KwikFit - Overcharging, Lying Robbers - Avoid - I saved £400!

For those close to Warrington, I can recommend ATS in Latchford village by hard labour. I have never had any trouble with them.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Kwik Fit have and aways will be rip off merchants.

However in their defence and to criticise the guy that did the work for you. If only one of you brake disks need replacing you need to replace both disks on that axle. If you dont do this you will get uneven brake and either end up in the middle of the road or in the ditch!

secondly, brake pipes DO NOT RUST, they are made of a copper composite material however they do corode and with the high presure thats applied to them they either tend to split or perferate with pin holes.

In my opinion you should only ever get brake work carried out by a garage that also does MOT's

Originally Posted by Wicked_and_Crazy

In my opinion you should only ever get brake work carried out by a garage that also does MOT's

And I think that MOT garages should not be allowed to do repair work. It just leads to a potential conflict of interest.

I get my MOT's done by a garage which only does MOT's. They NEVER fail my cars on anything that isn't actually wrong, but they will give an advisory for any work that should be done following the MOT - i.e. not fail points, but things that might fail next time.

Since I do most repair work myself anyway, this is perfect.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Wicked_and_Crazy

secondly, brake pipes DO NOT RUST, they are made of a copper composite material however they do corode and with the high presure thats applied to them they either tend to split or perferate with pin holes.

In my opinion you should only ever get brake work carried out by a garage that also does MOT's

Not all are copper, there are still lots of cars around with steel brake pipes.

I bought a few rolls of bake pipe a few years ago, one was from a good motor factors and the others from a Classic Car Autojumble. I was rebuilding a vehicle at the time and made new brake pipes with the expensive motor factor pipe, at the MOT the following year I disputed with the MOT tester that the pipes were badly corroded, and was then surprised when I got under to have a look myself. He had carried out the MOT the previous year and knew that just about everything had been replaced of refurbished on the vehicle. I always replace brake pipes, hoses, slave and master cylinders as a matter of course.

These pipes appeared to have a very thin coating of copper on them, and it took just 12 months for them to look very corroded. The tester did however say that some material used for brake pipes will tarnish and corrode very quickly, giving the appearance they are bad but in fact stay like that for years. He passed the vehicle but I replaced the front to back, across axle and cylinder bridge pipes straight away.

[budwieser]

Can i just say that not all Franchises and main dealers are to be tarred with the same brush!
I work for a Honda Dealership in Cambridge and i take great pride in my work, even doing chargable jobs for nothing at all, even in my lunch hour.
I`ve had an Elderly man come to me 3 or 4 times now since we repaired his car, a Rover, to just ask me a question or just to replace a splash shield clip that he didn`t think was right and i`ve always done it without a quibble or any charge.
These customers pay our wages and we must look after them in my mind.
I work for the bodyshop by the way.

There was a programme on the TV a few months ago about Kwik Fit I think it was Rogue Traders where they took a car into Kwik Fit for repairs, they'd had a mechanic check the car over before it went in and everything was ok, when Kwik Fit got the car on the ramps they said it needed this that and the other, the fitters who work for Kwik Fit get a bonus for everything they sell and fit, they collared the fitter and the manager who said we will stop all this practice, seems like it's still going on.

[marky]

My mate had new shockers fitted there, about a month later he went to another for tyres,
they said he needed new shockers, so he let them do it and then pulled his reciept from the other place out

[budwieser]

Quite a few places like Kwikfit and others are notorious for a having a practice or Policy of getting the car up in the air ,on a ramp, and not letting it down until the customer has agreed to new shocks, springs and the old favourite, Brake pads and Discs. Give the rest of us a bad name. *******s.
99% of the time they`re not needed.

[marky]

Originally Posted by budwieser

Quite a few places like Kwikfit and others are notorious for a having a practice or Policy of getting the car up in the air ,on a ramp, and not letting it down until the customer has agreed to new shocks, springs and the old favourite, Brake pads and Discs. Give the rest of us a bad name. *******s.
99% of the time they`re not needed.

You work for a proper place, kwik fit is full of unqualified idiots

[simon9975]

I have 12yrs of the trade under my belt all dealerships,i too made the mistake one sunday morning of taking my then sierra for a wheel alignment check as i had replaced the very comon fault of track control arm bushes.

I went in and said to the manager i wanted the wheel alignment checking,no problem put it on the ramp,came back 5mins later and called me to the car,look sir we carnt check this alignment as the track control arm bushes are worn,WHAT you muppet i just replaced them,oh yes he said my mistake,so i said take the car off your'e not doing it,sod that i would never recommend to them anyone even if it was a sunday they are crap,don't know what there on about and all the time want the quick easy earners,like the older genaration who they say ooohhh brakes are worn,tyres nearly bald and they know there gonna get the work.

God it annoys me as there are some decent mechanics and that it what most who work for ****fit arnt

I use Kwik fit when I cant be arsed to go anywhere else, mainly cos theres a garage about 500 metres away from my house.

Kwik fit do my tyres and have once done my exhaust.

For any other work including MOT I go to My Local Network Q garage because they are cheaper than Kwik Fit at just about everything except tyres funnily enough.

I've had a car from a main dealship that suffered sudden brake failure 1 week after its 10,000 mile service, and after 20,000 miles the rear wheel bearing disintegrated causing the wheel to lockup temporarily as I was driving over the Tees Flyover at 70Mph, I took it to the ford dealershipthey wanted to charge me for the repair, until I pulled out my pocket the service sheet from 2 days previous stating that the wheel bearings had been checked.

[grandmaster]

Originally Posted by budwieser

Can i just say that not all Franchises and main dealers are to be tarred with the same brush!
I work for a Honda Dealership .

I used to work for Honda in Rochdale in the parts dept.

We always helped if we could.

[budwieser]

Originally Posted by simon9975

I have 12yrs of the trade under my belt all dealerships,i too made the mistake one sunday morning of taking my then sierra for a wheel alignment check as i had replaced the very comon fault of track control arm bushes.

I went in and said to the manager i wanted the wheel alignment checking,no problem put it on the ramp,came back 5mins later and called me to the car,look sir we carnt check this alignment as the track control arm bushes are worn,WHAT you muppet i just replaced them,oh yes he said my mistake,so i said take the car off your'e not doing it,sod that i would never recommend to them anyone even if it was a sunday they are crap,don't know what there on about and all the time want the quick easy earners,like the older genaration who they say ooohhh brakes are worn,tyres nearly bald and they know there gonna get the work.

God it annoys me as there are some decent mechanics and that it what most who work for ****fit arnt

Track control arm Bushes????????? WTF are they?
Do you mean bottom ball joints?

[marky]

Its the rubber bushes on the end of the anti roll bar

[Chimaera]

Well if you lot think you have problems - it's worse for us girlies! A Vauxhall main dealer once tried to fob me off with new brake pads when the discs were warped. I don't know that much about cars - but I insisted on new discs (it was a new-ish car and still under warranty) and I was proved right in the end. Kwik-Fit also tried to con me by saying my car's brakes were in a dangerous condition and that I would end up killing my baby in an accident if I drove it out of the garage - my then father in law (ex mechanic) had done them the week before. Now I go to a mechanic who I've known for years and is trustworthy - no more main dealer repairs for me!