When something goes wrong with your car, it can be a worrying time as you often don’t know how much it is going to be to fix it. This is especially true for situations when you don’t know what is wrong and there may be an amount of investigation work first before the issue can be diagnosed.

If you are considering doing some or all of the repair work yourself then you need to be sure that you know exactly what it is that needs fixing. Once you know this you can then start to cost up parts.

If you have been given a quote by a garage for repairs then be sure to get a written breakdown of what exactly is covered within the quote. This will then allow you to call other garages to get a like for like quote. Be sure to check such things as warranty, if the parts are genuine or non-genuine and time to fit the part as this may affect the price and therefore mean that you cannot compare like for like.

Do not be afraid to barter a bit with the garage, you can ask them if they would match a lower price. Often independent garages have more say over their pricing structure.