Christmas Woes!!

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Steve Benson

Member
Posts
15
Location
Stocksfield
Travelled from North east down to Lincoln on Christmas day. As we neared Darlington on the A1 clutch pedal hits the floor and fails to come back up. Call to AA and the guy (A very nice man!!!) meets us an hour and a bit later as we get off the A1 at the junction A46. Land rover trailered to Marshalls in Lincoln. Not open so have to leave it on the road outside.
Service closed until 28th, so keys left with sales on the 27th and head home in my Brother in laws car.
Told it was the clutch master cylinder so has it replaced on the 30th at over £400!!! Brother in law collected it on 31st (as i wouldn't be able to get there before they closed at 1)and drove 2 miles to his house. I drove down after work yesterday (31st) to collect it. Everything fine.
Now, when i pull into the local garage to re-fuel i notice that when i use the fob to lock it, it now toots the horn at me twice as if the door is open (none are!)
Carry on my journey as i head north and get onto the A1 notice a different feel too the clutch operation but think it is because it is new. A1 is just 6th all the way home but as i get to my turn off by the metro centre clutch fails again! No pressure.
Lever to the floor. I manage to coax it home and dump it on the drive.
What do you reckon?
Feeling fleeced!!!
 
Travelled from North east down to Lincoln on Christmas day. As we neared Darlington on the A1 clutch pedal hits the floor and fails to come back up. Call to AA and the guy (A very nice man!!!) meets us an hour and a bit later as we get off the A1 at the junction A46. Land rover trailered to Marshalls in Lincoln. Not open so have to leave it on the road outside.
Service closed until 28th, so keys left with sales on the 27th and head home in my Brother in laws car.
Told it was the clutch master cylinder so has it replaced on the 30th at over £400!!! Brother in law collected it on 31st (as i wouldn't be able to get there before they closed at 1)and drove 2 miles to his house. I drove down after work yesterday (31st) to collect it. Everything fine.
Now, when i pull into the local garage to re-fuel i notice that when i use the fob to lock it, it now toots the horn at me twice as if the door is open (none are!)
Carry on my journey as i head north and get onto the A1 notice a different feel too the clutch operation but think it is because it is new. A1 is just 6th all the way home but as i get to my turn off by the metro centre clutch fails again! No pressure.
Lever to the floor. I manage to coax it home and dump it on the drive.
What do you reckon?
Feeling fleeced!!!
My TD5 has a security switch under the bonnet near the master cylinders, when I had my chassis replaced I picked it up it and gave the double toot when I tried to lock it, you can bend the switch bracket up a little bit and then closing the bonnet opperates the switch allowing the bonnet closed to register with the alarm and the miss set (double toot) stops.
 
What do you reckon?
Feeling fleeced!!!

I would call them at the earliest opportunity that they are open and ask to speak with the Manager. Then if no joy, i would expect to go the registered letter with a decision date for them to give you a final answer , and potentially go to the small claims court.

Cheers
 
£400 to replace the master cylinder seems a hell of a lot to me. Are they harder to swap out than on a 300Tdi?
 
Rough estimate:
3 hours @ £60 = £180
Cylinder @ £40 = £40
Total. =£220

You can get master cylinders cheaper and I reckon it could be changed in less than 3 hours. I'm guessing at the hourly rate.
Yes that seems a fair estimate, don't know where they get the £400 from was the bill broken down ?
 
Yes that seems a fair estimate, don't know where they get the £400 from was the bill broken down ?

Reading his OP. I would have thought a Main stealer rate could well be above the £60 / hr rate, will be interesting to see if he has it on the bill.
But even then I think the fact it has failed on the drive home is the biggest kick in the guts.

Cheers
 
Rough estimate:
3 hours @ £60 = £180
Cylinder @ £40 = £40
Total. =£220

You can get master cylinders cheaper and I reckon it could be changed in less than 3 hours. I'm guessing at the hourly rate.

We can see you don't carry out estimating or job costing for a living. Where's the consumable materials, also more important overheads, and the profit margins in that pricing.

But if you do I'm sorry, then perhaps you would like to give a breakdown on the numbers and how the business survives with those costs.



Sent from my iPad Air in Madeira.
 
You're right, I don't. :)
I don't know main dealer hourly rate.
It was obviously just a rough estimate. I'm sure the OP will realise there will be other items such as fluid etc. Personally, I would work on that as something I wouldn't want to pay above for that job. Being dropped at a main dealer is unfortunate in terms of labour.
 
You're right, I don't. :)
I don't know main dealer hourly rate.
Being dropped at a main dealer is unfortunate in terms of labour.

Main dealer within the M25 was around £72 - £80 back when I had my RR and the early days of my disco, now it's around £110 going by what Jaguar charge. :)

I had company Honda until last week and the main dealer charged £65ph but then their servicing never took more than 3 hours and the annual service bill was always under £300.

Our firm charges for day work £520 per engineer on site, rarely by the hour, and then the minimum is four, plus materials, plus our markup to cover overheads all standard stuff.
All quite cheap compared with architects, accountants, consultants and lawyers in the City of London whom we work for and pay us. :D
 
Ha ha. Well, you live in a different world to me and not just geographically. :)
At the end of the day I hope the OP gets it sorted.
 
We charge £65 per hour, but we are not in the motor trade. £500 minimum day rate for attendance on site, plus travelling and meals.

Clutch cylinder looks to me like £250 - £300 without seeing what they charge for consumables.

Yes, you could do it yourself, but only if you have the parts and tools handy. That's why we carry a big box of spares when we take both Discoveries to Europe, not that we expect to need them, but if we break down it's going to be expensive if we go to a dealer.

Peter
 
If it had been any other time of year and nearer home, i probably would have had a go myself. But Christmas day fully loaded, with six occupants and on our way to my Brother in laws for Christmas dinner, i was stuffed!!!
Any way they are picking it up tomorrow on a flat bed and dropping off a courtesy car. Seems bit mental to me, to send a trailer from Lincoln, to pick it up from Northumberland, take it back to Lincoln, have a look at it, and trailer it back again.
Great customer service though!!
 
Rough estimate:
3 hours @ £60 = £180
Cylinder @ £40 = £40
Total. =£220

You can get master cylinders cheaper and I reckon it could be changed in less than 3 hours. I'm guessing at the hourly rate.

Please remember that £408 to you is only £340 to the business and £68 to the VAT man :rolleyes:
 
If it had been any other time of year and nearer home, i probably would have had a go myself. But Christmas day fully loaded, with six occupants and on our way to my Brother in laws for Christmas dinner, i was stuffed!!!
Any way they are picking it up tomorrow on a flat bed and dropping off a courtesy car. Seems bit mental to me, to send a trailer from Lincoln, to pick it up from Northumberland, take it back to Lincoln, have a look at it, and trailer it back again.
Great customer service though!!
That is great customer service. Pleased you're getting it sorted. :)

I'd like to say that when I put the rough estimate on, I was not trying to estimate a 'main dealer' cost for the job. I realise I did not make my self clear. :(
 
If it had been any other time of year and nearer home, i probably would have had a go myself. But Christmas day fully loaded, with six occupants and on our way to my Brother in laws for Christmas dinner, i was stuffed!!!
Any way they are picking it up tomorrow on a flat bed and dropping off a courtesy car. Seems bit mental to me, to send a trailer from Lincoln, to pick it up from Northumberland, take it back to Lincoln, have a look at it, and trailer it back again.
Great customer service though!!

That is great customer service, nice to hear when issues are answered in the right way. Rather than just the horror stories.

Hope they get it fixed quickly and soon.

Cheers
 
Great service.....but at those labour prices I would be concerned about them finding something else wrong with it deeper in and looking to extract even more money to correct. I'm not saying they're ripping you off - just usual main dealer prices no doubt.
 
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