Red Post Garage, Totnes

I drove my car 15 miles during the rush hour to the garage to have a new clutch cable fitted as a piece of plastic had broken on the old cable. They fitted a new cable and I paid £178 but when I went to drive it home, I could not get it into gear. The owner Ian Scrase got in the car and said the clutch had gone and that if I wanted to move it, I had to turn off the engine and put it into gear before kangarooing down the road! New clutch £600+? It broke down in Ipplepen 2 miles away and a kind guy called Dean, who's details I wish I had taken came out from the industrial estate, looked under the bonnet with me and pulled the cable out of the bulkhead and reseated it, noting that it had been pushed half into the ferrule with some force, which had cut the cable locating grommet. Fixed in 90 seconds,. Subsequently, I had the car checked by a Saab specialist who stated a cheap universal cable had been fitted which was too long. Clutch is fine. I received a reply from Paul Scrase who stated that they were unable to move the car because the clutch cable had collapsed, which is simply not true: we had driven from Brixham 15 miles away (with the dashcam verifying the distance etc and parked in front of the reception with no problem). Ian Scrase agreed to refund the cable cost, but why should I have to pay for poor fitting (£85 for 1/2 work as I was told by the receptionist) and how, given that they had not looked at the clutch, could they diagnose it had failed? The garage said they had to fit a universal cable as Saab no longer were in business. 2 miles down the road is a saab specialist parts warehouse with genuine OEM cables. The price difference was an extra £16 for the genuine item.. In my opinion this is a garage to avoid.

A reliable garage which offers good value for routine servicing as well as more complex repairs. Always happy to diagnose and talk through the options, and will not rip you off by fitting unnecessary parts etc.