Fiat Professional rip off merchants

[VXman]

Probably any big name manufacturer based garage i guess but even so.

I have an engine code (had it for nearly a year but feel i need to get it sorted.) I know the code from my multiecuscan software. It's basically the Particulate Matter Sensor that has failed.

Rang Fiat Professional in Aylesbury. "We'll have to scan it. One hour on scan machine. It will cost £180." £180 to scan!!!! I hour scanning????!!!! I can scan it - it takes 30 seconds.

Where is the -"pop it in sir - we'll scan it to check the fault and let you know what needs doing". They'd have my business then and could even charge me £120 an hour to fix it and I'd probably just say OK.

Back to the drawing board. Need to find a local independent that will do it for me.

 

[Dolmen]

Well done, you analysed it and decided it was not worth it for you, for what they were offering to provide at that cost and you declined and will look elsewhere. If you had of accepted you would not have been ripped off you would merely have agreed to their terms. Does seem very expensive for a scan, although a lot of main dealer garages charge similar for fault finding, minimum 1 hour, don't blame you looking elsewhere.
This article is from several years ago

Car dealers charging up to £180 to check if cars have a fault

The average quote for a diagnostic check on a car at franchised dealers was £102. To put that fee into perspective, the same check carried out at all Halford Autocentre costs £49.99.

www.thisismoney.co.uk

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Ha,knowing FIAT they would scan it and say, "yes it twins sir, that'll be extra".
Mike.

 

[lorger]

I had my TPS module go faulty and local garage couldn’t sort it, took it to Motus in Glasgow. They ended up keeping the van for a week and told me they had spent 13 hours on it at £120 PH, when I went to collect it the labour charge was just over £300, the service manager told me he was embarrassed it took his team that long and cleared it with the boss to charge me 3 hours. That was a relief but thankfully I now use an independent guy who was a Fiat master technician and not only far cheaper but better workmanship too.

 

[Gellyneck]

.... thankfully I now use an independent guy who was a Fiat master technician and not only far cheaper but better workmanship too.

and great for a blether with!

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[Basa]

Just had the air bag ECU changed on my 2016 Peugeot Boxer by a Peugeot main dealer and they charged me £180 for the diagnostic and the same again per hour for fitting the new ECU and reprogramming.
Robbers

 

[Bessy765]

What about being charged £207 for only a damp check last time £99

 

[Rog NotJane]

We were charged £140 for a software update that fixed the twin EGR problem. They should have been paying us to take it :-(

 

[Sue and Rick]

Jaguar charge £205 plus vat for diagnostic. (up to one hour) Now they are robbers.

 

[vzac]

I agree many, if not all main dealers charge to much, and for various reasons. However a good diagnostic machine will usually fairly accurately diagnose a problem, not just read a code that is faulty. To do a cars full diagnostic can take up to 30 mins, remember some vehicles these days have more than a 200 different computers on them. A good diagnostic machine will cost well over £1000 plus monthly or annual subscriptions from around £70 per month. So not cheap, and it needs to pay for itself. All to often ( I have seen it many times) someone pops into a garage and says I have a light come on or there's something wrong with the vehicle, can you just pop on the diagnostic and check it over. That is taking someone off another paid job, taking up room in a garage, disturbing the flow of booked in work, and many expect it to be checked for nothing.
My advise is not to take it to a main dealer as you will be charged main dealer hourly rate, but to find a garage that has good diagnostic facilities i.e. one who does not buy the cheapest thing off eBay, but pays for a decent one and is kept upto date, via monthly or annual subscriptions, and if possible ask if they have something called pass through, which will like there machine to the manufacture's system.

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[Guigsy]

The issue is the "cake and eat it" attitude of garages. They'll charge a lot of money for diag. But there's no guarantees that the diag is correct. There's no incentive for them to ensure they've done a good job. Which leads to the "fire the parts canon" fix mentality. And again, you pay even if it doesn't work.

 

[chesterfield hooligan]

Snap On were £5000+

 

[martin2603]

HGV Technicians are now on £50 to £60 per hour. Charged out at £200.00 by the dealer. My grandson was on late shift yesterday started at 2.00pm got home 4.30 am! I do have a tame Technician who only charges £60.00. Thankfully!!

 

[vzac]

Snap On were £5000+

And they are not that good either, they are using the name to sell an inferior product. Or were 2yrs ago

 

[VXman]

I agree many, if not all main dealers charge to much, and for various reasons. However a good diagnostic machine will usually fairly accurately diagnose a problem, not just read a code that is faulty. To do a cars full diagnostic can take up to 30 mins, remember some vehicles these days have more than a 200 different computers on them. A good diagnostic machine will cost well over £1000 plus monthly or annual subscriptions from around £70 per month. So not cheap, and it needs to pay for itself. All to often ( I have seen it many times) someone pops into a garage and says I have a light come on or there's something wrong with the vehicle, can you just pop on the diagnostic and check it over. That is taking someone off another paid job, taking up room in a garage, disturbing the flow of booked in work, and many expect it to be checked for nothing.
My advise is not to take it to a main dealer as you will be charged main dealer hourly rate, but to find a garage that has good diagnostic facilities i.e. one who does not buy the cheapest thing off eBay, but pays for a decent one and is kept upto date, via monthly or annual subscriptions, and if possible ask if they have something called pass through, which will like there machine to the manufacture's system.

I have multiecuscan software on my computer which is specifically for Fiat. It will read fault codes, clear them, do proxy alignments for when new modules are fitted, reset service lights, change various settings on the van, tell me when the last DPF regen happended, how many times the engine had been started etc etc. It is more than enough to diagnose my issue. I have P24AE-13 open circuit present. I don't think Fiats machinery/software will tell them anything more than that. That means the Particulate matter sensor (which measures the soot content of the exhaust gases after it has been through the DPF to make sure the DPF is working) is broken.

I can tell them all that I just want them to source the correct part and fit it.

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[BouncyBoatFolk]

I have multiecuscan software on my computer which is specifically for Fiat. It will read fault codes, clear them, do proxy alignments for when new modules are fitted, reset service lights, change various settings on the van, tell me when the last DPF regen happended, how many times the engine had been started etc etc. It is more than enough to diagnose my issue. I have P24AE-13 open circuit present. I don't think Fiats machinery/software will tell them anything more than that. That means the Particulate matter sensor (which measures the soot content of the exhaust gases after it has been through the DPF to make sure the DPF is working) is broken.

I can tell them all that I just want them to source the correct part and fit it.

Probably not enough wonga in that is there!!
Mike.

 

[BikerGraham]

Probably any big name manufacturer based garage i guess but even so.

I have an engine code (had it for nearly a year but feel i need to get it sorted.) I know the code from my multiecuscan software. It's basically the Particulate Matter Sensor that has failed.

Rang Fiat Professional in Aylesbury. "We'll have to scan it. One hour on scan machine. It will cost £180." £180 to scan!!!! I hour scanning????!!!! I can scan it - it takes 30 seconds.

Where is the -"pop it in sir - we'll scan it to check the fault and let you know what needs doing". They'd have my business then and could even charge me £120 an hour to fix it and I'd probably just say OK.

Back to the drawing board. Need to find a local independent that will do it for me.

They are all like that though.

Last time I used Mercedes main dealer for adblue fault. It was £176 to check the code too. That’s was about 4 years ago.

 

[vzac]

I have multiecuscan software on my computer which is specifically for Fiat. It will read fault codes, clear them, do proxy alignments for when new modules are fitted, reset service lights, change various settings on the van, tell me when the last DPF regen happended, how many times the engine had been started etc etc. It is more than enough to diagnose my issue. I have P24AE-13 open circuit present. I don't think Fiats machinery/software will tell them anything more than that. That means the Particulate matter sensor (which measures the soot content of the exhaust gases after it has been through the DPF to make sure the DPF is working) is broken.

I can tell them all that I just want them to source the correct part and fit it.

That's good would then go to a motor factors get the genuine part, they can get the part number from your vehicle reg, and if you scan machine is of the quality as the ones I used to sell it will have diagrams and explanations of how to change the part and fit it correctly. Good look with it.

 

[jerryz]

Very few main dealer maechanics are really well trained , the good ones go independent .

 

[Bill-H]

Are Fiat Professional garages primarily for commercial vehicles? Any ongoing maintenance bills will be put throught the books and balanced out against the van owners profits.

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[Googlebot]

When I had a problem in France, the Fiat Dealer wanted €240 to diagnose the problem.

It is expensive and I am tight.

 

[Apacheman]

On a more positive note… a few weeks ago driving through France a red flashing oil light came on. Took it to a Fiat Professional dealer in Evreux. On it within 5 mins. Re set with computer. All sorted within 15 mins. No charge. Lucky or what?

 

[Helen Ariel]

Can anyone recommend a good OBD scanner to plug in to a Ducato? Lenny HB has one that we used to switch off the service interval light that the garage forgot to wipe after it was last serviced.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Carpmart]

Can anyone recommend a good OBD scanner to plug in to a Ducato? Lenny HB has one that we used to switch off the service interval light that the garage forgot to wipe after it was last serviced.

Cheers, Paul

I too (as VXman) use MultiECUscan but with the Iveco software licence not the Fiat one. Relatively easy to use and been useful already once at the roadside in Portugal.

 

[Lenny HB]

The one I have is very limiting you really need Multiscan that seems to do nearly everything.

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[MichaelT]

The one I have is very limiting you really need Multiscan that seems to do nearly everything.

Can that get past the security gateway on the newer models as you seem to have to connect to Fiat online to do any changes or updates including deleting error codes?

 

[VXman]

Are Fiat Professional garages primarily for commercial vehicles? Any ongoing maintenance bills will be put throught the books and balanced out against the van owners profits.

This was my thought. I think businesses are perhaps a little less sensitive to cost or see it as another business expense so Fiat could be happy to put off private punters for the greater gain of business.

 

[Lenny HB]

Can that get past the security gateway on the newer models as you seem to have to connect to Fiat online to do any changes or updates including deleting error codes?

I've heard that, Paul's van is 2019 so should be OK.

 

[VXman]

Can that get past the security gateway on the newer models as you seem to have to connect to Fiat online to do any changes or updates including deleting error codes?

Depends what you mean by newer models. I can delete error codes on my 2021 van.

 

[Gaza1515]

I had my TPS module go faulty and local garage couldn’t sort it, took it to Motus in Glasgow. They ended up keeping the van for a week and told me they had spent 13 hours on it at £120 PH, when I went to collect it the labour charge was just over £300, the service manager told me he was embarrassed it took his team that long and cleared it with the boss to charge me 3 hours. That was a relief but thankfully I now use an independent guy who was a Fiat master technician and not only far cheaper but better workmanship too.

Hi, do you have his number?

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