Habitation Service cost
I recently booked my Adria twin van conversion into the supplying dealer for its habitation service early in the new year. The cost was quoted at £315 for this service.
I have since made enquiries elsewhere and have found an Adria dealership charging £195 for the same service. This is daylight robbery for sure.
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Name and shame, BtB, otherwise others may get stung.
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You can usually find service prices cheaper elsewhere but just make sure you are getting a similar/adequate standard; go for value for money rather than the price itself. For less experienced people, paying for a better level of service is worthwhile.
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Its the Hab service only, the mechanical service is not due till the 2nd year, however im having an oil and filter change at my local Fiat dealer the same week and this is also cheaper than my supplying dealer.
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Is it even a service.......??
Usually it is just a check whether everything works, little or no "servicing" is actually done......
£315 (or even £195) is a lot of money to pay someone to tell you whether the things in your van actually work.....
Basically it's a con, it just provides the dealer with an additional income stream, they've got you over a barrel to keep the warranty going.....
On a PVC made of metal, and therefore hopefully less susceptible to damp worries I would be tempted to either skip it completely or pay a suitably accredited mobile technician. I was told that this would be adequate to maintain the warranty and near me the "going rate" tends to be around 150 quid......
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I’m in the ‘skip it’ group. Always have been, no matter what the LV.
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Snap,
With 4 cars, a M/H, a motorbike and a car transporter trailer in the household, the various manufacturers would like me to have eight services a year (cos the van needs hab & cab)....
At say £200 a time on average that would be £1600 a year.
I'll do everything myself (even bought a damp meter), buying the parts required carefully off the internet, and take a chance on the odd failure that might not therefore be covered by warranty being less than I would have spent over the years on "servicing" ie bodging by the YTS apprentice at my local stealers......
But I am a very tight northerner..............others might have more money to spend than me.....
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Completely agree, as far as I'm concerned the only benefit of a habitation check is a gas leak test, which of course can be done on its own for much less.
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Not at all, JV. The brakes etc can be kept in good working order, which is the usual stipulation, without incurring the cost of getting a dealer to stamp the service record. Don’t forget that, when being towed, third party liability is covered by the car insurance anyway.
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My habitation service has averaged out at around £250 a year not much different from my caravan before that. We don't know how old the OP's motorhome is and whether it is still in warranty. If it is it may be a condition of the warranty to have a habitation service each year by an approved dealer/approved mobile service agent. If outside the warranty period people are free to decide on the need for the habitation service. I also assume that taking it to the alternative dealer involves the OP in extra inconvenience but there is quite a gap which might make it the preferred choice?
David
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People are free to decide on the need for the habitation service at any time, David, irrespective of warranty.
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Are you referring to van conversions or motorhomes generally?
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David
My Adria is 2018 and I agree with your comments re warranty etc.. Ive tried penny pinching on such serious matters before and its backfired, so its complying with the warranty rules for me. The dealer I have chosen for cost reasons is the same distance to travel from my home address as the supplying dealer,, after 3 years I will have the Hab service done on my drive. If people wish to cut corners on gas safety its up to them but I have seen the misery it causes at first hand too many times for the sake of a few quid.
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If people wish to cut corners on gas safety its up to them but I have seen the misery it causes at first hand too many times for the sake of a few quid.
You place an awful lot of faith in the apprentice at your local stealers. There's a fighting chance your new Adria came out of the factory in good working order. By the time some young lad in the back yard of the dealers has faffed with it, whilst half high on last nights Cannabis and now busy texting on his phone, it may well come back worse than it went in, something I have seen far to often with my own vehicles for them to ever grace a dealers unless it is something I simply cannot do myself......
But everybody is different. You have clearly identified how you wish to proceed and as long as you are happy, that's perfect......
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Ah, TT, you took the words right out of my mouth.
I can’t add to that other than to say we have twice agreed to buy caravans from dealers which we had been told had just been ‘serviced’ only to detect gas leaks that the dealership had missed. My special gas leak detector (nose) was obviously a tool not used by the ‘technician’.
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Some may even have had greater experience of such things than yourself, Husky.
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And not enough punters prepared to pay £250 for an oil & filter change and a "check" over, when the parts can be bought for around £40....
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Bob
Thanks for the clarification. I agree with you and personally take the cost of servicing as part of motorhome ownership. Fortunately I have a dealer I have confidence in and I think their charges are inline with others within reasonable travelling distance.
David
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I know, I’ve seen it 😀
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Oil looks to be about £50 for 5L of correct oil for a modern Fiat so that's £100 then a filter say a tenner so "£110. Plus often needing special tools and to crawl around under the van then dispose of oil. A large cost of a garage costs is disposing of oil environmentally as they are no longer allowed to pour it down the drain. Not saying dealers are still overcharging but its not as bad as you like to make out. Plus not everyone wants to get greasy and oily or has the skill to do it like many things in life.
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Michael, my comment was aimed at servicing of vehicles in general, not specifically the servicing of a Ducato M/H.
My local Asda has Castrol Magnatec oil almost permanently on offer at £23 for 4 litres of most common grades, and oil filters for loads of cars are available with free home delivery from Euro Car Parts, OEM brands, for less than a tenner, meaning anybody with modest DIY skills can do an oil & filter change with quality parts for £33.....
Yes some vehicles take a bit more oil etc but your hundred quid will buy an awful lot of oil for most vehicles and even the Ducato/Boxer doesn't need 10 litres so not sure where your hundred quid comes from.
Whether you can "crawl under the van" comes down to your level of personal mobility, I can, you might not be able and/or willing to do so...
The rest of the servicing jobs like changing air, pollen & fuel filters, spark plugs on petrol vehicles etc are also quite easy with basic skills & tools, and instructions usually freely available on You Tube and the internet forums.
I was probably lucky, my dad started buying me knackered motorbikes when I was 12 and we would rebuild the engines together. At 14 we did the same with old banger cars so I can do basic maintenance.......
As for disposing of old oil, I pass my local tip on the way to work so dispose of mine for nowt......
Self servicing is possibly not for most people, and the new Ducato needs Multiecuscan software to reset the service light or it goes into limp mode apparently, so I may have to pay a dealer to reset that for me, or cough up the £100 to download it to my laptop......
Dealers obviously provide an important service for those unable or unwilling to do their own maintenance, or for the jobs beyond basic servicing. But the big glass fronted showroom, the smiling blonde in reception, the "free" Latte and the admin staff wandering around with sheafs of paper all have to be paid for. I would far rather you pay for them than me, so will be avoiding the dealers if at all possible........
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We tend towards the DIY servicing of vehicles and certainly habitation. Both practical people, brought up learning how to do/check things, tinkering with classic cars, making and mending lots of things around home. We have restored old caravans, old cars. Bit more difficult nowadays where computers are involved, but a habitation check list is three quarters observation, an eighth the right tools and an eighth a bit of practical knowledge. Here's an example from one company that does them:
https://habcheck.co.uk/media/find/47
Note that this is a habitation checklist, not a service. They will want more of your pounds to do that!
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We have a Laika MH it needs a Damp Check every year and it takes them a couple of hours £90 + vat. Worth checking as when we had a Pilote the Dealer insisted that we had to have a full service at nearly £300 so I contacted Pilote who said it only needed a Damp Check. The original Dealer refused so I went elsewhere.
Swift on the other hand insisted on full Habitation Service.
The Habitation Check is just a way of charging you for checking to see if the can find anything wrong that they can charge you extra to fix.
On an Alco Chassis the grease points on the axle need attention every year. This is not part of the Habitation Service, neither is cleaning out the flue on the fridge or a Gas Check.
if you then take your MH to a Fiat Dealer for service then they don’t grease the back axle either because it’s not part of 5he Fiat Service as it was not supplied by them.
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