"Bart" wrote
Anyone who takes a car to main dealer must be very wealthy, as this is
a very good way to get comprehensively seen to, and end up paying
through the nose for things you simply dont need!

All modern cars have a port into which you plug a cheap (£19) fault
code reader, and in many cases the code will indicate exactly what the
problem is. In most issues are to do with faulty pressure or
temperature sensors, which are not generally very costly, and can be
replaced easily by a home mechanic.

If you need to get work carried out professionally, try and find a
good independent garage, as in most cases the work will cost less than
half what a main dealer would charge, and will be done to a better
standard.

From my experience you are talking rubbish. Our Main BMW dealer is superb
and the charges for servicing are considerably lower than a friends VW Golf
and even those of a little Vauxhall we used to own.
We used, many years ago, to use a "good independent garage" and they cost us
a fortune because they didn't have the manufacturers updates and warnings so
things went wrong that a main dealer would have checked for and cured before
it became terminal. From that day we have always used a main dealer.
My old LR90 was put into a "good independent garage" with a good reputation
and it cost me over £900 as they replaced all sorts of things to cure a fuel
starvation problem finally putting on a new fuel pump which was the problem.
A complete new fuel system when all it wanted was a £50 fitted fuel pump.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK