And then there's the cost of labour
(That's labour, not Labour, this isn't a political rant).
1. Toby: who's taken command of your laptop? I'm a little concerned. Only a little.
2. We're now down to one car, with the other two both in for repairs. Mum's has developed a fault with the central locking, to me seemingly identical to the fault she paid several hundred pounds to have fixed a couple of months ago. But the man at the garage assures us it's an entirely different fault that just happens to have exactly the same symptoms, and thus will cost another hundred-odd pounds to fix. (I'd be happier about this if we had a written description of the two different faults, or indeed a second opinion from another garage). So Mum, in a "she vows she will not have him, and now he begins to say he will not have her" kind of move, has now determined not to use that garage again after this time, and indeed to strike Citroëns (which she's had for the last ten years) off the list of candidates for her new car, due this autumn. Personally I'm recommending a firmly-worded but probably ineffectual letter noting the danger of losing goodwill...
1. Toby: who's taken command of your laptop? I'm a little concerned. Only a little.
2. We're now down to one car, with the other two both in for repairs. Mum's has developed a fault with the central locking, to me seemingly identical to the fault she paid several hundred pounds to have fixed a couple of months ago. But the man at the garage assures us it's an entirely different fault that just happens to have exactly the same symptoms, and thus will cost another hundred-odd pounds to fix. (I'd be happier about this if we had a written description of the two different faults, or indeed a second opinion from another garage). So Mum, in a "she vows she will not have him, and now he begins to say he will not have her" kind of move, has now determined not to use that garage again after this time, and indeed to strike Citroëns (which she's had for the last ten years) off the list of candidates for her new car, due this autumn. Personally I'm recommending a firmly-worded but probably ineffectual letter noting the danger of losing goodwill...
posted by Z31 at 8:32 pm
9 Comments:
In defence of Citroens (or at least ours) - it's got over 120,000 on the clock and the only fault really (now that we've changed the windscreen wipers - £3.87 @ Tesco) is wear on the drive shaft (causing much consternation about whether there will be an MOT failure). Of course, our doesn't have central locking or power steering or luxuries like that so probably fewer things can go wrong with it!
Ours only has about 48,000 miles - of which we've done all but 8. It also has a great many scratches, scrapes and some missing bits of trim. And four airbags, ABS, electric windows, power steering, central locking, air conditioning etc. (And still cost about as much new as a large bag of chips - Citroëns are at least inexpensive to buy). What was the point of this? Oh, yeah, it's been consistently expensive to maintain even without having any of the (extensive) cosmetic damage fixed. It had to have a new clutch after four years, which seems excessive though admittedly both my brother and I learned to drive in it (though I hope that wasn't the cause, since I drive pretty much the same way now).
I just feel 1) suspicious that two faults that look exactly the same can be 'completely different', and 2) somewhat disappointed that it needs expensive fixing yet again and the garage won't pay for it themselves (which I'd expect if it was the same fault, but wouldn't if it genuinely wasn't). The fact that our garage charges £150 per hour for labour (or something similarly silly) doesn't help.
It particularly concerns me because if I need a car of my own in the next year, chances are I'll be handed down this one - it's worth so little now that it would be silly to buy a ten-year-old high-mileage Something Else for the same price.
Anyway, I'll shut up.
Duuuuude, at least there's the possibility of a car being handed down to you! :)
Oh, probably just one of my random floozies. That doesn't sound convincing, does it?
TCH
Sherry: They'd make me pay for it; it's just that (luckily) it wouldn't cost very much.
Toby: surprisingly, more convincing than one might think.
Where do you get the floozies? I want some....
As ever with these kind of things, I fear my somewhat ironic reputation rather precedes my actual prowess in such areas, so I can't be of much help. Sorry 'bout that.
TCH
Floozies = New Hall. Miaow :)
There is another solution.....
Buy yourslef a couple of citroen manuals of the internet, a set of star keys and dedicate yourself to fixing the problem.....
jonc
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