[Closed] Dealer car service extortion

I thought the service on our soul was expensive last year - I think I'll be using the independent this year.

Every time here

Each car Ive ever had has been serviced at an indie for half the cost of a main dealer

I cant help but think that if you coughed at the dealers price you should definitely get your pollen filter changed though 🙂

I've just booked mine into the main dealer. Started at £450, we agreed on £350 and I'm sure an indie would do it for £200. This is the first time I've used this one so we'll see how we go. Sometimes they do a few bits and bob's extra which can help soften the blow.

Recent quote for one of our rarely used cars,main dealer £985 incl vat, when I asked "how much and what for" I was instantly offered a discount for being a loyal customer.. So down to £750...
Local independant using genuine parts (thereby keeping warrenty) and a more specialist fettle quoted £435 incl vat..

Astonishing difference.

Someone's got to pay for the shiney motors, suits and pointy shoes at the dealers 🙂

Interestingly, based on that price, it doesn't seem to matter what make of car you have, the servicing costs are basically the same.
I suppose it's where the dealers make their money if they don't make much on the initial sale.
From recent experience, all dealers will offer a discount if pushed - they all want the business.

What I don't understand (with Kia) is they don't tend to be in prime parts of town and their dealerships aren't exactly hi-tech. Subaru are the worse for spit n sawdust but Kia aren't exactly that far behind so I don't understand why the service ££ is that high? Maybe they know that in a regular service is they don't have the option to fix/bill for parts to the customer? Only to Kia UK under warranty and that might be tightly regulated on what gets covered?

ALL guesses.

My Fiesta will be due a " big " service at 75k ( on 69k now ) so in budgeting, I rang around various Ford dealers.

Bristol St £320, Evans Halshaw £275, local family owned Ford franchise £220

The lad who works on my van, fully VAT registered etc £155. Think I will go for the last one.

Could it be the 7 year warranty and customers thinking they have to stick with Kia to keep that warranty ?

Someone's gotta pay.

[quote=hora said]What I don't understand (with Kia) is they don't tend to be in prime parts of town and their dealerships aren't exactly hi-tech. Subaru are the worse for spit n sawdust but Kia aren't exactly that far behind so I don't understand why the service ££ is that high? Maybe they know that in a regular service is they don't have the option to fix/bill for parts to the customer? Only to Kia UK under warranty and that might be tightly regulated on what gets covered?
ALL guesses.

P'haps because of their 7 yr warranty they don't make so much ££ on parts/labour and so bump up the servicing costs to compensate ?

I took my Vauxhall to a main dealer to keep the full service history up.

I was told it was leaking coolant, a drive shaft gator was split and it was leaking oil, and quoted a silly figure for repairing it.

I also asked them to look into juddering brakes (suspected front left disc was warped, but wanted to know for sure before ordering one), and they said all the callipers needed re-building or replacing!

My dads an old school mechanic (retired now), so I bought the new drive shaft gator and we set about fixing the problems.

No oil or coolant leak visible at all, and the old gator just had brand new white grease smeared on it, no splits or holes, it looked new.

6 months later the oil and coolant level didn't change (oil went down a tiny bit as you would expect), still no leaks visible and no more grease around the gator.

Replaced the disc too and it cured the brake issue and it stayed cured for over 6 months until I sold the car.

I may be paranoid, but I'm sure they "find" stuff wrong on old cars to sell you a new car - the dealer phoned me up every week for a few months with "we notice your car has some issues, we can guarantee you can run a brand new corsa for less per month!".

Use independents now.

I used to know a guy who was a big wheel (!) for Mercedes. He reckoned that all mechanics get paid about the same, whichever brand they work for. So where does all that price differential go? Not into your car.

"I may be paranoid, but I'm sure they "find" stuff wrong on old cars to sell you a new car - the dealer phoned me up every week for a few months with "we notice your car has some issues, we can guarantee you can run a brand new corsa for less per month!"."

what is it with vauxhall and trying to sell you a ****ing corsa.

i went in ready to buy/order a brand new 1.7 CDTI combo van on the spot.

the oik on sales was determined that this corsa with a bike rack was a better vehicle for me.

range rover garage tried to charge my parents 25 quid for a bottle of "screen wash" as theirs was low.... only my dad had filled it up the night before taking it to service. when questioned on it they insisted it was low - so he told them he would like to put his car in for warrenty work to get the screen wash tank leak repaired - they dropped the charge. it was still a 700 quid 20000 mile service on a victoria beckham toy range rover.

Quite often it's the hourly rate for they charge that bumps up the service cost, over a local independent.
The dealers are no better at doing the servicing than a decent independent, and all you end up paying for is the bored receptionist and vending machine coffee.

Every time I took my previous car into EMG Ford in Cambridge they would find loads of things that needed doing, that really didn't - trying to guilt trip you into replacing tyres that 'only' had 4mm of tread left, the pads on the rear drums always seemed to need replacing (can't see them, so an easy one to get away with) and the obligatory £3.50 for washer fluid even if you knew that the bottle was full when it went in.

I must be in the minority as in the main dealer is the cheapest price for servicing! Local Skoda specialists want £135 a service whereas the main dealer does a 2-service package for £200. The car's coming up for it's second service so have done the ring-around and all the independents charge extra for the 'special oil' my engine needs.

I've checked with the dealer and I can have the £200 deal again so I'll be doing that. Full dealer service stamps for the cheapest price 8)

I thought the EU had ruled that as long as you can prove you've had the car serviced at the specified intervals by a decent garage with OE-grade parts (invoices etc) then the warranty is still valid? Interested in this as my friends recently bought a C'eed for the 7 year warranty so would be interesting to see if they're going to pay for it via ridiculous service charges.

my ,local indy garage mentioned Kia (I think) as being a bit naughty in that the parts were not quite standard, so no option to get the Kia bits - and as above that 7 year warranty has to be accounted for somewhere..

Mate chatted to the Merc dealership to fit a towbar (to carry bikes) - £2k I think was the quote (body kit, but not overly flash). What!!! he could hire or even buy and discard numerous bikes before he was out of pocket - or hire a van each time..

Forgot to even mention the BMW bike I took to the main dealer for years! ****in-ell that was an expensive bike to run, but way to complicated to service myself (K1200GT).

I asked for a 60 000km quote from VW for our T5 and they wantd 850 euros plus tax. We tried an independant garage and they wanted 380 euros! No guessing which we went to.

Ironically these days a main Subaru dealer is way better than any indie. I guess its reverse the case for a Ford.

Some main dealers are good. i.e they know your model inside and out as thats all they see every day. Some indies will fleece you with the 'get your loyalty then hit you with a major bill later (and you'll think 'oh well its an oldish car and I trust Bill')... 😉

I think it's fair to say that [s]most[/s] some main dealers border on fraud with their charges and part replacements. My Father in Laws Land Rover dealer recently tried to charge him £40 for new wiper blades which he had changed himself the day before it went in for service. Not surprisingly he went nuts and they removed the cost.

It'll cost them considerably more than that though, as he was seriously considering a new one but is now looking at alternatives!

Same with Peugeot service cost was nearly £200, not entirely sure what justifies the price other than its a main dealer?

range rover garage tried to charge my parents 25 quid for a bottle of "screen wash" as theirs was low.... only my dad had filled it up the night before taking it to service.

Yeah but they have to check the operation of the front and rear wash wipe as part of the service, and its best to hold them on for a minute each to definitely make sure theres no problem...

Ironically these days a main Subaru dealer is way better than any indie. I guess its reverse the case for a Ford.

not at all in my experience!!!! What makes you say that? (though I'm referring to an independent subaru place rather than a back street indie).

Whereabouts in SYorks? I use Huddersfield Subaru - I think they took the mech staff of the Kia/Subaru when they closed their franchise.

Sheffield - Sheffield Subaru Service is who I use on my leggy when I'm not doing the work myself

I always use main dealer on the Lotus, prices are advertised on their website and I've never needed extras adding on. Looks like it's cheaper to run than the Kia Ceed owned by the OP.

http://www.castlesportscars.co.uk/service/lotus-elise-exige-service-toyota-engine-3

pirahna - it might be cheaper to service but I doubt it's cheaper to run.
I might have the upper hand when it comes to tyres, fuel, insurance etc 😉

rascal - Member
pirahna - it might be cheaper to service but I doubt it's cheaper to run.
I might have the upper hand when it comes to tyres, fuel, insurance etc

I changed all 4 tyres on Saturday £324. Insurance just renewed £230 for the year. Fuel, commuting is around 38mpg, steady motorway is around 42mpg.

Local main dealer offer of 3+ (year old) service scheme worked out cheaper than local independent specialist for servicing, g'box oil and cam belt change. £100's of pounds in some cases and with the added bonus of a brand new courtesy car.

"Same with Peugeot service cost was nearly £200"

i dont get it .... 200 quid for a service isnt actually bad especially a dealer service.

im 50 quid in oils and premium filters for my peugeot at the factors - rrp on the oils and filters is much more.... - and thats what your paying at the dealers....+ their time. Takes me an hour and i dont have to pay an oil disposal charge.

and piranhas depreciation is much less than your kia...... my mate got more on an insurance pay out for his (hit head on by a drunk) elise than he paid for it 5 years/30000 miles previous - he bought another.

I changed all 4 tyres on Saturday £324. Insurance just renewed £230 for the year. Fuel, commuting is around 38mpg, steady motorway is around 42mpg.

Roughly the same then…and yours in nicer by virtue of the fact it's a Lotus and mine's a Kia - what is it BTW?
I need 2 new front tyres for my Golf - what tyres did you get?

It's a 111R, so the 190hp version, with the touring pack. Tyres are Toyo T1R's. A bit of an old design but they work really well on the Lotus.

Had my car from 6 months old. Over 4 now and only ever serviced by an independent at between 40 and 50% of the main dealer cost. Warranty intact (expired now)

I use an indy for the Porsche as Porsche owners are massive asshats and a 911 without the correct number of stamps in the book will be very hard to sell when the time comes. But the indy I use is excellent. Last time I specifically asked if anything else needed doing, they said no. I pressed them a bit and eventually they agreed to change the gearbox oil. I wasn't exactly giving them a blank cheque book but I was happy to do some preventative work and they insisted it wasn't needed !

The other three cars just get an oil change at home around MOT time. Always <£100 for the lot and in fact because the T4 runs on such cheap oil it only came to £50 last time. 90% of the items on a service are just "check this", "check that" rather than actually doing anything and get covered in an MOT anyway. Any work that needs doing I can do myself.

I do wonder what normal people do though...

Having a mate that owns an independent garage means I just don't let main dealers take the piss. I keep up the dealer servicing on my car for the sake of the service history.

Less than £200 a service at the SEAT main dealer down the road from me. That includes full AA cover (relay, breakdown, home start) for a year.

They do occasionally take the piss with the pricing of some of their "additions" nearly £60 to change my coolant but generally they are a decent garage.

Paid £27 for oil, oil filter and air filter for the MX5 from the motor factors the other week.

I use an indy for the Porsche as Porsche owners are massive asshats

Anyhoo, to get my Cayenne serviced by the dealer is £450 (before I haggle down a bit) but the servicing is only every 20k/2 years so it actually works out pretty good compared to a mainstream car that costs £200 every year.
On the plus side the dealer washes and vacuums the car and I've got a new Boxster for MrsSB to play in when I take mine in for a towbar to be fitted in 10 days 🙂

Independents can be snakes too. I took one of my Hiluxs for a "free mot" inspection at a garage a few years back as I was concerned about something or other failing. Keep in mind that here in NI all mot tests are done by the dvla and are considerably stricter than England/Scotland/Wales.

The garage phoned me the next day and asked me to come pick up the truck, wouldn't discuss costs over the phone. When I got there the owner took me on a terrifying overview of the many serious faults on the vehicle all of which would certainly fail the mot. The cost - £400 to £750 quid. Maybe more.

Booked it in for the mot anyway. Passed with no advisories.

Just to add a bit of balance.

I use a Honda dealer to service our Accord estate. It rarely comes out at more that £300 and they often do things for free if I nip in (lightbulbs and checks).
Last but one service the car was an hour later than they said because a mechanic had cut himself so they were a man down - knocked £80 off the bill.

An independent was £75 cheaper when I last checked and didn't give a courtesy car.

The dealers approach and attitude (I never feel like I've been ripped off) has meant I replaced our last accord with a newer one and will do the same again when we change. They have a long-term view of customers which I like - a free lightbulb and fitting 8 years ago has got them a long-term customer.

Reminds of some bikeshops. That incidently can end up costing more over the course of a year too.

One localish one told me my XTR rear mech and chainset would need replacing soon.

Visually worn, mechanically- never gave a problem. 5yrs on from that the rear mech was ripped in two when I got the chain growth wrong on my new shorter shock in my frame. The chainset was a MKI -first out Saint crankset. That lasted me another 3 or so years.

Never trusted or went back in that shop again. Car owners are like some bike owners- when I first got back into bikes I would have taken ^ advice and changed the bits based on the trusted-advice from the shop.

Trouble is, you generally know if something's borked on your bike as you have some relevant know-how.
I would be sceptical if a garage said X or Y needs replacing because I wouldn't have a clue if it was genuine or they were trying to fleece me.
I would be very wary of 'free' checks etc too - they are pretty much guaranteed to 'find' a fault to recoup money for the labour involved - that would seem pretty obvious to a cynic like me.

I went to a garage 'can you change my nearside wheelbearing please'.

Are you sure? We need to start with the symptoms etc etc etc.

No. Change it please.

I then got 'that was a lucky guess wasn't it' at the invoice/paying point of the transaction. On the next issue they wanted to strip down everything AND replace the cat and exhaust as they thought the cat was goosed.

Thankfully chris-diesel* of this shire popped up at this point.

If I didn't have a questioning personality(!) I'd have shelled out for a new exhaust system, cat and other diagnostics.

It was a gasket and obvious. Nothing else (chris-diesel works for a main dealer). Before we add 'yes STW to STW'er' - I was in his dealership and overheard him saying to a customer at handback that he'd found a cause/tightened something up and just to keep an eye on it. So hes good with main dealer customers too....

*Put a dash in his username incase he does a ego-forum search and gets a bighead 😀

This morning I've serviced The Wife's Polo. (No that's not a euphamisim). All in cost £66.

Oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter, fuel filter, and spark spark plugs. Topped up the washer bottle, checked the anti freeze concentration.

The price difference between genuine spark plugs, NGK £61, and the same, exactly the same, from motor factors £18.

At a main dealer that service is £380. Local indie £240.

As with your mountain bike, much cheaper if you're willing to have a go yourself.

I did the van the other weekend, think it was about £60 in total for filters, oil and glow plugs. A couple of hours to do, but not a hard job - I'd say if you can bleed MTB brakes and set up gears, you can easily service your car.