So I buckled and the car's going into Cooper Thames Ditton Thursday for its inspection 1.

I've been quoted £550 less £90 because I'm supplying my own oil, and the chap I spoke to knew precicely what he was talking about.  They need it two days so they can do the clearances cold and I have the utmost confidence in them.

The sorry collection of "specialists" I spoke to depressed me:  "I suppose it needs some spark plugs does it?", "That car definitely has hydraulic tappets", "Yes we'll use your oil instead of ours, but we'll still charge you for ours", etc.

It remains to be seen how many extra jobs are found by the main dealer, but I'm pleased to be keeping up my full main dealer history (apart from one oil inspection from a "specialist")

And the ECU man should be calling soon with my extra 35lbft :)

Andy

__Andy__ wrote: So I buckled and the car's going into Cooper Thames Ditton Thursday for its inspection 1.

Oh, that used to be my local dealer !  My last car ('95 323) went in there twice for servicing - one oil service, one Insp I.  Not too much to say about them really, I mostly look after my cars myself so there was no extra work required above what it says on their checklist.

Minor niggles were that they left a load of white marks on the inside of the driver's door (talc from the latex gloves I guess), and that whoever washed the car after the Insp I must have been a real short-a$$ because they missed a 6" strip right down the middle of the roof !

Steve.