4K service for £200?

I'd trust our three grease monkeys... *ahem* service engineers even though I've only worked here three weeks. Mainly coz I've seen how much care they take over the bikes.

But Northampton's a bit far.

It's an experience thing I guess. I thought I'd found the perfect little garage to service my MG when I was living near Reading. Three little grease stained old men who had been in the trade with MG's since the year dot. Ask em anything, they knew it... specialist MG garage that even sponsored it's own MGC in classic track races, and advertised in the MG Owner's Club Magazine.

Moved up to Bedfordshire and found a Motor Heritage garage nearby... took one look at my brake disks and said "these haven't been changed for years"... 6 months after I've paid the first garage to do the job as well as a service!

Learnt to do a bit more on the car myself from then on!

Originally Posted by bikageboy

yeah, dont get me wrong, there are some good dealers around.

i just had a certain string of bad service from a few dealers - and dont really trust many of them

found kensingtons in romford to be good - but they only deal in honda stuff. very pricey tho.

for gear and stuff. i goto top gear in rush green. (just a few shops from johns of romford)

cant praise the guy enough (the scottish one) gives sound advice...and doesnt even try to sell you the most expensive things - plenty of stuff on sale there,

sold me a helmet and a cargo net. . . threw the tinted visor and helmet bag in for free (worth 45 quid) well worth a trip down there ian.

knocked 50 quid off the price of a set of leathers and boots too for my friend.

let me know if your going down there sometime, will go have a look, dunno where it is

its about 10 mins from my house.

so if your ever in romford give me a bell.

ill post a map over the weekend.

I suppose alot of it comes down to who actually works in the dealership. Being in the trade for a while you get to see alot of what goes on behind the scenes.

Like us for example Steve who owns the shop actually is the "grease monkey"!!. So he probaly takes alot more care over what he is doing as it is down to him to make sure his business keeps its good rep. But more and more shops are now run by managers that never see the shop floor and only see the figures...you know what that ends up like without naming any names..

One big suzuki dealer in the south is now managed by ex car people that have never ridden a bike...yes they can manage..but how much are they doing to understand how bikers actually feel about their bikes...cars are very different..

Thanks for that!!!!! I took the bike anyways and it was an unreasonable quote. They charged me £118, which I'm happy with. They also supplied and fitted a scotoiler for £100 pounds which seems fair. Polite efficient they were. On a technical note, they bike felt a LOT better going through the gears as they had adjusted the clutch. The biting point was much further away from the bars so spose that meant more clearance betwenn plates when clutch was pulled. No dragging hence easy shift and neutral is now easy to find, which was a problem before.
So.....£200 was unreasonable, probably just covering his back!
BYEEEE

Can anyone tell me where is a good place to have my service done in South-west London / Surrey?

I phoned Wheelpower(where I actually bought the bike, and then got my friend to buy his) and they quoted me £200

Very rich for an oil change.
When I had my first service done by them, they charged me £120 and the bike looked untouched, They didn't even bother spraying something on the bikle to get ris of all the grease etc. that the chain had sprayed all over the show!

thanks

Originally Posted by Alaniski

When I had my first service done by them, they charged me £120 and the bike looked untouched

... and probably was

I got charged £90 for the pleasure of my first service - won't be using that dealer again

if you bought the bike from them then the labour should be free you just pay for parts which is oil and filter.

Chelsea Scooters are a registered Suzuki Dealer and said they would do the service for £90 plus VAT and parts

Figure oil is about £12, and VAT on top would take that to about £120ish . . .
OK, so ne free bike for the day, but I couldn't care less for £80 difference?

I just been quoted £220 by local garage , Daytona. - Kinda hard to stay loyal to the garage you buy your bike from when 10 miles away in Fulham they will do it for 90 +VAT
I was told that the air in london is dirty so I may need a new airfilter which will cost 30ish pounds!