Hi guys, my girlfriends car has just failed its MOT and the guy said its going to cost £490 to have fixed. I'm wondering if anybody could tell me if this is a ok price? to me it sounds EXTORTIONATE for the work quoted.

POLO 1.4 9N3 Model TDI 2002

2 new tyres (cheapest they sell)

1 x NEW offside front shock obsorber

Nearside FRONT and REAR Suspension suspension arm bush deteriorated ( is this the wishbones bushes?)

Offside FRONT and REAR Suspension suspension arm bush deteriorated ( is this the wishbones bushes?)

is this really a £500 job? to me it doesn't sound a lot the M.O.T Failure states the below

Work includes parts and labor can anybody mechanically minded please give us some advice :) big thanks in advance. I can also state the exact M.O.T failure reasons if that might make it easier.

Edited 5 October, 201312 yr by RyanCope

Hmmm, well I work at a German vehicle specialist in Doncaster and I recon for the bushes and shocker it would be about £70.00+vat for parts and £100+vat for labour. We don't do tyres but at a guess I would think £45 each. Their price seems a little steep, did you get a written quote?

Edited 5 October, 201312 yr by coz_g40

Oh and yes the bushes are on the rear of the wishbone but are larger than normal and sit in their own aluminium housing.

Hi mate thanks for the reply, he just said over the phone before she went to pick up the failure MOT certificate. He said to me, replacement front suspension ( I read on the MOT its only offside) and about the wishbone bushes that looks like its all round. As for the tyres i know i can get 2 of those at about £30 each ( cheepies) so what would you say is a fair price in total would be? I'm gonna ring us some garages monday and they will be cheaper I'm guessing. We have 10 days to get the car back to a re-test, is this common? i could image taking the car back and hes made up some other things becuase we didn't let them carry the work out.

Edited 5 October, 201312 yr by RyanCope

Well if its just 1 O/S/F wishbone bush, 1 O/S/F shocker, 2 tyres plus MOT it would be £175.00 all In.

you need to find out exactly what it failed on and exactly what you have been quoted for.

its a set of wishbone bushes all around mate :) so 2 for front and 2 for back and then a front os shock and just for that he was quoting £490 the M.O.T was an additional £40. so around £230 maximum?

Well I have NEVER had to replace the front wishbone bushes on a polo. They just never seem to wear. Has it failed on all 4 bushes?

Hi mate, yes according to the M.O.T certificate it has 4 failures on. 2 for the front wishbone bushes on either side and then 2 on the back as well either side! does this sound a little dodgy ?

Back of the car or back of the front wishbones?

Edited 5 October, 201312 yr by coz_g40

I'm not very mechanicly minded but even to me that seems a stupid amount to charge, don't get me wrong I don't know how big of a job any of it is but I've only ever heard of people paying those prices when they've had welding done. Which imo would be a bigger job??

just to confirm its the front 2 wishbones eitherside replacing on the suspension arm. and also the back 2 rear wishbones on the suspension arm.

The mot says its

Nearside front suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated

Nearside rear suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated

offside front suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated

offside rear suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated

and then 2 replacement tyres, does this help?

Not really because there are no rear suspension arms as stated. It has front arm rear bushes or rear axle mounting bushes.

I would say going by that its the 2 inner bushes on each wishbone they are going on about.

I do everything myself but, I'm sure I could polybush the whole front end, do the shock and the two tyres for under £200.

That would be my just buying the stuff and fitting it myself, and getting standard bushes would be even less.

So they must want £300+ for labour depending on their parts price mark-up.

I'd get a written quote with a parts/labour price breakdown to get a better idea.

Seems a bit expensive to me, especially as they will be taking the suspension out to fit new struts, taking the wishbones out and fitting bushes isn't much more work. Shop around someone will offer you less. Also buy the seat Ibiza fr bushes from darkside developments website instead of the standard vw bushes as they are prone to breaking (hence your problem now) the Ibiza fr ones are a couple of quid more expensive but will last a hell of a lot longer