thegarageblog.co.uk : Same job twice? Get it right first time and save the expense.

For the last two weeks, you could be forgiven for thinking that the only thing of interest to happen is that the honest and hardworking Members of Parliament have been exposed for taking us taxpayers for a ride. Whilst I’ve nothing against a man having a moat around his property, I do object to £9000 of taxpayer’s money being used to dredge it. I also know for sure that if I ever manage to pay off my entire mortgage, I’ll be dancing with joy, yet certain MP’s barely notice and continue to claim for the payments for another year. Most of all, I find it astonishing that they all have second homes anyway, when the majority of people in this country can barely afford the one they’ve got, if they have one at all! So, with outraged members of the public, the length and breadth of Britain demanding their heads on a stick, the MP’s had better keep a low profile for a while.

Even our local MP, shadow education secretary Michael Gove, has not been immune from the scandal that’s engulfed Westminster. I just hope that he used our tax money well in purchasing a pair of Elephant lamps for £134.50 and a Chinon armchair for £331.00 to furnish his London flat. Why he wants or needs a second home in London I can’t understand. After all, if I wanted to get from here to the houses of parliament, I’d have to suffer the terrible ordeal of a 35 minute train journey from Farnborough to Waterloo, followed by a 7 minute bus journey to Parliament Square. Well, it would be an ordeal as I bet none of the ’great unwashed’ I’d be sharing my journey with would have a moat of their own!

We’ve proved that we can be outraged at the behaviour of MP’s and their expenses claims, yet in the real world, people often tolerate a lot more unnecessary personal expense without complaining at all. What am I on about? Well, in the world of secondhand cars, imagine spending a fortune on buying one, only for it to go wrong a week or two later and you having to fork-out another £1000 to get it going again. That’s the sad reality that some customers seem to tolerate and what’s more amazing, they often just accept it without a fight.

I’ll just give a couple of examples that I’ve come across recently, although the details have been changed to protect the guilty and so as not to embarrass the innocent.

The first is of a 2000 registered Vauxhall that the owner had only recently purchased. It came to us in the usual way – on the back of an AA recovery lorry. The cause of the catastrophic breakdown was soon discovered – the camshaft belt had broken and a selection of valves had smashed into the pistons. A quick stripdown revealed a few truths about the car’s recent history. Firstly, the camshaft belt was already pretty new and secondly, there was much evidence of the cylinder head recently been off. The unfortunate thing is that one of the bolts hadn’t been tightened-up properly and has come loose. At first, it’d just gouged a big groove in the camshaft pulley but then it completed its journey and fell out completely, getting jammed in the rotating belt and pulley and causing the engine to shudder to an expensive halt! After our technician had removed the cylinder head, the true extent of the damage was clear – 10 out of 16 valves bent and mangled and a £1000 bill for the owner to get it back on the road. Despite my advice that they find out who did the recent work and jolly-well demand that they fix it for free, they didn’t seem too worried and paid-up for the work to be done. I made double sure that we tightened everything properly as we give a 12 month warranty with all work.

The second case (another Vauxhall – no coincidence) was recently bought from a ‘dealer’ in the Midlands. The owner had barely had it a week when the engine died with a loud clatter on the motorway. A similar story with this one in that the camshaft belt had also recently been replaced, yet the camshaft sprocket securing bolt must’ve been overtightened as it sheared-off leaving a freely-spinning pulley and 16 bent valves. This time, the owner did try and get some recompense from the seller, but they denied all knowledge or responsibility, then tried to say it was the fault of the driver. They then (surprise surprise) went bankrupt, so he had no hope of getting his money back, and had to pay the £1200 that it cost to rebuild the entire top end of the engine!

In both cases, it was poor workmanship by someone else that caused the expensive failure of the engine, yet it was the poor customer that had to pay for the repairs, even though it wasn’t their fault. If ever you buy a car that’s had any recent work done, always make sure that there’s a receipt available for it and that it has a guarantee. After all, modern cars are a complicated piece of machinery and demand a minimum of preventative maintenance to keep them running reliably. Having a camshaft timing belt failing due to neglicting to replace it is bad enough, but to have it break after it’s been recently replaced is far worse, particularly if the person to blame isn’t around or able to help.

The best bet is to buy the car without the work being done and knock the seller down a few quid. Then, take it to a reputable garage that’s preferably a member of a trade organisation or recognised scheme (such as a Unipart centre, Good Garage Scheme member, RMIF member or holds a BSI Kitemark) and have the job done properly. That way, if it does go wrong, you’ll be able to take it back and have someone accountable for it. And if you do end up having to pay for the cost of it yourself, let’s just hope you’re a Member of Parliament and you’ll be able to claim the costs as expenses!