When every penny counts, it pays to shop around for your motoring essentials
It’s good to shop around.
For me it was a simple enough question. How much for a Disco battery? Having experienced some recurring electrical glitches in my Land Rover, one of the online cures for a particularly annoying set of warning lights was a new battery. So I thought it was worth seeing how much that fix would cost.
First stop was a fast-fit chain, but one of the minor ones. They first of all quoted £139. Really? That is a fitted price. Which made me question whether the way that batteries are fitted has suddenly changed since I last did it? You know, undoing the terminals and then hoofing the old one out and replacing it. Apparently not. So without the fitting? That’ll be £115 then.
Still sounded steep to me so I went for a walk. I ended up at a minor chain of high-street car parts suppliers, but again, not one of the major ones. They did though have one of those little books to help me pick which battery was the right one. That cost £110.
My local garage though quoted £90.
Online, delivered to my door and including VAT I could have a Varta for £88 and one I’ve not heard of for £85.
So I really did wonder how you shopped for car parts? There really is such a big difference between suppliers and options I would like to think that you would do the legwork to save a few bob. In these straightened times what advice do you have for anyone committed to saving money on running their motors?