Hi All,

I've been on here a few times for reference information on things like the leaking doors, etc.

I have a question for you all...

Do you go through the Skoda Dealer, do repairs yourself or use another garage (ie Halfords Autocenter)

I have had my 2001 Skoda Fabia comfort estate for a full year now and still love driving it. It's don't 56k with me adding 5k in the past year (only a few miles to work) and 51k from the previous 1 owner.

I have just had the car MOT'd and its come back with a few advisors (replacement cambelt, brake discs, pads, front tyres). All in all calculated cost of £600. I got the MOT done by Halfords Autocentre as it is next door to my work and obviously wanted to know peoples thoughts on where they normally go for their repairs.

Any information would be helpful!

Rob

Any GOOD independant garage who do vw stuff.

 

The hard part is finding one you can trust but usually talking to family and friends will let you know the good and bads ones.

I would go with the best cost for work done by somebody you trust. Probably an indy for the belt, DIY for the brakes and whoever the gave the best price on the tyres.

I know for sure I wouldn't allow Halfords to work on

any of my vehicles, I favour a decent independent personally.  

Speak to Rob at W8 performance. He's in Tonbridge and will point you in the correct direction of a local indie to you.

if it was me i would get it booked in to a dealer / indy for the timing belt and then sort the rest out myself - dependent on how desperate they are .... if youve only done 5k the tyres/brakes may still be legal and have plenty life left in them

Thanks for your advise peeps. Spoken to a few more people and looking at reviews on line and going to phone around a few listed places.

Hi All,

Do you go through the Skoda Dealer, do repairs yourself or use another garage (ie Halfords Autocenter)

 

Advice- for tyres or exhausts, the fast fit places are OK. I avoid Halfrauds like the plague. I've two tales of woe. First- I used to take works vans into one place and got an excellent price on an oil/filtere change . Two hours later, still had a leak- they hadn't ordered up a full set of seals. Once they did, all was well . Second, I needed rear brake shoes, and went to one place I'd used before. Car came out with iffy brakes. Story was like something out of "Are you being served" . Took car to garage that had failed it on MOT and left them to sort it out as I didn't trust fast fit to cure fault. Verdict was that the brakes were verging on dangerous as they were full of air.

Advice- for tyres or exhausts, the fast fit places are OK. I avoid Halfrauds like the plague. I've two tales of woe. First- I used to take works vans into one place and got an excellent price on an oil/filtere change . Two hours later, still had a leak- they hadn't ordered up a full set of seals. Once they did, all was well . Second, I needed rear brake shoes, and went to one place I'd used before. Car came out with iffy brakes. Story was like something out of "Are you being served" . Took car to garage that had failed it on MOT and left them to sort it out as I didn't trust fast fit to cure fault. Verdict was that the brakes were verging on dangerous as they were full of air.

ive seen some of them **** up exhausts and tyres too

Likewise, last replacement works vehicle I had had ABS problems over 55mph. Ford did a diagnostic and found nothing. Long story short, it turned out to be a wrong size tyre .LWB Transit fitted with SWB tyre. Then we had the case of  bad road holding after a rear tyre change. Tyres over inflated .