional poor starting turns out to be the antenna ring on the immobiliser - you don't need that for it's MOT though sir"

So how much is that little lot going to cost me then?

Front Discs and Pads fitted: 266.00
Rear Discs and Pads fitted: 243.00
Power steering pump fitted: 505.88
Rear Coil Spring fitted: 107.00
Antenna Ring fitted: 112.00
New rear tyre: 125.00
Plus the MOT and service

Total £1471.00

All this on a car that only gets driven to a customer visit in Slough once a week plus a few weekend trips to the shops. Average of 6250 miles a year, and quite a bit of the total mileage was down to some very occasional holiday trips to Ireland and Devon. Nearly all the driving I do is on the motorway where I hardly ever touch the brakes except on the slip roads and if the traffic comes to a complete halt, the rest of the time I try to anticipate the traffic conditions so that I don't have to be on and off the anchors all the time, and how the feck does a coil spring break when all it does is plough up and down the motorway with only me in it, especially when I've never clogged this car - just wafted around in cruise mode.

I've had 'lesser' cars like Peugeots that I've thrashed mercilessly bouncing of the rev limiter around potholed old A roads, slamming on the brakes and doing high mileage - the last Peugeot had 168,000 miles on it after 3 years and it never cost me this much in it's life - and I never wore the discs out.

I think there's more than a bit of **** taking going on here - Dealers can't flog new cars to anyone at the moment, so just look for service customers to give a good shafting to.

Rant Over.

Mrs Jools needs a mobility scooter these days anyway, and you can't get one of those in the back of a convertible or into her Smart, so I was going to take the car with the top down on a nice sunny day to a dealer with a Grand Espace worth around the same as the Volvo and see if I could persuade them to just do a straight swap....just wish I'd done it last month

cost per mile = still cheaper than your average Italian TRACTOR!!!

LOL

[antonye]

Originally Posted by YMFB

i was just thinking that it wasnt too bad for a car thats five years old, however, £125 for the tyre sounds pricey

...

My X5's last service cost £475 thats the most expensive its cost so far and its done 50K

Lol!

I take it you've not had a quote for 4 new tyres for your X5 yet then?

Just make sure you're sitting down when you do it!

We had an oil service done on ours last week, along with a new cv gaitor fitted; £205 all in! Not bad when that includes 9 litres of oil!
It was the cost of having 4 new tyres that was the shocker...

[antonye]

Jools,

Get a second opinion/quote, just to be on the safe side.