Just had the first 10,000 mile service of my Octy 2.0Tdi. It was

Labour rates, the parts and other consumables are relatively cheap. Then the VAT man cometh.

That sounds very high for a 10000 mile service.

On my Mk1 Octy , the 10 , 30 , 50 , 70k services were all just over £100 - these were just basic lubrication services.

The 20 and 60k services cost about £230 and the 40k was about £260 for a full inspection service.

Sounds to me like they did an inspection service rather than a lubrication one which is what it should have been on fixed interval servicing

I paid

Welcome back to rip-off Britain! I'll bet that when it was new your Ford Contour cost a lot less than the equivalent UK Mondeo?

My daughter lives in Miami Beach. They seem to go in for oil changes every 3 or 4 thousand miles for the price of a few coffees. She just got a reasonable new tyre for just over $30, and is soon getting a new jeep for about $15000. Rip off Britain is right!

Yes, we paid $17,500 for the Mondeo with all the goodies equivalent to the UK Ghia version. $17,500 is about

Cars are dirt cheap in the US compared to Europe, ditto labour etc. Just can't compare it really unfortunately.

It's not that Britain is a rip-off compared to the rest of Europe so much any longer these days (although still true to some extent), but the fundamental attitudes of US and Europe are quite different as you've explained yourself

As for servicing, my Fabia vRS service was 200 quid at a Skoda dealer vs about half that at a VW dealer a bit further afield. There is a massive price difference between dealerships and non-brand-specific garages/tuners.

The fact that pricing for services differ from dealer to dealer means it is worthwhile shopping around.

I know I will be doing that after being mugged by Wings Of Peterborough when having my Fabia serviced.

A good compromise is a specialist garage. Clarion was apparently a Skoda main dealer a while back, and still are for Daihatsu. They became a Skoda specialist instead. Only drawback is they can't do free warranty work. Pity - I 'd use them for everything!

Thats High, I was advised by St Andrews in Glasgow that the service cost are approx 108.

P.S. Why on earth did you come and live in this stealth tax land called the UK.

Compared to the US we are being ripped right of. tax here tax there tax everything everywhere.....

We came back for aged family reasons - but have retained a toehold in USA so could return at some time in the future. We sure lived a lot better there on less money - and that includes Health Insurance!!

That reminds me of a story someone told me about a mate of his who joined a local council working in the transport deptament. After a few weeks someone pulled him aside and told him to stop working so hard as it wasn't the way things were done there. If he set a precedent they would all have to do some work.

Rip off Britain and it's twin brother lazy get Britain.

Well, there's an old saying that Britain has never learned, "Whatever you will put up with, you will get."

It's a little bit like I heard from the woman who ran the Wisconsin workfare program -"We don't pay for what we don't want more of." [she meant that every able bodied person on benefits had to work at something, even if it was only for the program itself. They nearly all found, or were found, real work within a couple of years, when their benefits would end.]

Not only do the honest people of britain pay for the lazy louts but we pay for the unemployment system full of unemployed. see what I mean its just like being taxed twice.

So why oh why do we keep electing a Labour government? Though whether Cameron and his "bleeding heart liberalism" is any better I wonder.

Who does represent me and millions like me now - anyone there??

My thoughts exactly - I would like the pleasure of sending Blair and his ghastly mob packing and would hope against hope that Cameron is just putting on an act in order to get elected, and then turns tough. "In my dreams," as they say!

All politicians are in it for themself, we are just the stepping stones.

Agreed - but it would be nice if they would step on some of the low-lifes for a change instead of keep thumping us easy targets.

Agreed - but it would be nice if they would step on some of the low-lifes for a change instead of keep thumping us easy targets.

Interesting piece in my local paper yesterday about how police road checks to try to catch uninsured drivers (lets be honest here, it's getting worse and worse) and of course, many of those caught were of Eastern European nationalities.

Now, nothing wrong with EE, but when they come over here, buy and sell old bangers and can't even put the correct rubbish in the right bins, are we surprised?

No, of course not, but I wonder how long it will be before some do gooder uses the word RACISM or RACIST.

Can see it coming a mile off.

Racism, Racist. I think the only human race that can be slagged, swore at, abused and ripped off are us whities. The world has certainly become a strange place these days. As for the government, at least when Thatcher was in power taxes were down. most other things were crap. not much change today then except high taxes...... I need to win the lottery.

Funny isn't it. Now that the walls are crumbling, and tonight, on TV, King Rat has just handed in his escape plan, some people are just beginning to mumble they might have got it wrong after all, and just maybe the honest hard workers ought to get more recognition. Give every paid-up pensioner a vRS I say!!

Too little too late. Basic problem is that most politicians have never worked in "real life" for any length of time, including Cameron.

Labour won't accept that tax income is increased by reducing taxes on hard working people so releasing people's energy to grow the economy; basically because they don't really think that individuals are capable of making their own decisions and thus have to be "directed" down politicians chosen "right" path.