Had all of my services done at my local Main dealer, but am debating what to do about my cambelt change.

Phoned around all the dealers and Indy's in my area (Southampton) to get quotes

For Cambelt, Tensioners & Pulleys and Waterpump (Plastic Impellor for comparison):

Main Dealers: £360 or £380 - 2 Yr Warranty (Winchester or Meadens)

Indys : £285, £299 or £310 - 1 Yr Warranty (Monks Auto, Independant or JKM)

Which would you choose?

Is the extra warranty worth the money?

Anyone... :confused:

I have a decent garage near to where I work, who do all my servicing on works vans and my car etc, BUT, I always have the cambelts done at the main dealers, just for the extra peace of mind.....

indy for sure

you will find most vag specialist have more experience than the main stealers

Out of all of those listed I've used most and would have to say I'd either use Meadens or Monks.

If you value a dealer stamp or the extra years warranty then I'd say meadens over winchester every time as I've had a few bad experiences with winchester when I owned my MK I and meadens have been much better with my MK II.

IIRC the price difference for my car is about £50 between the two, so I'm not sure which route to take really.

Time will I guess tell.

Out of all of those listed I've used most and would have to say I'd either use Meadens or Monks.

If you value a dealer stamp or the extra years warranty then I'd say meadens over winchester every time as I've had a few bad experiences with winchester when I owned my MK I and meadens have been much better with my MK II.

IIRC the price difference for my car is about £50 between the two, so I'm not sure which route to take really.

Time will I guess tell.

Decided to choose Meadens (have always used Winchester in the past) in the end.

They re-quoted to just under Winchester's price and offered to collect the car (saves me a 30 minute journey each way twice and courtesy car costs)

I had a very interesting chat with a sales man at a dealer once (don't know if I'm allowed to mention which one?) and was told they had a mechanic that could do something to the clutch that gave the impression it was slipping and if you took the car to another garage they wouldn't be able to track the fault their mechanic could fake with the clutch. He also told me the other dealer in regeon had a similar scam with brakes.

Low and behold at my next service I was told the clutch was slipping with 40,000 on the clock, so I took the car to the other dealer and was told there wasn't a problem with the clutch but the brakes need fixing!!

I had a very interesting chat with a sales man at a dealer once (don't know if I'm allowed to mention which one?)

Think outing the dealer should be allowed, especially if it's any of the above!!