In article
s.com, Jo scribeth thus
Hello,

My car was taken to a garage for an unrelated problem. The garage said
my brakes were worn and needed replacing. They charged me £30 for the
parts and £55 for labour (excluding VAT).

The guy seemed shifty - he said if I paid with cash I wouldn't need to
pay VAT!

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8355/brakediscs.jpg

Are these brakes worn and were his charges reasonable? I estimate the
thickness of the abrasive portion of the parts to be 5mm thick.

Sorry for my ignorance on the subject, I'm a medical student!

Thanks.

Jo


Right.. having read thru most all of the comments hereon and seen the
later pictures I reckon that if you were my daughter I'd have given you
the money to have had this done if you were that hard up..

As some said there might have been a few more miles in the pads, but
they didn't look that good at all. I would not want them on any car I
drove, and/or coming at me thanks;!.

And you'll never know where you might need them in a hurry. I had mine
severely tested earlier outside the Orchard Tea rooms in Grantchester
where a lady in a heavily laden 4 trak absolutely slammed on her brakes
as she went past there. I managed to stop behind fortunately leaving a
decent gap .. she then proceeded to put her car in reverse and started
coming back toward me trying to reveres in their entrance at some
speed!.. BTW does your horn works as well;?, never know when you'll
need it either;!..


I think for that price, and for Cambridge, one of the more expensive UK
places to live, was very reasonable. There are very few good mechanics
around. If you don't trust this firm go to where I take our Two cars
C&S Motors underneath the railway arches in Coldhams lane sort of
opposite the Beehive centre and shopping estate and they have always
been reasonable, sometimes too cheap for what they do!. Mind you don't
expect a dolly bird on reception dispensing coffee etc, if you want one
there you have to make it yourself and make them one too.

Don't be too worried re ignorance on car matters. I don't think any one
of my eldest daughters boyfriends knew anything about cars apart from
where to put the petrol, these days if you asked them what an internal
combustion engine was they'd prolly think it was to do with old steam
traction engines.

Not that surprising nowadays as cars for the greater part are getting
more difficult to work on what with the implementation of so much in the
way of electronics etc and specialised diagnostic equipment needed..

Don't expect running a car to be a cheap exercise..Med student or
not..

No, all in a OK result for you in my estimation...
--
Tony Sayer