a puzzle for you.......

[Rhyso]

4 months ago i was told that the rear suspension bushes on my car needed replacing and was quoted by my local stealership £280 to fit them. had no money at the time and have put up with their creaking noise since.....

finally got a bit of money together so thought i'd get them done.

Phoned the same VW garage that quoted me before and was told..........

That will be £160 FULLY FITTED INCLUDING VAT!! 

Now can anyone work out how the cost can change by £120 over the last 4 months.

Answers please cos I'm well confused!!

[Flipmode]

my mate was told needed windscreen wipers replaced and stealers wanted £80 to do it...nothing surprises me with them, shop around is my only advice, even if u shop around between diff dealerships!!

[rtb51]

4 months ago i was told that the rear suspension bushes on my car needed replacing and was quoted by my local stealership £280 to fit them. had no money at the time and have put up with their creaking noise since.....

finally got a bit of money together so thought i'd get them done.

Phoned the same VW garage that quoted me before and was told..........

That will be £160 FULLY FITTED INCLUDING VAT!! 

Now can anyone work out how the cost can change by £120 over the last 4 months.

I've been round this route, so maybe I can shed some light on it for you, as I found that even people in the trade were confused by the situation. After a lot of digging on the web, this is what I established.
You don't say what car you have, mine is a 2.0GTI.
The base model cars, ie 1.4 and 1.6 were fitted with solid rubber bushes, the GTI models had hydraulic bushes.
The hydraulic bushes seem to be a bit of a disaster, and fail prematurely.
The VW extraction tool won't get them out, it only works on the solid type, so originally dealers found that it was easiest to fix the problem with a refurbished rear axle, ie swap the whole lot.
Expensive !!!    Now I think they cut them out.
The bushes are then replaced with the solid rubber type.
Because people aren't sure what type they are getting out, and the type to refit, you get a variety of price quotes.
Don't be surprised to get a call when the dealer is halfway through the job to say that the situation isn't as they thought, and so the price is higher.
If you look at the Haynes manual, it's not too bad a job to do yourself, the hard part being getting the old bushes out.
I spoke to Powerflex, and their replacement bushes are about £50 and are a push fit. They've never known anybody have a problem fitting them.
I'm going to attempt it myself, by cutting the old bushes out with an electric saw.
Hope this goes some way to explaining the situation.

Answers please cos I'm well confused!!

[Rhyso]

car is a GT TDI 130 on a 51 Plate.

thanks for the info mate 

they best not ring up and say 'I'm sorry its going to cost you more!'
woman who quoted me over the phone took my reg number so I'm assuming that she has priced it correctly.....

I've been reading around a bit and it seems that what i have been quoted is about right.  Book time is around 1.5 hours (if they have the correct equipment!) plus about £40 for the parts.

Car is booked in for next Tuesday so I'll find out for sure whats what!!

[Mk1Mad J - 16v]

Could be one mechanic see's it as a longer job than the other but garages can be well dodgy so get at least one second opinon - I was told my wishbone bushes needed replacing 3 years ago and I've been through 2 MOT's since with no mention of them 

[Rhyso]

well the 2 quotes i got from my local stealer, first was from one guy in the sevice department and 2nd was from a woman who does the quotes over the phone.

I know which quote i prefer!! 

[Mk1Mad J - 16v]

Did you get a quote or an extimate (apparently there's a difference) If its a quote get them to write it down, if its just an estimate they could add x2 x4 x6 etc.... they're robbing ba$tards the lot of them 


Disclaimer:- I'm sure not all mechanics are robbing bastards but all the ones I've met have been 
I don't use mechanics anymore - Id rather spend the money on tools and do the job myself 

[Rhyso]

well i asked for a 'quote' and she had to work it manually as it wasn't on her quotation system!! worked it out to the penny and included VAT so I reckon that's definitely a quote where as an estimate is roughly between x and y.........

I spoke to a mechanic yesterday who said he didn't want to do the job cos he didn't have the proper tools and therefore wasn't going to attempt a bodge job! he's the most honest mechanic I've ever spoken to!! 

[Mk1Mad J - 16v]

honest mechanic

  I've never seen/heard those to words used in the same sentence before, not without a dis- at the beginning 

[Rhyso]

lol - i had great trouble typing it!! 

took me half a dozen attempts before i got it right