A few years ago, one of the motoring rescue services were found to be upselling car batteries to supposedly vulnerable users that had broken down with a flat battery; except these broken-down vehicles were part of a sting, created by the BBC Watchdog programme.
Recently, Auto Express have revealed that they too have been investigating the trade of ‘car batteries’, but from a slightly different perspective; with no regulation and no comparison sites, having a new battery fitted to your car has become almost lawless, and unfortunately, relying on the franchised main-dealer may not be much help.
The £1,248 car battery
As part of their investigation, Auto Express contacted three franchised service departments for 20 of the most popular models in the UK, including Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Vauxhall, if you’re a Toyota driver then you needn’t worry too much, for all the other brands … shopping around is key.
The Mercedes-Benz dealerships quoted between £315 – £1,248 (no, that isn’t a typo) for a replacement battery for a C-Class – same battery, same car, same procedure. Vauxhall dealerships (while not quite as wide open as Mercedes) were similar – the lowest price for a Mokka battery replacement was £98, the most expensive being £263.
For reference, Auto Express contacted a large independent chain for prices, the Merc came in at £165, so even their lowest official price is somewhat inflated, and yet the independent chain aren’t known for being gentle with pricing either.
Open pricing
Of course, these dealers aren’t actually doing anything illegal. Immoral perhaps, but not illegal. Some may argue that if you’re wealthy enough (or lacking in the sense department) to pay over £1,200 for a replacement battery, then that’s your issue.
But what about the elderly person that knows no better and has no one to support them? Living hand-to-mouth on their pension? That’s relying on the honesty and integrity of the franchised dealer where they bought the car some years earlier? If you think that sounds unlikely, it was for exactly that reason why I left the job of Workshop Controller at a main dealer.
The problem is that it’s a free market, you’re free to choose wherever you want, and unless you know the prices of the battery, and the labour charge, £300+ might actually seem reasonable. For what it’s worth, replacing a car battery typically takes less than 15 minutes. Although of course, that doesn’t include the ‘free check’ of the rest of the vehicle, which is the dealer’s chance to upsell their products and services for a little profit(eering).
Jonathan Burn, who led the study for Auto Express states: “The problem for the motorists is that the retail price of car parts is unregulated, and therefore there is little transparency or consistency in parts pricing, even within the same dealer networks”.
The cost of replacement
Nearly every one of us will face a replacement battery at some point in our lives, and this study shows that even between main franchised dealers, it definitely pays to shop around. Remember that the garage is making profit on the sale of the battery, along with labour charges, so there is always room for manoeuvre, and you should also remember that it isn’t just batteries; many manufacturers have something along the lines of a ‘wear parts’ catalogue, which allows the dealer to significantly discount any consumable product such as a clutch or brake pads, and batteries will also be included.
It’s all very well the Mercedes spokesperson saying that “We can only recommend a retail price for these parts, which means there could be a variation across retailers”, but the simple reality is that they could do more to protect their loyal customers from being ripped-off through their official network of dealers.
As I stated last week, very few businesses set out to barely break-even, but having the audacity to charge four times the amount of other official dealers is downright … wrong, and no one from M-B seems to be doing anything about it.
Personally speaking, I’d always ask the garage to give me a breakdown of the quote – parts and labour, ask them their hourly rate, and then work out how long they’re telling you it takes. If you’re at all unsure, speak to other garages, preferably a good independent, and then compare prices – you’ll get no less a service, the battery will have the same warranty, and the worst of it could be that your loafers will need a clean after kicking around a traditional workshop.
Just for the record, all three Toyota dealerships offered the same low price, £105.
What’s your view of official main dealers? Do you trust them? Is it the independents you don’t trust? Let us know in the comments.
Driving test now have an element of car maintenance to it. Although this won’t stop female or the gents who don’t like get there hands dirty saving money! if they know a younger friend or family member it may be useful to ask for them help,
As for changing a battery as long as you can get to the lugs and have the right size spanner then it no problem. by the way I drive a basic vehicle without all the complicated gismos
If you are going to do this yourself please be certain that you are connecting the cables to the correct terminal as you could burn out your starter motor, ECU etc etc if they are connected the wrong way around. If you destroy your ECU the cost of a new battery will seem like peanuts!
Some modern cars need their electronics to be re callibrated once the power source has been interupted, such as a change of battery.
exactly, BUT not everyone has ‘a basic vehicle’ as there IS a problem, and it maybe well more than just the one.
onboard computers, ecu memory, digital clocks are all at risk when ‘just dropping’ the battery out.
buy a battery supporter.
A good independent garage will usually do any job for a fraction of the cost of a main dealer. My local vauxhall dealer charges £132 per hour, whereas my favourite independent charges £55. Have a look at Honest John or ask friends and neighbours for their recommendations.
I have used a good (Honest John) independent garage for years now. They do a good job at a fair price. They use genuine parts. They have even done the odd very simple job (changing a fuse I could not identify) for nothing! Why bother with a main dealer?
Very true. My car was due for a service and the main dealer quoted £450. My trusted local garage did the same job and an mot for £210.
You need to be careful about changing a battery yourself on newer BMW as if is not done correctly. The dealership told me you can damage control ECU, and the new battery must be programmed for the car to recognise it. This may also apply to more newer cars. I also understand if you change a headlight bulb on a Mercedes you have to program the car at the dealership this is what they charge at a very high hourly rate.
Michael, you are correct, also if you disconnect your battery with out a jump lead keeping the circuit (I use another battery with small wires an croc clip) the bmw computer thinks its being stolen an will not work even when you reconnect the battery. It doesn’t recognise that the circuit is complete. Q a recovery bill to the dealer as well. Also as you say, the car has to be told of the new battery and its amp hour or it won’t charge it properly either.
WTF! Very obviously another manufacturer scam to ensure you have to use their dealers to change the battery!
I have never paid more than £70 for a quality battery and always fitted them myself in 15 mins – any garage that charges more than £25 is ripping you off.
If there was a genuine reason to disable a car completely when the battery is changed then why not have a “change battery” mode on the dash menu which you can only operate with a valid key.
Seems like the “right to repair” law that’s on the way needs extending to stop these immoral practices.
Manufacturers would never add a change battery mode as then the dealers wouldn’t make their huge profits
Just avoid buying German cars. My UK built Honda has none of these problems.
Yep, gone are the days of the Morris 1000 where a good screwdriver and half a dozen spanners was all we needed lol
Dealer OE car parts are nothing short of highway robery. I work in a automotive supply chain selling a part to a well known car manufacture and each part we sell for about £8. If you walk into your dealership it will cost you £425.
Most large car manufacturers pay peanuts for car parts and sell them at vast profits.
when it comes to garages and associated businesses, trust does not come into my vocabulary. The one thing I do if possible is to speak to customers who have used that particular business and see what they say. There is an organisation I believe that garages can register with (the name illudes me at time of writing) where they basically promise not to screw the customer and that their workmanship is of a high standard. Worth searching for?
It’s called the good garage scheme
The only truly independent one is called ‘Trust My Garage’ and is run by The Independent Garage Association which is part of the RMI. Many of the other schemes require a subscription, or for the garage to buy certain goods from the company that organise it. All TMG members have to do is be members of The IGA and conform to the relevant standards of Customer Service, technical ability and have the correct garage facilities.
As John Walsh and Michael stated, there is usually an element of initialising values for a new battery by electronic diagnostic equipment. If the battery went really flat, there may be a plethora of diagnostic fault codes logged in various systems and a simple battery change is no longer a 10 minute job.
Yes, profiteering is rife but unfortunately that is the price to pay for a technological terror bought from a glass palace run by an investment consortium. Things are worse now as people are so disconnected from cars that old fashioned common sense to reduce electrical consumption is no longer used or perhaps possible. In any case, hundreds of pounds to change a battery in a newer eco-friendly car is another possible reason to change it for a newer car on PCP. That doesn’t sound eco-friendly at all but it is the way of things for many people. It is aided by things like vehicle health checks which is simply a way to maximise profit under the guise of customer care and service. Cynical profiteering is mainstream now.
The race is on to exhaust earth’s resources faster than ever to maximise profits now we know time is limited.
“But what about the elderly person that knows no better and has no one to support them?”
The word elderly is not necessary for this story and risks reinforcing inaccurate stereotypes. The elderly person has likely bought more batteries than anyone. You wouldn’t have dared describe the person as a woman would you?
The unscrupulous have been upselling batteries, tyres, shock absorbers, wipers etc since cars have been available to the general population. This is not news..
An acquaintance of mine worked for one of the main breakdown companies and was consistently in the top 10 patrols around the UK. However they are now near the bottom because they allegedly refused to follow company policy of fitting batteries where a charge/jumpstart was all that was required.
About 3 months ago the battery on my VW Bora, a 54 year registration failed, I called out Green Flag and they checked everything out and fitted a New Battery for a reasonable £94
Buy a car full of useless gimmicks and you will have battery problems but finding a basic car is hard to do But there are one or two if you look ,but the problem is gimmicks sell cars that’s why they have them fitted as standard Mine the only gimmick if you could call it a gimmick is electric front windows and I an happy with it Most gimmicks are distracting ones Keep you eyes on the road all the time look away it is an accident waiting to happen and often does
This applies to satnav upgrades as well. I have a 2011 registered (2010 model) Volvo XC70 and under warranty the satnav was updated on the service. Now out of warranty they want £180 incl vat for an update. It is supplied on disc whereas the later models have an HDMI connection. This could be every year. On the net (Amazon) one can get a disc for £39 but will it work? Very good satnavs can be obtained for less than that and also get one free with the mobile phone. But they dont work through the car radio speaker system. Is there any alternative to this rip off?
I think some systems should work if they have a CANBUS node circuitry. Sometimes it is just a case of using dedicated diagnostic hardware to tell the car to recognise it.
Your case is indicative of what swayed me to stay with 26&46 y/o Volvos (amongst other stuff). My decision is based on cost, reliability and environmental conscience. I don’t think I’m disadvantaged for my choice either.
My wife took her 1y/o Fiat Panda to the local dealer for its first service. Despite only doing around 3000 miles, they claimed the front pads showed uneven wear, even quoting stupid % and saying that the callipers must be seized (I think the wear was as much as 80% and as little as 30%). I told the dealer to go ahead with the repairs as the car was 1 y/o and so it would be covered under warranty. Apparently not, brakes, even seized, are not included. So I told them to leave it & I would have a look. They phoned me as I bought the car so they had my details. They, then phoned the wife (as the registered keeper/owner) to tell her the same story. Fortunately, having always done all the work required on cars, my wife told the dealer that I would look into it.
When my wife arrived home, I went out with the trolley jack, wheel brace, axle stands and socket set. Talk about your dream job, all four bolts holding the carriers were a doddle to undo, swinging the carrier out of the way, the pads fell out into my hands.
I placed the four pads together on a sheet of white paper & took a picture, I also measured the thickness of each pad with my electronic calliper. I checked with a local spares shop to ascertain the thickness of a new pad, these “worn” pads were all within a mm of the thickness of a new pad.
I posted my findings on a national car forum, including pics of the “worn” pads, making sure to mention the name of the main dealer as often as I could, including the use of bold letters, red letters and hashtags.
Within a day, the manager of the dealership sent me an email, expressing his apologies for any confusion. Apparently it was an apprentice who had carried out the service – which simply compounded their lie as it was their chief technician who signed off on all the checksheets. I was asked to remove the defamatory pictures but refused, even after they threatened to take me to court. The pics are still out there some 9 years later and I’m still awaiting my day in court. I was so looking forward to all the compensation.
My view of main dealers? Some trust but if I smell a rat, social media will be my friend.
As to the battery debate. Newer cars have small engine bays, manufacturers seem to be using the smallest battery they can get away with. These barely last because the car’s computer seems to have a need to be constantly on guard, this can drain a new battery if you’re not careful. My dad’s 1y/o Honda civic (new shape) refused to start after he went on a 3 week holiday. Whilst he was at the dealer getting the battery checked out, a woman came in to get hers checked after it died whilst she was sat listening to the radio for half an hour. The original battery on my 4y/o 1.9TDi lump was exactly the same as in my son’s ageing 1.2 petrol Fiesta, despite the huge difference in starting power requirements.
My newer battery was a few mm larger all round, only just fits into the plastic battery holder but has more than double the amps. Turnover and starting has never been so good. I never go with the recommended choice, always measure how much room I have and see what I can get to fit.
I would guess that an older person living hand-to-mouth on a pension doesn’t still drive a C-Class Mercedes. If they ever did.
I found the best deals from independent auto parts stores, but I know batteries and do my own. Also the big black-and-orange chain will install it, for £55, if you buy it there (maybe not at all of their stores). I believe their store-brand batteries are made by a very good international brand, Yuasa, though I am not positive about that. I have had good luck with the ones I installed on my car and on relatives’ cars.
You are bang-on about dealer pricing, though. That’s the fastest way to be parted from your money!
They don’t call them Main Stealers for nothing.
I stopped buying Mercedes vehicles after being repeatedly ripped off by the local
dealer.
Caveat Emptor!
I have not used rip-off main dealers for longer than I can recall, including during our eight years of residency in France and currently I use three highly competent independents. The main one is for mechanical/services/MOT, plus occasional ones for auto-electrics and for bodywork (happily not too often!) and the very infrequent air conditioning servicing/re-gassing.
It surely has to occur to one that main dealers can get away with their obscene charges because of car user ignorance, apathy and the dealers’ adeptness at instilling fear into users if they don’t use the main dealer for servicing and repairs. That is exaggerated because dealers know only too well that so many newer cars are run on expense accounts when the vehicle user is not paying the bill themselves and those who do pick up the tabs are not looking too closely at costs.
By way of example a neighbour of ours who runs a 2010 Mercedes (model not known) panicked when his central locking would not always operate from the remote control fob. I looked at the fob and it was identical to one I had for a Merc. Sprinter van based motorhome I was running at the time and my suggestion was that, for starters and before racing to the Merc. dealer, he changed the fob battery. Disregarded that however, he shot off to the dealer who glibly informed him that the car would need to be booked in for a diagnostic check at £145 plus VAT, plus any other work and parts which may be essential to fix the supposed ‘fault’. All of that to change what is £1.30 2030 type button battery! They are con men and thieves.
Fortunately, my neighbour had the good sense to drive away, has never been back since to that dealer for anything and now uses a Merc. independent specialist at a fraction of the main dealer charges.
I had a dud battery on an Audi A4 so I bought a CTEK charger that reconditions the battery over a couple of days and it worked perfectly. The car had been standing for several months and the occasional start wasn’t good enough to boost up the battery. The latest CTEK version is the Multi MXS 5 (there is a 10 amp version which works quicker apparently) and costs from £68.00 which is far cheaper than buying a new battery and can usually be found cheaper if you have the chance to look around. The joy with this charger is that you can charge the battery whilst it’s still connected and then leave it connected to show the state of the battery which is shown by led’s.
Because they now provide shiny buildings with high end coffee machines and so on to attract new car buyers, main dealer hourly rates have become absurdly high. Over £150 per hour a year ago in the case of the Land Rover dealers I contacted.
When the £19 pulley on my old Land Rover Defender’s alternator failed (ironically, the clutch type designed to save engine load and load on the alternator to prolong its life!) I was told it wasn’t available separately (a lie), that a new alternator would be well over £450 (£250 if on a transit, same model!!) and around 2 hour’s labour.
I was able to change the £19 pulley with a £20 special tool – £39 against roughly £750, can’t remember whether that included VAT.
Similar experience with £10 worth of light bulbs where I was quoted £250 – 1 headlight, 1 side light and the reversing light. The headlight at least was working the night before the car went into the garage.
By making cars increasingly ‘no user-serviceable parts’ including batteries and lamps, the dealers have a license to print money.
In the last 30 years and having 3 cars in that time frame I’ve never had to replace a battery. I used to do an average of 10,000 miles a year whilst I was working and kept my cars for around 10 years or so. I presume cars that do low mileage and lots of stop/start motoring are more vulnerable to high battery wear though, typically yummy mummy drivers in big 4 x 4 vans with windows.
What’s the definition of the verb “to upsell”?
On a slightly different matter I put my car in for a service at what I thought was a reputable garage in Langholm. Several months later my battery died and when I looked at it my Peugeot battery had been swapped for an inferior (and much smaller) one. The original battery had been in since the vehicle was new (09 reg) , no way would the smaller one have lasted that long. Couldn’t prove it was that particular garage of course, but it was the first time I had had my car serviced away from home . (I live in Orkney). Needless to say, I am never going back there again.
stick to old technology. I have a 2003 Fiat Sciecento Sport 1.1. Its got nothing fancy on it at all, the last battery cost me £32 and 10 minutes to change. It does 450 miles on a tank of 4 star, which currently costs me £55. It has a good old fashion mechanical Steering lock bar, and the car doesn’t care what you change, its doesn’t need to be told the floor mats have just been vacuumed before it’ll start again.
In my opinion it has always been common knowledge that the main dealers charge far higher prices than your local garage. It always best to get a quote before any work is carried out on your car. http://www.pellonautocentre.com