Refreshing change

I recently traded my old faithful Tucson for Citroen C4 Picasso. The power/weight ratio fell considerably but with careful loading and sensible driving it tows OK.  We've had two long trips with it to Scotland and North Yorkshire without incident. However, since the last trip the rear suspension has failed to pump itself up once or twice.  The local Citroen dealer was not at all helpful and very expensive (£120 for an oil and filter change).  A local independent Citroen "specialist" was recommended to me. He took one look at the car and said, "there's one very simple answer to this, especially if you do a lot ot towing, and that's to take the air-suspension out and replace it with springs".  Apparently he'd done about 12 cars this year already. The operation costs about £300 and is done in a day.  What a refreshing change to walk into the workshop instead of a gleaming showroom, speak to the mechanic (who is also the proprietor) and get a simple straight answer instead of a mind-boggling, expensive, non-optional factory prognosis. I've no doubt the main dealer would insist on replacing like-for-like and charging me £1000 for it. When it comes to shopping around, there really are good options out there if you look for them

Moderator Comment - Moved to Tow Cars and Towing as information likely to be seen by more people there,