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In line with other forums, may I be allowed to mark the passing of our Queen, and offer condolences, as we would with any other family who have just lost a loved one. Having experienced my childhood before the start of her reign, and lived and worked throughout it, I firmly believe that we have enjoyed the best decades so far. With all the bad news surrounding the immediate future, let’s hope that things will turn out to be not as bad as forecast, yet perhaps we should respect that we cannot continue to take tomorrow for granted. Kind regards, Gareth.

Will do thanks. I’ll let you know if it makes any difference.

Hello Bill, Many thanks for joining and posting your plea. Sorry to hear of your issue. Two things come to mind:- The car has indeed covered a very low mileage, and as such, in many respects, certain components will have had a far greater hammering than a same aged 150k plus example where components are operating at optimum conditions over an extended mileage. Belts in particular, will suffer to a much greater extent due to short runs and restarts. Not sure if your eleven year old car has stop/start ( probably not) but if it has, then the stresses will obviously be significantly increased. London and traffic! Major aggravation. Easy to say, but if this car was mine, the belt would have been changed every 5 years. Second thing that comes to mind - with apologies for being pointed - anyone who uses a main dealer to service an 11 year old, small annual mileage vehicle demonstrates an unwarranted disrespect for their wallet. Apologies Bill, but that’s how it is in my book. The debate about ‘scheduled or not scheduled’ is now rather academic, since the component has failed, and your dealership seems to have missed out on their ‘advise belt change - money gathering’ option. Way forward:- Get the car removed to a trusted local garage and get them to carryout the necessary work, and entrust your servicing to them. It would seem from your posting that the you have sufficient mechanical awareness to ask and understand the answers, so perhaps you could have asked the dealer about such things as the years went by, rather than ‘leaving it all in their capable hands’. Anyway, you seem to have got away with your belt issue quite lightly, so offer thanks for that, and move on to your trusted local garage who will have a reputation to uphold. Hope some of this helps, and good luck with it. Kind regards, Gareth.