Hi olewy,
Best advice i could give you from being in the motor trade in the border region is to stay away from Northern Ireland garages if at all possible. From both expeirance and from what iv heard there seems to be alot of rouges in the motor trade in NI. It even involves the main dealers, I took my 05 BMW to a main dealer in Northern Ireland back in the summer as the ABS came on in the i-Drive on board Computer. I was told it would take them 2 hrs but it was only a simple repair. After waiting for 30mins I was handed the keys to a courtesy car and told the problem seems to more serious and they need to spend some more time on it, Long story short they kept the car for 2 days, charged me £1800stg and told me they need more time as the problem is serious, they told me to leave the car with them for about a week and they should get it sorted. I then went to a well known specialist in Donegal with the car and he told me within 20mins that it was a simply steering angle sensor i needed, the part cost £70stg and he charged €125 to fit it and he could not understand why the NI main dealer had done that to me as it would show up once they plugged in the computer.
A friend also took his car to a well known garage in the Belfast area recently to have the spedo cable and a few other simple jobs done to his car, the work in total should have only taken around 4 - 5 hrs at most but they charged my friend for 36hrs labour to a total of i think £1500 for a job that should have only cost around €200 - €300 at very most. Hes now locked in a court battle with the company as the repairs didnt last and the fact they overcharged him. There is no SIMI in NI so the only option open to the customer is a very expencive route through the NI courts.
My Dad also recently sent his Citreon Van to a main dealer in the Derry area to have a faulty headlight fixed, basicly there was a wire cut behind the headlight causing it to flicker on and off. They charged him £900 + VAT and claimed it took them 3 days to repair !.. He also had to go down the expencive and usually unsuccessfull court route !.. I could go on with maybe 10 - 12 other examples but I think i have made my point !..
The NI garages seem to only be doing this to the southern ireland customers and is getting alot of attention in the border news papers ect. Trading Standards in NI got a large increse in complaints in 2009 from southern Irish customers of garages in NI who found themselves swindled out of large amounts of money by a many garages both private and main dealers according to the Donegal News and some other border region news papers. The fact that there is no SIMI or similar association in Northern Ireland leaves the garage with the upper hand in any dispute and the customer with nowhere to turn but a solicitor and it even seems that the courts are sideing with the NI traders rather than the Southern Customer unfortunitly.
The best advice is stick to a local garage or dealer of whom you know or have had dealings with before. I wouldnt advise handing a strange garage anywhere my car, especially in NI.
Hope that helps !..
Shaun