Car Servicing
Service intervals on modern cars are often double what they were a few years ago. Sounds good less expense. But depends on your circumstances. I recently tried an online service provider and had a full service for £85. They even collected the car from work
and returned it to me. However during the service they rang to advise me that a number of things needed replacing front brake pads rear discs pads ,windcsreen wipers and one tyre. I did not mention to them that the car had passed an MOT the week before. I
told them just to carry out the service and return the car to me with a quote for the work needed. When I had the car back heres what a friend who is a qualified motor engineer said. He looked at the faults listed wipers yes slight tear on one ( they wanted
£52 for a set) Ebay £8.50. Tyre ( good for at least another 2000-3000 miles. Front pads good for about 3000 miles ,Rear brakes discs fine pads good for 5000-6000 miles. Their quote £450. Now to be fair none of the above would last until the next sheduled service
but if you are running a car on a budget then you need to replace things on a just in time basis to keep costs down which is what many fleet operators do. The other aspect is if you are offered a cheap service take it but they are nearly always expensive for
repairs so shop around. I expect my actual cost to be under half of their quote as I have the work done. Of course if you use your car for your job and do a lot of miles then you would want the lot done at the main service. As far as the service they carried
out all was done as specified.
Comments
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The items listed would all be things you should be aware of. What they should have done was give you the figures you quote so that you knew they needed doing in the fairly near future.To me I would probably have had the brakes done if I had known the figures
left as I cannot see anyone keeping the car for that long they needed doing again.The wipers you can do yourself although I might be wary of the very cheap ones on line.
The MOT does not include an examination of the brakes just a test to see if they are working at the time so cannot be relied on for anything more.
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The MOT does not include an examination of the brakes just a test to see if they are working at the time so cannot be relied on for anything more.
Just had an MOT yesterday, and one of the things picked up was that front pads were getting low .... IIRC you need a min of 3mm for a pass
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certainly my usual tester will advise when they're getting low, not neccessarily on the advice sheet0 -
Mine has always advised me of brake pad wear ICON at MOT. I also keep my car for a fair time but try to avoid too much braking to make them last longer.
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Personally all I do is have an engine service, oil, filters, diesel filter, as I get second hand high mileage cars and have the ability to check all the other items.
I have also found Formula 1 tyres fantastic got wife’s Honda jazz full service (hers is low mileage with service history) with MOT for £140. It is fixed price depends on engine size hers is just under 1400 automatic Petrol.
They advised wiper blades which I had done at £20 (your quote is absurd for blades).
Also advised all 4 tyres, although lots of tread were cracking on side walls, I had actually observed that myself a few weeks earlier and had mentioned to wife they would need changing for winter
Brake pads that low should have been an advisory defiantly a poor MOT test if you had oil, filter and air filter changed for £85 it was bargain good quality oil and the filters won’t be far from that.
The tyres, well I would change them it for the sake of a few thousand miles also if you don’t notice the tyres go under or borderline to under you could get a spot cheek, points on your licence and fines and still be required to replace them.
At least change them for the winter as tyres that low will just not have the same grip in winter during heavy rain and snow, you also need to conceder if your tyres go borderline or just 01mm under and have an accident and you have a bump it will defiantly
go to blaming you not the other person.Same thing could happen with the brake pads also again if you don’t notice them get worse you could end up getting new disks as well.
Have to agree 100% though shop around every time for servicing, insurance, parts easy to do today with the net and last year’s good deal can’t be guaranteed to be the best deal this year.
Just my thoughts
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When I was on holiday last week, the ambulance response car received its first service. A Seat dealer in Coventry. Ian, my oppo, took the car in and it was serviced and he picked it up and drove it back to Nuneaton - some 20 miles I would say. When he got back he thought he would just check under the bonnet to make sure everything was in order. Good job he did! There, lying in the engine bay was the oil filler cap!!! It would have been bad on an ordinary car but on a car that could have potentially been on a response emergency from the off was diabolical. These cars sometimes do 150 miles on blues and twos at speeds of 100mph + where possible- can you imagine the mess and damage that a simple thing like that would have caused? That's the very reason I won't go to main dealers- expensive- very expensive and careless! The service manager was informed and in no uncertain terms either.!
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Thanks for the comments. My car is an 07 having done just 49000 miles. I use it to travel to work daily but it's only about 4 miles and the rest is just mainly local. Our main car is my wife's purchased new this year from SUZUKI on an excellent club deal. The SUZUKI is ungder warranty for three years so goes to the dealer. I had my car serviced by an online servicing company who offered an half-price deal as a promotion. I only do around 6000 miles a year and so I try to run the car as frugally as possible but would not use it in an unsafe condition. So you will see that for me 3000 miles is 6months motoring. Long journeys are done in the new car. Tyres need to be replaced before they reach the legal minimum and mine will be. The original point was that long service intervals do not always mean you save on running costs as the dealers will push you to replace parts that may still have many months of safe use left.
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They advised wiper blades which I had done at £20 (your quote is absurd for blades).
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Absurd .... but not an isolated price. I bought some bits at Mercedes for my car, and thenasked for a set of 3 wipers without asking for a price. They too were £50-odd. I said to the lad on the parts desk that was the last OE set I was buying from them
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Before I decided to keep my car and just run it and run it, I did get quotes for part exchanging it from a number of different garages, including the main Mercedes dealer that I bought it from and had always serviced it on the dot.
The car although 1st registered in March 2011 was paint sealed before delivery and is still in showroom condition, and has done only 65,000 miles. But the answer was practically the same from all of the dealers, they just got out Glasses guide and grudgingly offered me £12,000. As I said the car is spotless and has been maintained from new on a Mercedes maintenance contract.
So what was the point of looking after it so meticulously, and spending top dollar on its maintenance? When it comes to trying to part ex it for a new or newer one, the only thing that seemed to matter was what the book said.
Needless to say I have told the Mercedes dealer that i will no longer be a service customer, it makes Zero difference to its value now, and there are a number of good Mercedes experienced private garages about that will do the job much cheaper.
TF
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I have a mate who loves his Mercedes buts hates the service, he says they always seem to look down their noses at him. There's no reason why a good local garage can't make a good job of it. Maybe teach these high-and-mighties a lesson!
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I do agree with what Tigerfish has posted. Glasses guide rules.
For the same reason don't buy accessories and extras when new, (except perhaps the tow bar) the spec that gives you what you want as standard or you wil lose out as they just look up your model in the book.
A good local garage is not able to invest in the specialist diagnostic tools modern vehicles need. It was far easier a few years ago but now i can se the local guys nomatter how good they are disappearing.
A specialist garage however is a different matter and some have al the kit and are better than the stealers.
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..... and there are a number of good Mercedes experienced private garages about that will do the job much cheaper.
TF
You still need to be careful. I needed a new water pump on my Smart Roadster (not the most accessable of parts - nothing is!) A new pump from Merc was £90, and the quote for MB to do the complete job was £330, the MB independant came in at 'double that'
..... I did it myself in a couple of hours. Another MB independant charged me 4 hours labour to replace the fuel pump, when the MB book time is 1.4 hours. Despite taking it bak to them twice, it stunk of fuel every time I filled it to max ..... apparently
I was over filling it. It would have worked out cheaper to take the car to MB in the first place. A new 'O' ring fitted by yours truely solved the fuel leak from around the tank where the pump fits ..... strange that!
But
don't let MB fit new Airmatic struts to your car ..... 3 attempts & two damaged doors later
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"don't buy accessories and extras when new, (except perhaps the tow bar)" Some OE towbars are grossly over-priced and were often made by Witter in the first place, I'd choose an authorised Witter dealer every time..Coming back to the main dealer vs indy argument (that's short for independant by the way, not Indians!) I used to work for Crypton and everytime a manufacturer created a new peice of diagnostic kit our boys would have a clone made within a month. The indies can still get all the latest kit and can check/diagnose just about anything with wheels just as accurately as the main dealers. Like all these things though, the kit is only as good as the operator
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They are indeed geoff but if you want to have the vehicle warranty to cover the tow bar and perhaps more importantly the wiring then the manufacturers option is worth considering.
Even though it often is the local Witter agent that fits it
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I've found Halfords Service Centres very good, Reasonably priced and good service. They report any problems found, guarantee free replacement on discs and pads for the lifetime of the car. A while back they claimed they would refund you if you found they'd missed anything, I noticed they hadn't lubed the door hinges and sure enough they refunded me the (labour) cost of the sevice
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I don't recommend Halfords for pacemakers!
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The place where I take my car will usually flag up the problems they notice, but not carry out the wor until it's necessary. E.g. If there is about 3000 left on the brake pads that is what they will tell me - they won't change them there and then. Furthermore, if the car needs to go in for a scheduled repair, they are quite happy for me to get the parts off eBay, or wherever, and they will fit them.
David
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Never had my cars serviced at main dealers. Local garages( as long as you know the mechanics are sound) do a great job and much cheaper. I do all the oil changes and filters myself but I dont do brakes. Just took the tow car in today for brake check- new
front pads, rear brakes stripped, cleaned and lubed etc - I'll know I'm OK for Wales now!0 -
The company offering the online servicing was serviceistop.com. They have regular offers and tell you exactly what is done and included. They collect your car from home or work and bring it back to you. They use independent local garages and claim to service
to manufacturers specs using genuine parts. As I said a full wheels off service for my Peugeot 307 was £85 on a summer servicing promotion. Have the service but beware they are expensive on anything not specified so let them do the service but anything else
may be considerably cheaper elsewhere. If you are at work you do need Internet access to pay the bill prior to the car being returned to you.0 -
Before I decided to keep my car and just run it and run it, I did get quotes for part exchanging it from a number of different garages, including the main Mercedes dealer that I bought it from and had always serviced it on the dot.
So what was the point of looking after it so meticulously, and spending top dollar on its maintenance? When it comes to trying to part ex it for a new or newer one, the only thing that seemed to matter was what the book said.
I agree on this point with cars. We're now trying to run both cars until they drop. I always keep them immaculate and fully serviced but when it comes to trading in sometimes they don't even look at them. I could trade in a skip for all they care.
I run a 2012 Jag XF that has got 28k on at present so if I can get another 4 or 5 years out of it or more l'll be happy. I have always used Jag servicing and so far they have been OK always advising me but never knowingly taking advantage.
Incedentially, the Jag needs a service every 12 months anyway (the dash light comes on) and I always have my wife's car done at a local garage every 12 months. I know oil might be better than years back but somehow 2 years seems just too long.
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As a family we run two cars, one (Volvo 70 - tow car) is serviced by the main dealer. Not cheap, but not as expensive as you might expect. I find the quality first class. The car is collected and returned to my place of work. Valeted and comes with 12 months free Volvo assist. Interestingly, I needed two tyres as part of the service. Their price fully fitted was better than the fast fit outfits - that did surprise me.
My other car is a 20 year old MX5 with 185,000 miles. This is serviced by a local garage. No bells and whistles but a reliable service and reasonable.
I don't believe that one is better than the other, it is what you are looking for and best suits your pocket and convenience.
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