How we quote: our pricing, and why you won't get a surprise bill.

Where surprise bills come from

Most bad experiences with mechanics follow the same pattern. A customer brings in a car, gets a verbal number, agrees to the job, and collects the car to find a bill that bears little resemblance to the number they heard. Sometimes this is opportunism. Often it is something more mundane: the person at the service desk quoted from memory without looking at the car, or the mechanic found something unexpected and assumed the customer would want it done, or the diagnostic labour was silently bundled into the repair price.

Understanding where surprise bills originate makes it easier to explain how we avoid them.

Estimate ranges, not firm prices, until we have seen the car

When you contact us about a repair before we have inspected the car, we will give you a range. The low end covers the most straightforward version of the job. The high end covers the most complex version we would reasonably expect to encounter. We will tell you what sits in between.

Anyone who gives you a firm price on a repair before they have seen the car is either guessing or pricing in a wide margin and not telling you. We do not do either. The range is honest. When you bring the car in, we inspect it, and we confirm a price in writing before we start. That confirmed price is what you pay unless something changes, and if something changes, we call you before we proceed.

This is how every service-based business should work. We mention it because it is not how every service-based business does work.

For routine services with fixed scope, a range is still a range but the band is narrow. An oil and filter service on a known car has a defined parts cost and a predictable labour time. The range reflects only things like the specific oil grade required or whether the filter is a standard unit or a cartridge that costs differently. We will tell you which end applies to your car before the job starts.

Diagnostics charged as diagnostics

We do not bury diagnostic time inside a repair price and hope you do not notice.

If your car has a fault and you want us to find it, we charge for the diagnostic work separately. This typically involves an initial scan, followed by testing to confirm which component or system is responsible. For straightforward faults, this is quick. For intermittent faults or multiple fault codes that may share a root cause, it takes longer.

The diagnostic charge is quoted to you as a line item. You see it, you agree to it before we start, and it is on your invoice as its own entry. When we have a diagnosis, we give you a separate quote for the repair. You approve the repair before we order parts. The diagnostic charge is not a lever to pressure you into accepting the repair. If you want a second opinion on our diagnosis, you are free to take it.

This structure matters for honesty in a specific way. A garage that buries its diagnostic time inside the repair price has no incentive to spend meaningful time on diagnosis. Thorough diagnosis takes longer than a quick scan and a parts swap. Our diagnostic work is charged as what it is, which means we are incentivised to do it properly. Diagnostics-led, not parts-led.

The stop-and-call policy

If we open something up and find more than the quote covered, we stop. We call you. We explain what we have found, what it means, and what the options are.

You will get three clear options: proceed with the original job as quoted and defer the new finding; proceed with both the original job and the additional work at a revised price we give you on the call; or have us close it back up and take the car elsewhere. You are not locked in.

This policy exists because the alternative is a situation where a mechanic assumes consent for additional work because the customer brought the car in and presumably wants it fixed. That assumption creates the surprise bill. We would rather lose the job by calling you and giving you a choice than keep the job by not calling you and presenting you with a fait accompli.

The call will include a clear price for the additional work. Not a rough figure, not "it'll be around..." — a number we can stand behind, given to you before we do anything that incurs cost.

What this means in practice

When you get a quote from us, you know what you are agreeing to. When the scope changes, you decide whether to agree to the change. When the invoice arrives, it matches what you approved.

We do not work in a way that requires customers to argue with invoices after the fact. We do not work in a way that produces paperwork designed to be confusing. The goal is that you leave with the car fixed, a clear invoice, and enough trust in the process to come back next time rather than dread it.

If you have had a bad experience elsewhere and you want to understand what a job should cost before you commit, the quote calculator on our services page gives you an honest range for common jobs. You can also get in touch directly and we will talk it through.

We'd rather lose the job than do work that does not serve you.