Unnecessary work on brakes (possibly)!

[pomm001]

Most (though not all) company cars are administered by fleet hire companies such as Autolease who baulk at paying for anything other than routine maintenance on the vehicles they lease out. They maintain a database of average lifespan for pretty much all the wear parts by vehicle type, and dealerships will have a very hard time getting authorisation to change parts significantly inside those lifespans. They also generally pay reduced labour rates.

On the other hand, Joe Punter who runs his own car pays the published rate for labour charges and unless he's pretty savvy can relatively easily get suckered into replacing parts unnecessarily because he doesn't have the information to hand to challenge what he's told by an unscrupulous dealer.

"Information is Power" should be every consumer's motto.

I agree with that comment
i recently took my e class into the dealer for a service, i knew the pads were low and the disc had quite a lip on it.
I had a phone call to say that could they replace the front discs and pads at £400.00 i declined their offer and said i would wait for the light to come on first.
Back in the days when i had company cars the lease companies were so tight that their policy was only to replace if the light had come on and then they had the right to view the replaced parts.
its an old chesnut this one, it used to be that brakes were checked on a service, then came senors and warning lamps , so brakes out of the service shedule, now they seem to be back in again , or is there a profit element to this .I have had newish VW's serviced at the dealer, week latter the light comes on , they didnt mention anything , maybe MB dealers are more caring
or need to make more money to pay for their expensive showrooms

 

[Silver-racer]

Brake Pads

I had a renaullt ( in my former days) and my wife took it in for service, she was phoned up saying the garage said that the pads were badly worn, and would she like them changing. Fortunatley she asked me, and I phoned them saying "No I will wait until the light comes on then I will bring it back"!( I checked and they were over 6mm thick)
12 months later on, at the next service the same thing happened, this time they phoned me , and I replied "No I will wait until the light comes on then I will bring it back" ! about 1 month before the car was 3 years old the Light came on and I changed them myself with Ferodo pads from Halfrauds.
The mileage at the first service was 7700 miles, second 15800 and finally they were replaced at 24600 miles which I thought was a reasonable time and distance for pad replacement.
So I believe that some garages do extra work for the sake of it!!

Gerry.
N Wales
'02 C220 Sport coupe
'02 200 SLK plaything (23k only)

 

[television]

I had a renaullt ( in my former days) and my wife took it in for service, she was phoned up saying the garage said that the pads were badly worn, and would she like them changing. Fortunatley she asked me, and I phoned them saying "No I will wait until the light comes on then I will bring it back"!( I checked and they were over 6mm thick)
12 months later on, at the next service the same thing happened, this time they phoned me , and I replied "No I will wait until the light comes on then I will bring it back" ! about 1 month before the car was 3 years old the Light came on and I changed them myself with Ferodo pads from Halfrauds.
The mileage at the first service was 7700 miles, second 15800 and finally they were replaced at 24600 miles which I thought was a reasonable time and distance for pad replacement.
So I believe that some garages do extra work for the sake of it!!

Gerry.
N Wales
'02 C220 Sport coupe
'02 200 SLK plaything (23k only)

I like your post very much and it illustrates so well what goes on in the car trade., just think, you could have had 3 sets in that time