to be a little upset that the MOT/service and gubbins has cost me more than the car is worth

[kafkanightmare]

My bill is £1,000. The car isn't worth much more than that.

Half is service and MOT (including 3 new tyres) and the other half is replacing the cam belt and the clutch cable.

I don't think I'm being ripped off or anything but that is my entire 'treat' money for the next 3 months

YANBU, i think i'd be pretty gutted too :(

I had set aside some money to buy myself some new clothes for spring and now it has to go on a sodding bit of engine I can't even see

wahhh waahhhh waaahhhhhh

It's not fair is it?

Are you sure your garage is being honest?
Clutch cable is about £50, Cam belt around £70 unless you're driving something old but flash :)

That's an awful lot of money! No wonder you're gutted.

If the car isn't worth that much is it really worth paying??

You could get another car for £1,000 that's more reliable and scrap the old one

I've had it for 5 years and has never had much money spent on it.

Whatever car I had, I would still have to pay for service, MOT, replace tyres etc.

I'm waiting until DS2 no longer needs a pushchair and then I'm buying myself a new one but, until then, I needs flogging on a little bit more!

YANBU. Sounds like our car, it's a complete heap of crap that has cost us about £500 to get through service and MOT each year plus other things have gone wrong and now half a car key is stuck in the door lock

It's now worth in the region of about 5p

In all honesty though OP, if you have had it 5 years and it's been fairly low cost, that is pretty good going IME.

I never have work done at the MOT garage they always charge a premium, you could have bougth remold tyres!

My car failed the MOT on two tyres, they quoted me £280.00 I paid £25.00 for two cash.

They wanted £140 to clear the exhaust, I purchased something from eBay cost me a fiver.

So they quoted me £380 on a car worth £500 and it cost me £33.00.

Pays to shop around.

Also never take their services, you can get a service done for around £35.00. Or do it yourself.

My tyres were brand new too.

:O fabbychic i've just shelled out £140 for a service, £40 for MOT - £85 new exhaust.

Have never found anywhere that does a full services, inc breaks n stuff for under £100 quid!! Where the hell do you go that makes it so cheap? Or do you just have the basic oil change n stuffs?

Car cost me sodding £400 last year to get though it's pissing MOT + 4 new tyers in September @ £40 each!

No idea how much the car is worth, but it's old, and looks like it should be driven by a chav :(

Cam belts are quite labour intensive to replace though - the belt might cost £70 but it's the x hours labour installing it that adds up fast.

YANBU - but then again cars are expensive!

YANBU. £1000!? Ouch.

I've just had to fork out £450 for a sol valve(?) on my car.
And £80 for a new battery.
Then I got it back from the garage and dented it on some bins.

I've had it 2 months!

Ruddy cars... and ruddy bountymunchers who drive into bins

Oh yeah cam belts take a while to do. Mine cost £92 for the part but then £150 for the labour. Worth it though as the car was free.

But we never ever pay for a service. I have the Haynes manual and I get DP to do it we do it ourselves. £50 odd for the bottles of various fluids/lubricants, and a couple of hours rolling round in the muddy wasteland we call a carpark - whats not to like

I also never get work done at the MOT place and where possible you should do what wotsisface at moneysavingexpert says and take it to an MOT place that doesn't do repairs. No vested interest in failing you that way.

Fact is though old cars are a money pit.

Mine costs me a stupid amount in repairs and maintenance but I know where it came from (used to belong to my parents) and so I keep it limping on rather than spend money on something of unknown provenance and equal age that could turn out to be far worse. Better the devil you know and all that, though having said that if it fails this MOT badly I may give up on it.

Quite Queen. I've had mine for ages and has been very reliable so far, for an old nag.

DH has spent as much on his car and he's only had it 3 months!

Wait, you can do services YOURSELF?!? Wha?

I had no idea that was possible, scrambles to nearest broswer to frantically look up how.

ARGH! Am very excited at the prospect of this now.

DH insisted on forking out for the Haynes manual when we bought our car. Never been frigging opened since.

You can get mot's and servives for 70 quid. brakes are a seperate cost.

Ah brakes are included in the service i get :D

Mot it's self is only £35 quid.

I'm in the business,right, what did you book it in for, did you get estimate,did they contact you before you had work carried out?

Full service around £120- 150

Mot £45-55

Cam belt unknown depending on car

clutch cable £20-30

It's off the top of my head, but if you give a make model and year of car, I could be more accurate.

Any good garage would have told you that the car wasn't worth repairing,but would have done it if you had insisted.

Google Good Garage Scheme or Unipart Car Car Centres, you can't go wrong.

Brakes are not part of a full service, they just get a visual check to see if they are safe or need replacing.

It's a 2001 Peugeot 306.

It's had full service, MOT, 3 new tyres.
The back brakes and handbrake were buggered so they've been fixed (not sure whether it was new discs or something else).

He's replacing the cam belt and the water pump at the same time.

To be fair to him, he did tell me it was more than the car was worth but, to be honest, he'd already done the work on the MOT and service.

He was basically saying that I could leave the cam belt and then just scrap the car when it finally gave in, but I can afford a new car at the moment less than I can afford the £1,000 and I'm fond of the old mare now .

I will be going through the bill with a fine toothcomb when I pick it up however!

Oh, and he did contact me to tell me what needed doing before he did it.

I think he's an honest sort. A friend's DH works there and says that he's fine - which is why I went.

I don't think I'm being horribly ripped off, more disgruntled that it's not going on a new coat, bag, shoes, jumpers, jeans (sigh)

I feel your pain. Our Toyota Corolla Verso which we bought 2 years ago, a 54 reg, has developed a starting problem. Our usual garage had it in and typically it behaved but they did hear some noise on the starter motor. New one of those would be fine but they think the starter motor is failing due to something called a dual mass flywheel which would need replacing along with starter motor and clutch at £1630 non Toyota parts or £1870 Toyota parts. I nearly passed out and really hope they have got it wrong, it's going for a second opinion on Thursday.