When it pays to shop around

WORKSHOPS: HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND KNOWLEDGE ARE IN TOO SHORT SUPPLY THESE DAYS

- Brendan Seery

NUTS AND BOLTS. Wayne Hay, right, and Ashley Pillay know their business when it comes to cars. Picture: Brendan Seery

(Brendan Seery)

A friend of ours - an older, single woman - was having some issues with her pride and joy, an Audi A1, so she took it in to an Audi dealer here in Joburg, where she bought it. Yep, you can guess where this is going...

After going back and forth for a few days, she eventually collected her car - after paying a not inconsiderable amount of money because it was out of warranty and maintenance plan.

She still didn't know quite what was wrong with it, other than some vague reference by one of the techs to "spark plugs".

I was going to ask her to have a detailed look at the invoice - but I never got the chance because the car broke down as she was driving it home.

A tech was sent and he got it running enough that it could get back to Audi - where it was supposedly fixed, "finish and klaar", as our former top cop, Bheki Cele, was fond of saying.

I never did get to see the invoice because she was already deep into the process of buying, for cash, a brand-new Mazda CX30.