My Insignia has had a run of bad luck lately. Just before Christmas an oncoming motorist crossed the white line to overtake a cyclist. And sideswiped my car, and then they put their foot down, vanishing into the distance quicker than I could clock their registration number. That cost me £1,000.
A few weeks after I had that fixed, someone clipped it in a car park. Say goodbye to another £400.
And then, halfway through January, the car stopped talking to me. The Infotainment (I hate that made up word) centre died. No phone connection, no satnav, no radio, no clock, no parking assist, no anti-collision alarm, no air conditioning controls. Nothing. Not even the reassuring tick-tick-tick of the indicators.
That cost £500 just for Vauxhall to diagnose the problem. And to supply and fit the fix? £1,300.
Like I said, my Insignia has had a run of bad luck lately.
Ouch! Let’s hope your headlight doesn’t go.
But, 500 quid just to diagnose? That’s daylight robbery!
All they do is plug a laptop in, which tells them the problem. And it doesn’t always get it right.
When my power steering failed some years back, the laptop said a whole new steering rack was required, at a cost of £800.
Didn’t need one at all… turned out to be a loose connector in the fuse box.
My strategy is to get an itemised bill, pay the bottom line and then, bypassing the dealership, go directly to Vauxhall/Opel head office and give them a scary look, a WTF, and ask them to reconsider. We shall see what occurs.