Daughter’s car went in to our local Vauxhall dealership for a service and MOT, yesterday.

As it had a couple of advisories from last year, I agreed upfront to get those done.

Calculating it roughly in my head, I expected it to come to somewhere between five and six hundred quid.

But, I received the dreaded phone call halfway through the afternoon. If they ring toward the end of the day, you know that the chances are that everything is OK and the vehicle is ready for collection.  But, those halfway-through-the-day calls? They can only mean one thing: more cost.

Which is exactly what happened here. It had failed it’s MOT. Not spectacularly, but it had failed nonetheless.  Also there were issues with the brake fluid and the coolant,  both  of which needed to be replaced. The main culprit though was the nearside headlight – they were unable to adjust the beam and it looked like the mechanism had failed. It would need a new one.

“We have one in stock. That’ll be six-hundred and sixty-five pounds”.

“A hundred and sixty-five pounds?  Bit pricey for a headlamp, but OK”.

“No. SIX hundred and sixty-five”.

“WHAT?!”

Unfortunately, she needs her car next week and so we haven’t got time to hunt around for one from a breakers yard or anything, and so I agreed to having it done.

Hobson’s Choice.

Total cost at the end of the day?

One thousand, four hundred and forty-four of your English pounds.

Eek!

I have to admit, the car does feel better; the engine feels a bit smoother and driving home from the dealership last night, I could actually see the road in front of me… which was nice.

But, 650 quid.

For a headlight.

For a Corsa.

Mad.