So your car needs a tweak, or a full service - where do you go ? Rush to the nearest Norauto or Midas (similar to say Qwikfit in the UK), or drive down a very narrow alleyway to some shack someone recommended where a moustachioed oily mechanic will take care of thing ? I have actually used both types of garages. If you just want a puncture in a tyre repaired, Norautos and Midas invariably try to sell you a package deal (tyres-brakes-fliuds) etc - and you end up parting with uneccessary cash. If you visit a smaller local garage, they´ll take your car keys, mobile phone number - and who knows how long before you get your car back. Could be days. But they are cheaper. Just!

Anyone have any nasty and/or pleasant experiences in both types of establishments ? Come on - there´s bound to be loads of interesting stories out there....

Only two experiences to relate and both turned out to be good ones
Arrived in Portugal three years ago with UK plated Peugeot 806 and the roads here soon knackered the wishbones.
The locals where I was staying recommended a bloke in the next village, so off i went with no Portuguese to find the guy, first impressions not good, tin shed by the side of his house with the rusting hulk of a thames trader in the garden!
After a lot of arm waving and pointing and making grinding noises I managed to explain the problem and he nodded that he could fix it.
He slid back the garage (tin shed)door and inside was an aladdins cave of old car bits and a rag top Rover of uncertain vintage which he had to push out of the way to reveal a flooded pit!
He asked me to leave it with him, so i phoned a friend to pick me up and told him that i was staying at the campsite in the next village.
Nine o`clock the same night while I was having a stiff drink at the bar to calm my nerves he came into the bar said he was sorry but he had to replace both wishbones and it would cost more than he thought here we go I thought.....go on then how much.........he slipped me a piece of paper and on it was E 140.00.........parts and labour
Now I don`t know if that`s good or bad but I was overjoyed and he showed me the old wishbones to prove how bad they were.
I paid up with a smile and bought him a drink and told him he is now my official mechanic.
The only other experence is when I thought i needed two new tyres on the front of my Portuguese car but was told on arrival at the local tyre shop that they were fine, just come back near the next IPO and we will change them then if needed..........How cool is that?........In the UK they would have changed the tyres needed or not then told you your brake disks need replacing!

Last year my VW Sharan's rear brake cylinder seized causing a severe grinding noise while driving. I called into a nearby garage and while I waited they sorted the problem, replaced the rear brake pads on both wheels, charged me 58 euros and sent me away inside an hour very impressed with the courtesy and professional attitude of the staff.
Another garage in the same area does a full service on the same car each year, including new filters and oil, my bill this year was 140 euros.
Back home in Belfast I pay around £180/ £200 for a service on my BMW 3 series.
For the most part I have found the portuguese very helpful and honest in any dealings I have had with them. It could be I've just been lucky so far, but I think its more to do with a sense of decency thats getting harder to find back in the UK.
Deecee

wow - those are pretty impressive deals guys.

Unfortunately my own experience (in Lisbon) has not been good. So bad in fact that I am embarrassed to give numbers at the risk of looking like an i***t! When I first came to Portugal I bought a 10-year old Peugeot 306 - which had not been well maintained by the previous owner(s). So it proved costly on several occasions (all four tyres, new exhaust, electric window motor, windscreen wiper motor to name but a few of its ailments in the 3 years I owned it). I sold it on thankfully and now have a 2009 VW Golf. I took it in to a garage in May for its 24000 km service - and once again ended up forking out a small fortune. Where am I going wrong ??

Always ask for advice in your local bar.
i have 3 experiences of different garages.#first 1 i went to main dealer, but for another make - total rip-off tried to persuade me that just the oil for an oil change was over 300 euros - if i didn't love Portugal i'd have punched his head in.
Local bar - recommendation in a local(ish) garage Alvalade / alentejo - superb, fixed every problem, 2nd visit treated me like an old friend, gave coffee and discount.
Other garage with a problem in the algarve First stop Lagoa, again superb, friendly , good price.
Avoid main dealers unless someone recommends and you'll do fine.
Also don't be afraid to buy parts off the internet, some things are a crazy price here.
Eg. New exhaust for my merc 2000 euros here (local garage) - not enough space for the Main dealer price - 600 euros off the net and my local garage fitted for 20 euros.
Best of luck

I do all my own repairs; I was a car mechanic for a short time in my youth, and I have the gear I need at home here.
But recently I had an engine problem that stumped me; well, I haven't been working as a mechanic since 1979, and I'm not up on the latest developments.
The local shops are very weak on diagnostics I found out. Even the dealer didn't have a clue; he said leave it for a week and they'll muck around with it until they figure it out.
Well, I can do that myself; I thought they'd plug in the computer and have the answer on a printout.
The same experience with an airbag problem. No one can tel me what's wrong, the dealer will change parts until it works, no one else I found will touch it.
I did sort the engine.

Not A Volkswagen is it? (I have bad expierences with VW and there so called "Diognostics computer") Smaller garages 1st impressed me with the bill but on using 2 different garages they admitted to not having changed the oil filter! "Change the oil but not the filter" seems to be common here, which to me is like taking a shower and putting on the same underwear afterwards! (especially a
s one car was Long life oil at 100 euros for 5 litres! I was pissed off they never changed the 8 euro filter!

I used to do most of my own service work when I was younger but now they are too complex... even a special tool needed to change brake pads on most cars now... no more screw driver to push the piston back

Bingo! My VW needed a complete oil change (as recommended in the 24K km service) and it was around 100 Euro for 5L - clearly itemised on the bill. In addition, they changed the oil filter and pollen filter too. This, together with the other standard service checks all added up. The car won't need another major service for another 24K km - so I hope I don't need to use a garage until then. That should take couple of years :-)

Our vw had a service recently at the vw garage where we bought it and we were very impressed that they spotted a nail in one of the tyres. Waited an eternity at Roady where the guy just had to keep answering the phone rather than deal with the queue building up so finally decided to drive the 7km to our friendly tyre man who for once didn't have a queue. He took the wheel off, found the nail and got it out and found that it hadn't made a hole as it had gone in at an angle. Tyre back on, no charge.

Hi Guy's,
Have read about all your experiences you have just vindicated my decision to buy an old Renault 4, you do not need a laptop to work on it just a screw driver and a big hammer. Unfortunately my wife does not share the same enthusiasm but my 3 labs just love it. Not only that but the parts are dirt cheap, they really are one of the cheapest cars to run and only 11 euro a year road tax. Parking is never a problem you just do what the Portuguese do and abandon it anywhere.
Why do us ex-pats have such a fixation with the cars we drive.

lol I would say the Portuguese are far worse than us, amazing the amount of high end cars that on the roads here considering the wages... and us Brits would never take on a 7 year finance just to drive a good car!

p.s Regading your choice to drive a Renault 4, fair do's but I just would not transport my 2 & 5 year old in one for safety reasons

I have a 12 year old Mitsubishi turbo-diesel sedan. It has a highly strung little Renault motor.
Mitsubishi Portugal went bankrupt a couple of years ago, the garages all closed and the personnel scattered. Service and sales have now been taken up by other companies, but of course they don't have specific model experience, which is the only thing a dealer is useful for.

In the end, the computers did nothing for me. I worked out the problem using the old wet-ware

Regarding oil changes; there was a time when the filter was only changed every second oil change. Personally, I change my oil and filter every 10,000km. I buy oil [preferably when it’s on offer] from Modelo at €20-25 for 5 liters, and the filter from Sandia stand auto parts. I blow out the air filer with compressed air and only replace it when it starts to get ragged.
I don’t like doing oil changes, but I don’t trust anyone to do it right. Because all the fluid levels should be checked, the doors, bonnet, and boot hinges should be greased, and if a diesel, the fuel filter should be changed too [every other time at least]. Not many cars have grease fittings anymore, but if there are any they should have grease pumped in
I use the cheapest oil that’s within spec; all that synthetic stuff is a waste of money in my opinion. In my 30 years mucking with motors of all kinds, I’ve never seen oil “break down”, but it does get contaminated with byproducts of combustion, especially in older engines. If a garage says they’re using synthetic oil, I flatly don’t believe them unless they open a sealed container and pour it into the motor while I watch! They all know it’s nonsense.

When I bought my car here, it had 180,000km on it. I took it home and checked the brakes; the front disks were as thin as paper, and one was cracked through. The only disks I’ve ever seen this bad were hung on the wall of a machine shop for mechanics to gawk at incredulously. I mean, this was seriously dangerous.
A friend of mine bought a ford van, and the disks were nearly as bad.
So I think it may be endemic; they just change the pads, knowing customers don’t ever want to pay for new disks. That would be illegal where I worked [with good reason!]. These vehicles both passed inspection no problem, the brake test machine won’t detect this.
So ask your mechanic specifically whether your disks / drums are within tolerances.

And ask if they checked your coolant, brake fluid, power steering oil, battery water, tire pressures.
This isn’t just a Portuguese thing, I’ve seen it other places too, especially in those “supermarket” garages.

Just my opinion, but I would not risk having to cough up 800-1000€ for a new turbo(or worse) all for saving a few quid on oil!

Oil in a turbo engine has to cope with extreme heat!(Synthetic for me for sure!) Having said that... no substitute for frequent oil changes!

100% with you
I only use a guy just down the road & he is as straight as a dye.
My present car is a 1986 Rover 231 & I bought it off of him ,it cost me less than I spend in a month on food ,8 €s road Tax ;Insurance 47.80 inc "reboque" if it breaks down + No Body would ever "nick it" & I would never get car jacked

My SO does most of job which requires a hammer, WD40, pint of beer and a bit of "oopsidaisigolligoshh.." as far as servicing, changing shock absorbers, radiator etc. (this country will teach you all!). But for anything more serious we've got 2 garages in mind. First one is excellente but he's incredibly busy with farm machinery, the other one after couple of false starts turned out to be the best.
the last encounter had been about a week ago when I suddenly lost the clutch (thanks gods, it happened basically 200m down the road from my driveway as SO is away). first called the garage, he explained that better to use reboque from insurance company (we thought that they would take you to official garage only - no idea where it came from!); I arranged that, car was taken even without me going to the garage; chap caaled me back saying whats wrong, how much and what parts. I made it sound as damsel in distress - car was ready by 1 o'clock following day with parts arriving from Lisbon.