[Closed] Main stealer?

I had an ABS sensor fail on my Skoda Superb. Local independent specialist garage replace the sensor and the rear brake pads at the same time, they were low and needed doing, £129 all in.

So yes. Wildly overpriced.

Even at main dealer prices £600 should be discs and pads front and rear.

Yes it's overpriced. Some main dealers are reasonable, some are not. Just booked my (leased) Hyundai in for a 1 year service and it's only £72, which is ok but I doubt it needs a service given it's an EV. However one of the add-on options was £150 for wiper blades! How is that anything other than a blatant rip-off?

Any garage should be able to do pads, they are literally consumables. Actually - hold on. If you have an electric handbrake it will need a bit of digital dialogue to open up the calipers. It's not hard though you just need a dongle to tell the car to do it. Any decent indy should have that.

It's also a quick job, shouldn't take more than an hour if you know what you are doing - hell, I could do them in an hour if nothing is seized.

Rear discs, pads, one caliper plus handbrake cable, hub seals etc and an MOT £505 from an Indy for a Transit.
Your quote seems pricey

After and advisory on an MOT I had a quote from Halfords Autocentre for new front pads and discs on my 5 series. On reading it I said the advisory was only for the fronts not the whole car to which they replied “That is just the fronts”. It was over £650! My local indy did them for under £200.

There’s always a main dealer mark up. But sometimes they’re the only option. For my wife’s Hyundai (Kia) none of the ECP listed front discs fitted, all from Eicher to Brembo the hat internal depth was a couple of mm out so butted up against the calliper bracket. OEM for the local Hyundai dealer at twice the Brembo price, fitted perfectly!

Tell them they're not competitive and take your business elsewhere.

Pffft, I was once quoted over £2.5k to replace an intermittently faulty water level sensor for the coolant reservoir (they claimed the whole wiring loom for that section of the car needed replacing as the sensor alone couldn't be swapped out) on an Audi A6 and a further £800 to replace a sticking solenoid on the fuel filler cap locking mechanism by an Audi main dealer. Got them both replaced by a local garage for £150 fitted.

For my wife’s Hyundai (Kia) none of the ECP listed front discs fitted, all from Eicher to Brembo the hat internal depth was a couple of mm out so butted up against the calliper bracket. OEM for the local Hyundai dealer at twice the Brembo price, fitted perfectly!

That's possible but there are many more places to get parts than ECP. Autodoc has about 10x more stock lines. Of course that's not to say they are all different, but the stock catalogue of the supplier and the retailer might be.

that include disks or not?

just looked on euros for a 2015 kia sportage
front disks 50 quid each, rear same, pads 50 and 33. say OE is 50% more, and they charge 100 quid an hour thats 3 hours? not too bad because OE hardware is always better.
edit add - shouldnt take 3 hours - it depends what it says in their book though.

i bought OE disks and pads for the front of my Merc Viano 3.0 and the disks were 38 quid each and the pads were 37 from memory.

I paid 550 euros last year for Kia carens full service, so c 250 euros, plus front pads and disks. So about 300 euros for pads and disks. May have been some other odds n sods in there.

Local indie, even changes pollen filter which is about 30 euros.

7 year old car never missed a beat, just consumable stuff. Binned off the main dealer in year 2 when the service costs there were about double the indie.

OE hardware is always better.

hahahahahahaah!

Just one example off the top of my head, Nissan 200sx OE back box in mild steel, over 300.
Stainless steel performance replacement, 250.

i stand by my comment, particularly with brakes.

"i stand by my comment, particularly with brakes."

And I second it!
JUst cos it says "Brembo" on the box, it doesn't mean they're built to the same standard as Brembo four pots. The ones I bought from ECP for my Subaru were utter garbage! Despite claiming to be OE quality the pads only had 2/3 of the pad area as the genuine parts, so overheated easily and warped the (Brembo) discs in no time.

BS... sounds like user error, EBC or mintex pads are as good as OE if not better, assuming you bought the correct size pads and the correct compound.

The ones I bought from ECP for my Subaru were utter garbage! Despite claiming to be OE quality the pads only had 2/3 of the pad area as the genuine parts, so overheated easily and warped the (Brembo) discs in no time.

Did you get road or fast road pads? or track/racing pads?

I ask as more racing oriented pads don't work very well when they are cold, they are not designed for road driving, as they won't get up to a hot enough temperature to work properly.

"Did you get road or fast road pads? or track/racing pads?

I ask as more racing oriented pads don’t work very well when they are cold, they are not designed for road driving, as they won’t get up to a hot enough temperature to work properly."

Just the standard "OE replacement" pads and discs, Brembo branded garbage! Nothing fast road, sporty, or such like. ECP- Euro car parts- not EBC or mintex, which I run on my old Alfa, and are superb, but a completely different kettle of fish...

And thanks for the lesson...

Stainless steel performance replacement, 250.

What was performance about it ? The name ?

Just one example off the top of my head, Nissan 200sx

Strange you pick a random obscure car that about 4 people in the UK had....

Stainless steel rather than cheap mild steel for a start.
No need to be a dick about it.

Just buy an overpriced OE part if that's what makes you happy.

Stainless steel rather than cheap mild steel for a start.

Indeed and in real terms what does that mean. 250 quid doesn't buy you much quality stainless material before you you start manufacture.

Or was the 1995 when it was a relevent car and 250 quid was alot money.

Fwiw oe exhausts have always lasted me longer than pattern replacements and kept the cabin noise level unchanged . I put a stainless exhaust on one of my cars due to needing custom after an engine swap ....braaaaaaaaap braaaaaaap - was only one silencer box on it due to "performance" moniker .

Every Main dealer has to sell its workshop hours and has a parts target to reach , negotiate with them - if you want a main dealer service stamp or find a specialist.

My main dealer is pretty fair on the whole . One eye watering price is engine oil , I'm sure that big tank they have in the workshop doesn't cost that much to fill up ?
I did question one thing on last year's bill though . They were just writing up the bill as I waited , talking out loud as he was doing it I heard him say windscreen washer top up £5 . I said to him really ? I filled that up just before I brought it in you couldn't get any more in if you tried . A fiver back in my pocket thank you 👍

Thanks all for the advice - car retrieved today.

An apology (of sorts) to the dealer; the quote includes discs on the front, so not 'as bad' as I originally thought.

However - taking that back the MOT paperwork says 'Advisory - discs worn, pitted or slightly scored but not seriously weakened' so the BIG F'OFF RED NO ENTRY LOGO next to that on the inspection report they sent me is as others said on the parallel Golf brakes thread (like buses, eh) OTT scare tactics for the OMG! DEATHTRAP! crowd.

Phoning round the indies in a bit. I'll ask about the discs but looks like pads is all.

And to whover posted the Haynes manual. Yep, I know I could but it has hill assist handbrake which might complicate, and in any case I'm classic 'cash rich / time poor' on this. By cash rich - not £600 for a £200 job though.

An apology (of sorts) to the dealer; the quote includes discs on the front, so not ‘as bad’ as I originally thought.

I had misread the OP, I thought that was discs and pads and still thought it was expensive! Seems ridiculous now with only half as many discs!

One eye watering price is engine oil , I’m sure that big tank they have in the workshop doesn’t cost that much to fill up ?

Perhaps, depends on the car. If you have a VW diesel of a certain age and on long-life service you need special oil, but the big tank might be just the normal stuff.

Stainless steel doesn’t mean quality

Plenty of cheap exhausts for around 300 quid on eBay for my boxster, but all are noisy garbage by all accounts

£188 quoted for pads all round, he'll look at discs when on the ramp but based on the MOT sounds optional.