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🐧🐧CURMUDGEONS' CORNER XXI🐧🐧

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Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    KT53 said:
    Many garages have fixed prices for servicing so I wouldn't be too hard on them, even if the price breakdown seems high to you.  I still use the main dealer for my services and thankfully haven't had cause to use them for any repairs.  Their hourly rate is nearly £150 per hour for labour.
    They're adding a 100% markup over retail price on the parts. Normally garages pay the trade price to the supplier and charge the customer the retail price to cover their costs in ordering and handling. You're right though, if it was a fixed price service I probably wouldn't quibble the amount. There's also the possibility that their supplier is ripping them off on the parts cost.

    This car is great to work on @Allotment Boy there's a metal undertray protecting the engine but there's a cutout for the sump plug and you can reach it without really needing to jack the car up. The housing for the oil filter is on the side of the engine and just needs one air-intake pipe removed using two clips. The air filter is on top of the engine and only needs three screws removed. You can even change lightbulbs without having to remove anything which is a novelty with modern cars.

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    We use a local independent garage for our car servicing. Mine's going in on Friday for annual service and MOT. The prices have been going up over the last few years but that's to be expected. We don't have the skills to do it ourselves. It's about half an hour's walk away so I can drive over in the morning, leave it there and walk home, then walk back to fetch it in the afternoon. Which reminds me ('cos it's due at about the same time), I must check my breakdown insurance. I think it'll auto-renew if I don't do anything but I want to check against other people's prices.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    You can even change lightbulbs without having to remove anything which is a novelty with modern cars.

    That definitely is a novelty.  When I had my first and second Nissan Primeras all I had to do was remove a cover which was either hinged or clipped in place, take out the duff bulb and replace it.  Even on my wife's 15 year old Micra I couldn't get my hand in to release the clip.  The guy at Halford's loved me when I paid a couple of quid for him to skin his knuckles and swear a lot.

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I bought a little sage plant earlier in the year. I thought I'd have a look to see if there might be any pickings.  I know I planted it out  there somewhere but I can't remember where. Assuming it didn't succumb to all the rain, I suppose I'll find it near the house  .
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    How could that be allowed to happen?  Read the article and see the failings within the management of that care home.  Hopefully somebody will be prosecuted.


  • steveTusteveTu Posts: 3,219
    The Turner Prize.

    I know, as I've been told, that only artists can say what art is..

    But that is art? Really? I think the mess of my cables on my computer desk that stands for the stress and confusion of modern life is more artistic. But it can't be art as I'm not an artist....
    UK - South Coast Retirement Campus (East)
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    @steveTu I totally agree about the Turner Prize.  My understanding is that the Booker Prize is similar in that the winner must be something virtually unreadable.
    A sense of 'The King's New Clothes' with both.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Totally disagree re the Booker Prize, I have read most of the winners over the last 20 years, and the majority are truly wonderful books.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I just saw a delivery driver who wasn't content with parking on the zig-zag lines of a pedestrian crossing.  He was actually parked on the crossing itself!
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    pansyface said:
    Personally, I think that it’s just business.
    There's quite a lot of evidence showing how art is mostly propped up by money laundering these days. :|

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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