Thread: My tale of woe, and a freindly warning

i do what i can to fix my own fender. i went to fred for some minor work assuming i would get him to do all the servicing, but just cannot afford/justify to maintain my 93 fender like he maintains customers cars. sure would love it if i could afford for fred to do my work. but i does what i can and use sites like this for info
david

Originally Posted by CraigE

Just make sure that he is telling the truth, not trying to get his mate a better price. I have had this before to, but what they did not know was that I knew the car inside out and the issues they brought up where infact non existent. Needless to say they ate a bit of humble pie and ended up buying the car for full asking price.
I am not saying he is wrong, but check everything he says for yourself and get it verified.
The two things you have described are a minor fix and should have been pointed out as a need to fix, not a do not buy or do not continue inspection.

Not Fred, he's worked too hard to do something as stupid as that. I think all the testimonials here second that.
Vic is'nt all that big when it comes to Landies

Originally Posted by loanrangie

Anyone who knows of Fred Smith will know that he knows landy's, i have never taken a car to him but i just have to hear other members of the LROCV swear by him. If he was dodgy he could have just passed it and let the next unsuspecting person deal with it. I dont personally know Fred but have met him at club meetings.

I met the guy a couple of weeks ago while in Melbourne on business (One of the guys at the Melbourne office has used him for years) and my initial impression after chatting for a couple of hours is that what he doesn't know about Landrovers probably isn't worth knowing! He also seemed very genuine, to the point of turning away work if he thought the owner wasn't going to let him do the job properly. I'm not often wrong on my initial assumptions of people either!

Warren,

For which model Citroen are you looking for a service person? There are a couple in Melbourne that I would recommend, but it's horses for courses. But as someone else said, try aussiefrogs, it's no less helpful than here. I'm pretty active on it, as I do my own work on my DS and XM, as well as my Stage 1 V8.

Roger

Hi Roger,

I have a brand new C5HDI Wagon. I will have to use the dealer for services until the warrenty runs out But, I will be checking it over thoroughly every time it goes into them. Unfortunately, I will always need to take it to them for software upgrades but this will only be if something is actually wrong. I looked at buying my own proxia software but, it was going to cost Euro2.5K. I got onto aussie frogs and asked if any Melbourne members would like to buy one as a group but only got 2 responses... they do not seem to be as active as landrover people.
I have managed to track down a website run by PSA that has parts info and, if you pay a subscription, access to on line manuals, so, I am slowly getting self sufficient.

As for all of the accolades for Fred. I agree, after speaking with him, and seeing the report, he does have very high standards - I only hope he has an equally passionate and reliable apprentice to carry on when he finally hangs up his spanners...

cheers

Warren

Roin? You've had a name change?

Put in the missing bolts and sell it?

Who knows? It may even sound better when it's all torqued up evenly? May be no damage at all.

Problem Solvered.

Okay, so I work in publishing... you expect that I should be able to spell!!

I am going to check it over just in case... hopefully, you are right.

cheers