Parts and servicing in Europe

Whilst recently on holiday on the Continent, I had cause to have the radiator replaced on my Mitsubishi Shogun SWB at a fully franchised Mitsubishi dealer in Germany. The total cost came to some £463, including a brand new radiator at £312 and labour at £38 per hour. When I returned to the UK I thought it might be interesting to compare costs with those in the UK. Imagine my surprise when the local Mitsubishi dealer quoted a total price of some £680, including £540 for the radiator and labour at £60 per hour. Is there nothing that can be done about such differences in costs and why is it that the poor bloody British always get taken for a ride over such matters, particularly in respect of vehicles imported from Japan?

That is all to do with the UK property based economy. If people want high property prices then they have to pay more to have things fixed in garages that are, of course, property. And the only real thing that kept the economy going during 13 years of Labour misrule was ever increasing property prices.

That's partly why we're finding it so difficult to recover from the collective theft of our wealth by investment bankers.

Answered by Honest John on 19 September 2010

Search Good Garages

Name

OR

Postcode

OR

Region Service

Check your car's MOT history