A shiny showroom and a chap in a shirt and tie taking your keys off you in a carpeted reception area is no guarantee that the work will be done properly neither is the vast amount of money it takes to maintain this kind of establishment.
Mechanics, whether at main stealer or independent garages, are human and as such there are good ones and bad ones. I have dealer experience and most of the guys I worked with were able to balance the pressure from above to complete jobs in unrealistic repair times with doing the job right. On the other hand some just used to cut corners i.e. not using torque wrenches, not cleaning brake assembleys when changing pads, not making the necessary measurements when rebuilding gearboxes etc etc. This, although officially frowned on by the management, was encouraged by the 'time saved' bonus scheme (6.5quid per hour) because if you completed a service that should take 2hrs in say 1.5hrs then you'll be paid 3.25quid therefore theoretically you could complete 5 services a day instead of 4 thus earning the company another 260quid. I have run my own garage and worked in both environments and the difference between main dealer and independent seems to be the training on brand new models (which lets face it no-one takes a brand new car to an independent before the warranty is up anyway unless they never intend selling the car) and the difference between what you pay for the work you have done and the amount that the technician actually gets for doing it!
Oh and hello there
