So I was finally tired of my brakes shaking the steering wheel and the thought that I could die that I took it my car to a local reapir shop to get work done. Here is what they did.

New Brake Pads (4)
Machined all four rotors
Fixed a severed wire under my seat causing the Air Bag to fault
Full Oil Change

This was done on a 2003 Nissan Micra.

I paid a total of 814 CHF

I am used to US prices, so I knew it would be higher here. Was this too much even for CH, or right about average?

I mainly ask because I will go back to them in the future because they seemed very nice and accommodating, but only if I wasn't Switzerlanded.

800 chuffies ? ... and they had to machine 4 rotors? ( scaring on the rotors? )

sounds to me like you got a deal.

Sounds Ok to me. Especially for Switzerland.

sounds really decent price for here...
I had 700chf something for just replacing the rear brakes pad...

Great news. This place is right down the street from where I work. I can just drop it off in the morning and pick it up on my way home.

For what you're describing (shakes in steering wheel when braking) it seems that you needed a wheel balancing (taking the wheels down and just adding some led strips as per machine indication). Are you sure you really had to change the pads and everything else? Happened to me for several times when changing to new rims or new tires.

Even if braking pads are overused, this shouldn't have the effect you mentioned unless the discs are crooked, but as they didn't replace the disks I guess it has nothing to do with this...

Sometimes simple things makes everything seem like a total disaster and if you go to "some" garage they will tell you to change half of the car...Usually this doesn't happen here.

Anyway, I hope I'm wrong and the garage is right for the sake of your money. Nevertheless, if you had to change the pads anyway + oil sevicing then it looks like a good price.

Good luck!

Rotors are disc's, and he had them skimmed

Sounds a bit of a bargain for swiss prices tbh

Agree - but warped discs on a Micra???

you know micra drivers, probably been driving around with the hand brake on all the time - thats the reason they drive so slow, right?

For comparison, last week I had four new discs and all new pads installed on an Audi A4 Turbo Quattro at an independent garage for CHF 1'200. The parts were from Amag. Labour was CHF 310.

I would say your pricing was reasonable. Here in CH they tend to replace parts such as discs rather than skim them. It was nice that they proposed that option.

I know that the pads needed replacing because I could hear the squealing of metal when I applied pressure. When even applied light pressure on the brakes, you could feel the shimmy which was the discs needing to be machined. I had several used cars when I was a kid that had the same issues, so I am very confident that the work was necessary. I bought the car used in August, so I have no idea what the previous owner did to the brakes. It certainly wasn't high speed stopping. My wife has to get out and push in order to get it up to motorway speed

Sounds like a very good deal to me. My Garage billed me CHF60 for 2L of windcreen liquid. I almost fainted.

When stopped, keep the brakes on with heated discs and eventually it'll happen due to uneven cooling...

You're having a laugh - discs on a Micra getting that hot??? It happens on hard driven cars - but a Micra.

However - the reason the discs were skimmed is because the pads were down to the metail - and would have scored the top surface of the disc. A quick skim and the problem is sorted.

Back in the day I had a rather nice Merc E280 - driving down from Lenzerheide I didn't bother holding the car in a lower gear - until my brother-in-law flashed me from behind - as my brakes were smoking!!!

I learned a lesson that day - automatic - downhill = hold lower gear.

My current car has a ZF-sourced (but custom programmed) automatic box - which "knows" the car is going downhill - and in drive will hold the car in third.

This is more serious than you make it sound. Brake failures due to overheating have caused numerous accidents on mountain roads, even invlving experienced drivers. If in doubt, always go for the lower gear.

I would say it is cheap.

I paid CHF 950 for changing a lightbulb last year - the bulb alone was CHF 211.

Then an indicator is lightning up, and the garage read the diagnostics and said, I will soon have to replace an exhaust. they gave a cost estimate immediately of CHF 1700.

Then I had something near the wheel changed, where I can not remember neither the german nor the english word, wwhere i paid ca. 400 for the part and 400 for labour, so without being a car expert, i would say, it sounds cheap.

Doc.

Paid in a Garage Plus http://www.garageplus.ch a bit more than 1K chf for:

front discs + pads change
oil, air filter, oill filter, cabin filter change
1 bulb change

material and work included

for Switzerland I thought it was ok.

yeah doubt that will happen with city driving and esp. a micra, like he said it doesnt get up to speed.

It is not because Wikipedia is in Black out that you can state random made up facts

Good deal for here though.
Just got mine fixed in Belgium . My mech charged 350 for labor for 17 hours Pleasant surprise

Well I live in a small village above Thun. The hill down is windy and steep. Goes from 1085 meters to the valley in 3 km. This is maybe why the brakes are used more and heat up.

Not really, it can happen on any car where you have uneven cooling at standstill - even more likely to happen on say a Micra as the disk will be thinner and quite likely non vented and offer less structural resistence.

P2 Volvos have had history of having a batch of bad discs in 02 and 03 model years, and they're not exactly the hot rod car either.

You can drive a car as hard as you want, if you allow for the discs to cool properly they won't warp.