VivianeBrezillet

We have a Citroen C3, 1.4 55 Registration which was bought from a dealer in 2009/2010 in Leicestershire, and we now live in Bristol and just took the car for a service as we always do when it's due in September but at a Garage here and they asked straight away about the cambelt and we said we can't remember if it had been done while we've had it and although there was a sticker on the car door from the Dealer that mentions the cambelt there was no date as they never changed it. The garage here said they don't know if it's been done as it would involve stripping it down to find out. But we know it was checked on a previous service at our old garage as a form we have has the checkbox ticked and I'm sure they never stripped it down. We were told that the cost of stripping it down would be the same as putting the new cambelt in, and they quoted us 300 for the cambelt alone. A mechanic that does a friend of mine's car laughed at that and said yes it would cost that much if it snapped and the mechanic from our old garage said it was astronomical as that would mean £600 in total! Both other mechanics have said £100-200. The garage in question has a good reputation but we have to wait until tomorrow morning to get the car back from the servicing when there's pretty much not much wrong with the car as they shut earlier than our previous garage. The garage in question is calling us back tomorrow and have said they can do it next week but I think we'll just get the car back and pay the servicing and look elsewhere but our previous mechanic is going to look into the service history of the car and call us. He did say we do know that it needs changing every 5 years and I said yes we know but I never thought it would be that costly! We had a Citroen Saxo for 9 years and never changed the cambelt on that despite it having had a high mileage due to going to France a lot and relied on it constantly living in an area that had poor public transport,which is where we lived before. Whereas here we only use it twice a week and for holidays. Just wondering if anyone has any advice? I'm new to this forum btw.