These guys are terrible. They quoted me around £140 (similar to many other places I checked, and not the cheapest) for some work, then when they had the car, added on lots of other stuff which doubled the price.
When they gave me the price over the phone, they mostly rushed through a list of component prices. In actuality, on the final bill, half of the price --- over £150 was for the few hours at most of labour.
One of the jobs they were doing was replacing a belt. When I got the car back, it was making an embarrassingly bad rubbing sound due to incorrect belt tension. I left it for a few days to see if it was just due to the belt being new, but it was still there. I called and they excused their bad work saying that it was a manual adjust. The whole reason I had them replace the belt rather than my brother (who is a mechanic) is that the Haynes manual for my car explicitly says that you must have the correct tensioning tools etc. My brother did not have these, and it wouldn't have made sense to buy them for one job, but I'd expect ANY garage to have them, or to refuse the work.
Worse than that, when I had the car back for about two weeks, the handbrake cable snapped. Looking under the car, I could see it actually lying on the ground, stretched along its length. I suspect this is because they didn't bother to make sure the cable was secure, and it caught on something. Either that, or it was simply too tight and broke when used.
I called them to take the car back, and they said bring it in the next day. I expected them to be very aware of the problems and apologetic when I arrived. Instead, they couldn't even remember why I was bringing it in, and their notes didn't help.
I explained the problems the car had since they worked on it. Immediately, without looking at the car, the John (who was sitting in an office at the back, and whom I believe to be the owner/manager) claimed that it was probably the other cable. I considered this a very unlikely coincidence, besides the fact that it was originally in for a general service, and they should have found problems with brake cables. After all, that's why they replaced the first one; I didn't ask them to.
We went out to the car. I got in, popped the hood, and was waiting for him to open it before I started the engine. Now, he -- the owner/manager/head mechanic --- was dressed very much like a mechanic, and obviously considered himself experienced enough to question the problems and to examine the engine. So he spent around 1 minute fumbling around trying to find the bonnet catch to even see the engine. In the end, I had to get out of the car and open the bonnet for him. read more