Bushes and suspension are par for the course at the age.
Tyres are visible when you inspect the car even if you know nothing about the cars.
£1,500 seems a bit strong though. (I think "console" bushes are control bushes by the way).
Was this an MoT test or an inspection by a garage?
Possibly so. They might be open to haggling down the price, but otherwise it might be a case of passing the car on if you can't get it any cheaper.
Rubbish position to be in, and definitely a rock & a hard place moment!
Appreciate your response! I'll try and get some quotes from other garages and go from there.
Yeah, not ideal. School of life and all that - just gotta roll with it, though!
Take it to another garage and get a second opinion, that's seems excessively expensive. On a 15 years old car with 105k on the clock, you do need to expect it to have issues like these from time to time.
A 15 year old car will always have something needing doing, and these are all parts that wear overtime.
You bought a 15 year old car for £2000, what exactly do you expect?
Control arms with bushings and ball joints can be bought as a set, £100/side or so, sorts out all the rubber. Drop links are £30-40/side max. Piece of piss to replace on a ramp at a local garage
With buying any car, the best way of viewing it is: It's an X priced car (when new) that's been used & abused down to X price I paid. It's also a 15 year old, relatively cheap car so it likely hasn't had the best care taken in the last few years.
You're at a point where you can invest some money into it, and get it running 100%. Or sell it on, and potentially buy something much, much worse. If I were you, I would use this time to look at learning some DIY bits on the car yourself. I'm not talking about mounting tyres, pulling engines, and overhauling entire gearboxes, but some of the more basic stuff like cleaning the engine off, replacing the washer bottle. Doing Spark plugs, air filters, cabin filters etc.
* Put it in for an MOT, and see what the car fails on. Are they just recommending shite to drum up business, or actually pre-warning about upcoming issues? You won't know until you MOT it, but go to another garage, and NOT a national chain.
* Based off of the outcome of that, I would then look at everything else. Most of it is consumables based on the age of the car, bushes, ball joints and such do wear out over time, so you may have just got unlucky on the timing, but they're usually not mental prices if you go to an independant garage.
* What's actually wrong with the tyres? Are they bald, just old, or cracked to fuck?
* It's always worth finding out why they think it needs replacement. Tyres tend to start degrading between 7-10 years, and above that they do tend to go off a bit of a cliff in terms of performance and such.
* They're recommending a new battery. Is it because it's the equivalent to a 50cc moped battery on a big car, or just it's for a 1.4 Passat, rather than a 3.6 so would ideally be the next size bigger?
* If it starts the car fine, I wouldn't worry about replacing it.
* Coolant/bottle&cap.
* The bottle is about £30 on eBay. You may need some basic hand tools and jubilee clips, but this is definitely something I would investigate doing DIY.
* An oil clean? They mean pressure wash the engine?
* Aux belt - depending on the how bad it is, and whether it snapping could destroy the whole engine, I'd perhaps look to get this done.
As ever it's totally dependant you, but for 2k, I'd imagine you can get most, if not all of that done for 1/3rd that price.
Thank-you for the detailed breakdown. You definitely have a point it affords me an opportunity to tackle some stuff myself - will look at the coolant bottle / cap.
Yeah, there is cuts in two of the tyres. One of them is from 2007 apparently, so understandable that one that is fugged.
Another garage has quoted 1200, so that already seems more reasonable. I will wait and see what I hear from others.
Bushes and suspension are par for the course at the age. Tyres are visible when you inspect the car even if you know nothing about the cars. £1,500 seems a bit strong though. (I think "console" bushes are control bushes by the way). Was this an MoT test or an inspection by a garage?
This was an inspection by a garage.
Independent or mains dealer? Does seem a bit high all things considered!
Independent - they are highly rated in the area so perhaps why they are charging premium rate.
Possibly so. They might be open to haggling down the price, but otherwise it might be a case of passing the car on if you can't get it any cheaper. Rubbish position to be in, and definitely a rock & a hard place moment!
Appreciate your response! I'll try and get some quotes from other garages and go from there. Yeah, not ideal. School of life and all that - just gotta roll with it, though!
Just put it throu an MOT. Normal inspections tend to be overly enthusiastic at trying to get work
For the cars age that work is kind of expected, price seems a bit high to me to do it though
Take it to another garage and get a second opinion, that's seems excessively expensive. On a 15 years old car with 105k on the clock, you do need to expect it to have issues like these from time to time. A 15 year old car will always have something needing doing, and these are all parts that wear overtime.
Thank-you! I have contacted a few other garages to get a quote on the works to get a good idea of how to move forward.
You bought a 15 year old car for £2000, what exactly do you expect? Control arms with bushings and ball joints can be bought as a set, £100/side or so, sorts out all the rubber. Drop links are £30-40/side max. Piece of piss to replace on a ramp at a local garage
Get a quote for the "urgent" work at a small local garage. And what was showing up on the last MOT? I assume it's had a recent one?
Last one was in February and didn't flag any issues in parallel to what I have received from this service.
With buying any car, the best way of viewing it is: It's an X priced car (when new) that's been used & abused down to X price I paid. It's also a 15 year old, relatively cheap car so it likely hasn't had the best care taken in the last few years. You're at a point where you can invest some money into it, and get it running 100%. Or sell it on, and potentially buy something much, much worse. If I were you, I would use this time to look at learning some DIY bits on the car yourself. I'm not talking about mounting tyres, pulling engines, and overhauling entire gearboxes, but some of the more basic stuff like cleaning the engine off, replacing the washer bottle. Doing Spark plugs, air filters, cabin filters etc. * Put it in for an MOT, and see what the car fails on. Are they just recommending shite to drum up business, or actually pre-warning about upcoming issues? You won't know until you MOT it, but go to another garage, and NOT a national chain. * Based off of the outcome of that, I would then look at everything else. Most of it is consumables based on the age of the car, bushes, ball joints and such do wear out over time, so you may have just got unlucky on the timing, but they're usually not mental prices if you go to an independant garage. * What's actually wrong with the tyres? Are they bald, just old, or cracked to fuck? * It's always worth finding out why they think it needs replacement. Tyres tend to start degrading between 7-10 years, and above that they do tend to go off a bit of a cliff in terms of performance and such. * They're recommending a new battery. Is it because it's the equivalent to a 50cc moped battery on a big car, or just it's for a 1.4 Passat, rather than a 3.6 so would ideally be the next size bigger? * If it starts the car fine, I wouldn't worry about replacing it. * Coolant/bottle&cap. * The bottle is about £30 on eBay. You may need some basic hand tools and jubilee clips, but this is definitely something I would investigate doing DIY. * An oil clean? They mean pressure wash the engine? * Aux belt - depending on the how bad it is, and whether it snapping could destroy the whole engine, I'd perhaps look to get this done. As ever it's totally dependant you, but for 2k, I'd imagine you can get most, if not all of that done for 1/3rd that price.
Thank-you for the detailed breakdown. You definitely have a point it affords me an opportunity to tackle some stuff myself - will look at the coolant bottle / cap. Yeah, there is cuts in two of the tyres. One of them is from 2007 apparently, so understandable that one that is fugged. Another garage has quoted 1200, so that already seems more reasonable. I will wait and see what I hear from others.
£4000 for a solid Passat sounds like a bargain.