If you need to book your car in to have a service, MOT or repair work then you will most likely want to know what it is going to cost before going ahead. For services and MOT’s, you should be able to be given a fixed price, although this will not include any additional work that they may find that needs doing. For repair, quoting can be a little more difficult. If you know exactly what it is that needs doing such as a tyre replacement or section of the exhaust changing, then you should be able to obtain a pretty accurate quote. If on the other hand, you need further investigations carried out to identify the problem, then you may not know the full extent of the repairs until they have stripped the vehicle down. The stripping of the vehicle and investigation work may carry its own charge meaning you essentially will have to pay to find out what is working and then pay again to fix it. This is because many mechanics make most of their money on labour. If they spent all day working on vehicles where they could not charge out their time, they wouldn’t make any money.