Takes the car to the garage yesterday as I have a problem with the brakes. Tell me it's the master cylinder and the part is 250 euros plus 60 labour. Came home thinking its a bit expensive. Phoned my dad who checked out a couple of parts shops and guess what? 69 quid for the part brand new. What a rip off these garages are sometimes. You won't be getting a visit from me anytime soon mate. Even in racambios David tTorrevieja the part was only 110 euros.

Not happy..

I understand your feelings but are we talking Original Equipment Manufacture against Pattern parts?

Well I sure wish that were the extent of the ripoffs at garages in my neighbourhood.

A master brake cylinder is a general part. Its not a part made by volvo. The part I was quoted for was bosch.

I had the same issue with Volvo recently. I needed a new wing mirror - I know they're expensive but this was just taking the p@@s.

Here I was quoted 600 euros by Volvo main dealer in Gandia. I rang a Volvo main dealer in UK and got it for (I think it was) about 200 including posting it to me here.

Now is that just that things are more expensive in Spain or was I also being ripped off?

Difficult to know which garages, if any, you can trust these days.

Quite often the bigger concerns are the worst, as in the UK regarding the Kwik-fit scam for example, which was taking place a while back nationwide, maybe still is,who knows.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/.../kwik_fit.html

Fortunately I've had little need in recent years, sticking mainly to S.Korean built motors with five or seven year guarantees.
I have one now in semi-retirement which has pounded the European roads north to south, from Scandinavia to the Med, for the last seven years.

Never needed a single repair and never had an official service other than such basics as oil and filter changes and check overs done mostly by myself.

It was a small independent garage I used. Stopped using the volvo dealerships as soon as the car was out of warranty. At 968 euros for a service its a no brainer.

It's been a dilemma for many years now.
This new site is trying to remedy this - a social network that gives feedback and opinion on garages/workshops throughout Spain. You'll have to know the technical words in Spanish though.
http://www.buenostalleres.com/

Can you trust forum feedback though

I took my car into a garage last year. Ford garage, but he did Suzukis. When I picked it up, it wouldnt start. Got it home, took it back the following day. New Alternator needed, or was it starter motor ... cant remember now ... blocked it out

Told him to go ahead and replace (mistake)

He went to Suzuki direct and bought one. Cost over €700.

Seen you coming methinks.
Wonder if they could have temporarily doctored the old one then kept it after fitting the new one.
It does happen, a great way of maximising profits.

They do seem rather expensive here, Well I think so, I recently paid €220 for window winder motor plus labour and €50 for a fuel filter on a different car a while back.

Difficult to explain, but they are a good garage, servicing many local owners cars. The mistage was mine, letting them order from Suzuki who charge ridiculous money. I could have got one for very little on ebay!

We get our parts delivered from UK and our friendly local garage fits them, he is more than happy to do so and is amazed at the UK price, he said ll spares in Spain are very high price, find a local friendly good mechnaic and see if they will let you do the same.

Most people don't understand the difference between pattern and genuine /original parts and this includes Spanish mechanics, pattern are usually much cheaper but generally inferior and have a much shorter life span , OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) is always best to go for ,these parts as the name says are made by the same factory who make them for your car manufacturer , they dont come in a genuine parts box but often cost a fraction of the main agent price but are identical in every way including build quality.
Buy parts off ebay at your peril - "none branded" parts are 99% of the time Chinese **ap and wont last , one very important area not to skimp on is filters , there are many Chinese manufacturers who churn out very low quality filters which can really shorten your engines life span.
The consequences of buying cheap brake,steering and suspension components goes without saying