Honda Garage - Is This Reasonable ?

[aceades]

I have a classic Honda vehicle (a mint 91 Mk2 CRX withonly 32k on the clock) which i just overdue its 30k service. I beleive i should also get a cambelt change as the car is 15 years old but upon contacting my local Honda garage(stratford-on-avon) they give me a quote for around £450 which i though was rediculous however i am abit stuck as the car has previously been meticulously maintained at official Honda garages.

Is this a reasonable cost, is there any way i can resolve my situation maintaning the cars perfect history but not costing me such an amount ?

i raelly cant afford to pay that or afford to screw up the history on this asset of mine, any advice ?

Cheers

[chiefengineer]

I'm no great expert but you'll probably find all the Honda Dealers will charge about the same.

The Cam belt is a pretty labour-intensive job, hence the cost. Franchised Dealers tend to charge more per hour for their time as well.

Jeremy

[Jimbo44]

Originally Posted by aceades

I have a classic Honda vehicle (a mint 91 Mk2 CRX withonly 32k on the clock) which i just overdue its 30k service. I beleive i should also get a cambelt change as the car is 15 years old but upon contacting my local Honda garage(stratford-on-avon) they give me a quote for around £450 which i though was rediculous however i am abit stuck as the car has previously been meticulously maintained at official Honda garages.

Is this a reasonable cost, is there any way i can resolve my situation maintaning the cars perfect history but not costing me such an amount ?

i raelly cant afford to pay that or afford to screw up the history on this asset of mine, any advice ?

Cheers

Hi aceades

I can understand your wish to keep your CRX's history 'straight' however, I wouldn't like to say one way or the other if the price you've been quoted is a fair one or not. One thing you don't make quite clear though is whether the £450 includes the service as well, (plus VAT too), or is it just for changing the cam belt?

As far as the belt's concerned though, there's a way to check. Ring Honda's Customer Service people (I guess they're in Swindon) and ask what their workshop manuals say is the allowed time for the job (also ask if that time includes changing any tensioners too). Also ask them the retail price of the timing belt and any other parts needed.

If the total of parts and labour (at say, £50 per hour - or whatever your Honda garage charge per hour if you know) add up, with or without VAT, then you have your answer.

There is another way to possibly keep the cost down and preserve your Service History too. Find a local garage who'll do the job if you supply the parts. Go to the Honda garage and buy the parts over the Parts Dept counter (getting their bill with all the necessary names and logos on it) and you can show that, although the work wasn't done by a Honda agent, the parts were genuine Honda ones.

Hope this helps a bit.

[xavier]

I'd find out exactly what they are replacing for that amount as many of the honda engines actually have 2 belts, one driving the cam/s and one for a pair of balance shafts. Also find out if it includes such other bits as tensioner and idler pullies. I don't know how long the job is booked at but t is steep but it is a main dealer. Another thought is that it's cheaper than going to them for an engine if it should fail.

[TFD]

£50 an hour? I struggle to find a dealer that will give much change from £100 an hour.... Robbing muppets.

Depending on how long you're likely to keep your CRX for, it may or may not be worth to keep the Honda history. It seems a crying shame for a car that's done 2k miles a year and got a full Honda history to lose it. £450 for a cambelt change service seems about right...

[miniconverter]

I have just checked the labour time for the cam belt on 91 CRX and depending which engine is fitted as there are 5 variations on this year the time is 2.2hr (2hr 12mins) or 2.3 hr (2hr 18mins).

I would think you would pay between £70 to £100 an hour plus vat (you would round here anyway) so you could be looking at £270.25 for the labour only. This leaves £179.75 inc vat for a belt kit which seems a bit much but at Hondas prices you never know. There is only 1 tensioner on any of the engines fitted to this car for this year.

Do you really want to spend this amount of money on the car as it certainly won't add any where near that amount to the value of the car. Why not get it done at an independent garage (but not the fast fit type which are more accustom to fitting tyres and exhausts). Have a none genuine kit fitted from a reputable manufacturer such as gates or QH as many of the gates belts are OE equipment any way. This should bring the final bill down to somewhere around the £200 mark or less.

[spookedmoose]

Don't sweat it. It appears that you may be able to have your cake and eat it.

Honda (UK) - Cars - Owner - Honda Happiness

Just register your car (no cost) on the website. This entitles you to fixed price work on certain jobs regardless of model (except NSX and S2000). This includes cambelt changes at £200. This is done at the Honda dealership. I guess it is in Honda's interest to keep as many models in the dealer system as possible.

Let me know how you get on, I've just registered my Accord Type-R on the system and intend to use it in the future.

[omicron]

I'm no master mechanic, and I'm not great on Honda's, but to be honest, that doesn't seem out of the way. The "Honda Happiness" thing seems a good deal. Otherwise, have you considerred an Independant specialist? Most of them tend to employ ex-main dealer people, so, if I personally were, hypothetically, a buyer, I wouldn't see that as a serious blot on the copybook.

[Nitronick]

Just my two cents....

It makes me grin when I here about people wanting to keep there main dealer service history up so they can sell there car for more. Thing is if you go to a main dealer and pay £80ph+vat as opposed to a local independant charging £45ph+vat you have to think Will that £35ph difference truly be reflected in the resale value of my car?

I can assure you it wont! Say you pay for 20 hours labour over the course of 3 years (£700 difference from an Independant) The resale value of your car wont be increased by £700! ! Plus,from my experience, Main Dealers do NOT do as good a job as independants. Main Dealers are assured of work from new cars and those not wise enuff to take there vehicles elsewhere. Local independants have to fight for there reputation and customers and as such take a hell of a lot more pride in there work.

Just for the record I am I hold City&Guilds and NVQ in Motor Mechanics, Was an MOT tester (8 years ago) have worked as a Technician in Peugeot, SEAT, VW and Vauxhall, I was a Master Tech at Vauxhalls. I have also run a garage and worked in an Independant garage an d currently work for a Major UK Motoring Roadside Assistance CompAAny.

Save your money and get it done by an independant garage, the money you save will be more then any you lose on the resale value of your car.