MOT (Minging On Test)

[Rhymes with Paris]

Oh Bob, ouch at that expense.

It sounds a lot of work for a relatively recent and low mileage car, but as we know prices for everything have gone a bit crazy lately.

Fingers 🤞 for you that is that for a while, and no further trouble and expense.

 

[Bper]

59 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Oh Bob, ouch at that expense.

It sounds a lot of work for a relatively recent and low mileage car, but as we know prices for everything have gone a bit crazy lately.

Fingers 🤞 for you that is that for a while, and no further trouble and expense.

 

Hi Paul, thank you, the thing is I don't know if this is a good price or not and it would be good to get an idea of others comments. 

Some good news we sat in the new Toyota Yaris XL. WoW nice car, we couldn't believe how much head room in the front and back. Leather seats the only slight criticism is the boot space  but the back seats come down for more room if needed.

It definitely is a big difference from the earlier Yaris. Will take one for a test drive tomorrow hopefully if it's not the only one that is on display.

Also like the Toyota Yaris Cross which is a nice smaller version then the larger bigger RAV4.

The RAV4 is also a lovely car but far to big for our needs we also sat in this and has enough room for a snooker table😂

Looking at all these new cars and the styling Toyota have created is certainly a credit to them.👍

[Rhymes with Paris]

Careful Bob, you'll be catching new car rabies next.

Sorry, no idea on whether those prices are reasonable for nowadays ,as you say other more up to date members will give you a clue.

I am still getting over the price of a Ford Anglia front wing in 1971 ,£10.20 from the main dealer.

 

[Bper]

6 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Careful Bob, you'll be catching new car rabies next.

Sorry, no idea on whether those prices are reasonable for nowadays ,as you say other more up to date members will give you a clue.

I am still getting over the price of a Ford Anglia front wing in 1971 ,£10.20 from the main dealer.

 

WOW £10.20 for a new front Anglia wing . two bacon rolls today and two coffees £ 14.50p. I think two chicken wings from the butchers is nearly as expensive as your Anglia wing.😂

[Bper]

Just an update after arriving back from Toyota this morning.

Replacement of OSF anti roll bar link bar £235.00 inc VAT😭

[Shared]

25 minutes ago, Bper said:

Just an update after arriving back from Toyota this morning.

Replacement of OSF anti roll bar link bar £235.00 inc VAT😭

 

 

Maybe it's just me but that seems extortionate for an arb link.

[Bper]

Hi Phil, you maybe right but without other members who have had the same work done it's difficult to know. Hopefully further comments wil help.👍

[Cyker]

Weird, I had a similarly excessive quote for my Mk1 Yaris; IIRC the part was also very expensive.

I ended up buying an aftermarket polybush kit from Superpro (Or Powerflex? I forget....) for half the cost and fitting it with help from my travelling mechanic mate (Which was a massive PITA as we had to unbolt the ARB bracket to get the damned thing to go in on the driver's side!)

 

[Bper]

As I have said in my earlier posts that without having any idea whether the work that was done on both this and on the service and MOT I posted earlier it really is difficult to know if this work was expensive or inline with what others have paid.

I have also noticed that whilst some costs have been mentioned on various posts many of them are approximate or quoted but I think it would be a good idea if members did post the actual final costs as it would be helpful to members who could compare what they have been quoted.

[Shared]

Hello Bob, I don't know what's involved with your intermediate servcice but at circa £280 nothing gave me pause for thought, I would say a service would be more labour intensive than an arb link, and obviously more fluids/parts etc would be used I would think.

A quick search suggest an Auris arb link made by Bilstein would cost in the region of £20 to buy, now here's the disclaimer, I'm not a mechanic, and I've never done an Auris arb link though I have done them on various Fords, VW's, BMW's,Vauxhalls and Nissans and I can usually do both sides in about 30 minutes, it's a relatively simple job.

 

This isn't a criticism at all but I would also never do just a single side with a suspension component, especially such a reasonably priced one,in fact I was goiung to say "at the price it isn't worth just doing one side" but of course, if both sides were going to cost me circa £470 I might just opt for the one that "needed" doing.

Do dealers give invoices with parts/labour breakdowns these days ? 

[Bper]

Hi Phil,

The report on the MOT under minor defects was the Anti - roll bar joint dust cover severely deteriorated O/S/F. I was told that a slight weep of grease was visible . 

In fairness they did say it wasn't an immediate issue but would need to be done before the next MOT. I decided to have it done as it would need doing later on regardless.

If the arb link was approximately £20 I was advised the book allowed 1.5 hours to complete. in fact it only took 1 hour. The labour would have been in the region of £175 and of course VAT to be added.

The total cost was for the intermediate service, two tyres and the arb link £697inc vat.

I would like to think that the other side would have also been done if they considered it was also a problem.

The quote for the Arb link just gave a total price of £235 but did not identify the labour and parts separately.

The intermediate service is based on Toyota's dealer pricing under small,medium, and large vehicles. My Auris falls under medium which was £286.

Obviously I had no idea that either the tyres of arb link would arise but the cuts in the tyres had not been visible and I would not know about the arb link unless I had access under the car which is not something I normally have to do.

I'm still interested what others have been charged on similar work etc to get a comparison if it's about right on price or not.👍

.

 

 

[Shared]

Hi Bob, Like you I'd be interested to hear others experiences too, I thought your tyres were reasonably priced considering they were dealer supplied though I still struggle to justify 1.5 or even 1 hour for an arb link, there's an Autodoc video on YT, admittedly it's a mk1 Auris but the video is about 5 minutes long & that includes taking the wheel off & putting it back on.

Of course there are other considerations, if you fit a duff part yourself you have to deal with the supplier yourself, if you make a mistake fitting a part then you have to swallow the consequences, when you pay dealer prices you should be assured of top quality parts fitted by very competent techs who probably go on extensive & expensive training courses plus of course if there are issues you have the assurance, or insurance I suppose of more easily seeking redress, that assurance has to have a monetary value which has to be factored in.

Then there's the fact that your car is much much newer than mine & probably has a value multiple times the value of mine, my mileometer reads over 4 times what yours does so intrinsic value & maintenance costs relative to a cars worth is another consideration, horses for courses as they say.

Apologies for the long winded waffle and let's hope in any case that that's the end of you bills for the forseeable future :)  

 

[Bper]

Hi Phil,

Well, you have pretty much covered the realities of this situation. I have also seen the YT videos on most Toyota repairs but the inclination to do the work myself isn't something that I relish but if I had to do it then I would. 

Like others, I have read many posts about members who have been quoted what seems like extortionate prices but the reality is that unless you have the skills,the right tools,car ramps,or trolley jacks etc., it's a real pain to attempt the work by yourself.

In my opinion, for those of us who endeavour to look after our cars it can be very disappointing when you put your car in for an MOT with the expectation that it should pass with no issues.

Unfortunately, cleaning and topping up fluids and checking tyre pressures doesn't negate what is going on under the car and how many of us ever get the opportunity to look underneath unless we have the either the will and facilities to do so.

For many years, both parts and labour costs have been a bugbear for motorists along with the increased insurance and petrol costs. Unfortunately, this can be the downside of owning a second hand car when the unexpected happens.👍