My Distrust of Car Garages is Re-Enforced
The front brakes of my car (Alfa Romeo 156) are making that metal to metal grinding noise so I went and got it checked out. I took it to the National car garage this morning and they quoted me £370 for new brake front pads and discs. That seemed an awful lot, so I used my phone to log onto the Internet and check out the prices for the parts myself. The first website I went to had the pads and discs for a total of £90 including delivery!
So I queried the price with the guy at reception of National. At this point he said that there were actually 2 sets of parts – one at £370 and another at just £80 (including fitting – which seemed far too cheap to me). He explained that the 2 parts are different sizes and he couldn’t tell me which was needed until they were delivered – sounds like rubbish to me.
Then I told them that I wasn’t interested, so they rolled my car off of the lift I walked towards it, ready to drive away. As I was walking away, the guy at reception followed me and told me 2-3 times that he could probably do it for me at £80. I just got into my car and walked off…
Then I went to another back-street garage and they quoted me £175 for Lucas branded parts – result! That was at around 10:30 so I booked the job to be done at 12:30 – which is in 20 mins, so I’ll go there now! 
I’m so glad I checked the prices myself on the Internet, walked away from National and got a far better quote from another garage. I won’t be using National again!
…update
I took it to New City Motors who did a good job – and for £200 less than National quoted!
Paul's car on a ramp