[Closed] Increasing costs - car servicing....

What's included in the service?

Volvos have always had a reputation for pricey main dealer servicing but a 2.5 times difference between a main dealer and the independent sounds more like one is quoting for a routine oil and filter change and the other is quoting something much more substantial. At 150k miles I would assume it's the latter so worth exploring. Either that or the name 'Arnold Shark' is the more relevant component to the quote!

EDIT - the price from the main dealer may well include a DPF, which would be where the extra £600 comes from. That's about how much they cost!

My L200 always hits near £1k service cost by the time the ERG has been cleaned out.

I do about 4-6k PA and the truck is on 32k mileage. My old L200 that i bought new in 2005 and kept for 13 years cost half this to run. I used to do interim oil changes and then full service every 2 years/c10-12k. When it was in warranty they pretty much forced me to do 12k services every year even though I was doing less than 4-6k pa.

Merc EQA on its way so the truck will go back to the odd trip and family holidays/mtb'ing again..

The increased cost of oil will be quite a chunk of the increase

Volvos have always had a reputation for pricey main dealer servicing but a 2.5 times difference between a main dealer and the independent sounds more like one is quoting for a routine oil and filter change and the other is quoting something much more substantial. At 150k miles I would assume it’s the latter so worth exploring.

Nope, they seem to be the same.
I am also shocked at the £100 increase in service costs at the independent I use. Apparently it is all in parts, their labour costs have not risen this last year.

I need rid of a car...

Parts have shot up, and has delay in supply/stock.

Parts are very expensive now, as is the price of engine oil.

As well as the cost of parts etc going up don’t forget as well their base costs will have gone up a lot (energy in particular) and likely wages etc.

My service is due soon. Not looking forward to it! Not a major one thankfully but still not expecting change from £300 ish

Would love to see what you are getting for £420. Oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter. Top up screen wash, then it will be 30 checks on tyres, pads, discs, wiper blades, anti freeze concentration etc. Then a phone call to sau, all serviced but our technician has found some issues that need attention at extra cost.

Would love to see what you are getting for £420. Oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter. Top up screen wash, then it will be 30 checks on tyres, pads, discs, wiper blades, anti freeze concentration etc.

They are generously throwing in a new sidelight bulb as well...but yes, you are right.

Cost 900 to service our aging Skoda! Major service inc cambelt.

Main dealer Kia once quoted me a v high service cost estimate, so I asked for a print out of what it included. Took said pages to my usual indie to do to make sure everything covered.

I use the same indie each year, will report back if prices increase.

My L200 always hits near £1k service cost by the time the ERG has been cleaned out.

I do about 4-6k PA and the truck is on 32k mileage. My old L200 that i bought new in 2005 and kept for 13 years cost half this to run. I used to do interim oil changes and then full service every 2 years/c10-12k. When it was in warranty they pretty much forced me to do 12k services every year even though I was doing less than 4-6k pa.

Merc EQA on its way so the truck will go back to the odd trip and family holidays/mtb’ing again..

This felt like some sort of riddle or aptitude test, "How many peopleL200s were going to st ivesthe scrapyard?"

Use a trusted Indy BMW specialist for my X1.
Gives me a price using genuine BMW parts vs generic parts. Labour is always the same. About 1/2 dealer rates. He is superb and I wouldn’t use any body else. Knows more than the dealers about faults and problems. I’ve tried sourcing the parts cheaper than he can, not a chance. I would be paying the same for generic parts as he does for genuine.

We recently paid £320 for a major service on the Smax, which was less than I expected. We also have a poverty-spec Ibiza with a 1-litre engine that cost £700 to service, but that did include a cambelt.

My L200 always hits near £1k service cost by the time the ERG has been cleaned out.

Dafuq? 10 minutes with some sockets and clutch cleaner will do the transfer pipe, if you're driving it properly it should never need done annually.

@matt at 150K I'd just be buying a vac pump and do it yourself with decent parts from the factors, the time it actually takes will be minimal as long as your fuel lines have a priming bulb. That's absolute robbery, a competent mechanic should have that done in an hour (lets be generous and say £100) then parts.

I'm paying £170 for a minor service (Oil and filter) and a brake fluid change at my local indy for my diesel Octavia. Will change the air and cabin filter myself as they're a 5 minute job.

Can't be bothered to do the oil change as it's a nasty messy job 😀

Sounds like my independent - very good and I trust them.

But, like so many things, is getting chuffing expensive....

Worth remembering, engine oil can be very expensive. I spent over £100 in oil alone to do mine myself. (7litre capacity).
A colleague just changed the oil on his BMW 535, 9 litres of oil. Don't know what it cost him.

Then you have brake fluid change and whatever else is due on the service plus disposal.

I got accused of being trade by the local tip as they only allow one 5 litre container. Yeah, whatever mate, I'm unlikely to keep driving to the tip for every oil change if I was trade

Transit oil change and filter 7am this morning using genuine Ford oil £150 + vat, the ford garage over £300
The sump probably holds a fair drop of oil

Audi in Brighton quoted me £230+vat for an oil change service. Which is pretty much just changing the oil and filter!

Merc E Class last week - Main dealer approx £750 to do oil change + fuel and air filter. Independent doing it for £275

I quite like having a car outside warranty so I can just change the oil and filters myself for under 50 quid lol. Air filter cosfs about 12 pounds and takes 30 seconds to change, oil gets sucked out with a vaccuum collector that cost 30 quid and has done around ten oil changes for me so far so more than paid for itself. Good quality manufacturer spec oil is about 30 quid a gallon which is enough for one full change and the oil filter is about 8 quid and screws on and off by hand. Never had to get under the car to do any of it yet.

The only services I can understand there being a high cost to are major ones where spark plugs are changed and cambelts checked as they take more time skill and tools to do.

Had my m4 serviced last month by the main dealer, cost £355 for engine oil and filter, air filter , cabin pollen filter, brake fluid, and rear diff oil.

I thought that was actually surprisingly good value for a main dealer.

I quite like having a car outside warranty so I can just change the oil and filters myself for under 50 quid lol

You'll potentially (depending on age of car etc) still get hammered for not having a FSH. An FSH doesn't have to be main stealer but can make a big difference to the second hand price with none at all or only partial.

Personally I am happy to pay a good indie to do the work. I know it's done right and I just factor it in to cost of ownership.

A colleague just changed the oil on his BMW 535, 9 litres of oil. Don’t know what it cost him.

Back in the day when I had an e39 535i the 9 litres of Mobil One for it cost less than the 4.5 litres of oil in my OH's diesel.

Thing is oil + filter change is already quite cheap at most places if you actually ask for it (instead of a service). Halfords have it as starting from 73.99.

You’ll potentially (depending on age of car etc) still get hammered for not having a FSH. An FSH doesn’t have to be main stealer but can make a big difference to the second hand price with none at all or only partial.

Yes true depending on factors like how long you own the car and if you run it into the ground or not. I tend to keep mine longer and run them until they're not economical to repair anymore though. My car is seven years old now and at two services per year at 250 quid versus 50 quid I've saved 1600 quid (had to get the stamps the first three years for warranty) but only lost around 750 quid in value by not having a full service history. The longer I keep it the more those numbers will be in my favour too, although I appreciate these days a lot of people only keep their car three or four years so this doesn't work for them.

I used todo my own servicing on my Accord Diesel. Mainly because I got a massive drum of oil cheap and also it needed doing every 12k by the dealers but the feeling was that it should be every 6k as that helped lengthen the life of the cam chain. I believe the Japanese service intervals were every 10,000km/6000 miles.

Anyway when I came to sell it, people were happy to see the receipts for filters and oil etc. I just wrote in the service book the date and mileage.

Always done my own servicing too. Thought I'd splash out recently and take it to the garage thinking a 'Major Service' would include a timing belt.

Nope. It doesn't. So I'll be doing it myself again 🙂

I was thinking, what with the crazy increases in energy costs, can you recycle old engine oil by burning it for heat?

You'd have to get it pretty hot to burn it 🙂

I was thinking, what with the crazy increases in energy costs, can you recycle old engine oil by burning it for heat?

yes you can - I used to have a Thermomobile used oil burner in a commercial building I had. Was a few KW capacity, had a small pump that trickled oil into a metal pan that you lit with a piece of paper and a squirt of brake cleaner and a heat exchanger and blower to distribute the heat.

https://www.industrial-equipment.co.uk/online-tools-store/r096-6004-waste-oil-heater-info.html

I was thinking, what with the crazy increases in energy costs, can you recycle old engine oil by burning it for heat?

I thought they'd banned that now?

My old garage used to heat the workshops from old oil in winter.

https://garagewire.co.uk/news/garages-face-dilemma-ahead-of-small-waste-oil-burner-reg-changes/

A service isn't just oil changes. Brake fluid needs to be changed between 2+5 years too. A bit more aggro than hoovering the oil out and slinging on a filter.
Coolant also has a service life.

Etc etc etc

Jeez. While now I'm older and more 'cash rich, time poor' then when I was a younger, single man, and off course cars are much more complex than the cheap *boxes I used to drive, I'm still happy to do oil and filter, brake pads, brake fluid. When I read the cost now I'm for ever greatful my dad taught me a bit about cars helping me keep those *boxes running!

Transit oil change and filter 7am this morning using genuine Ford oil £150 + vat, the ford garage over £300
The sump probably holds a fair drop of oil

not sure about the older ones but the 2.0L custom takes at least 9L, will be about £100 at a garage just for the oil if its decent/correct spec.

Engine oil doesn't have to be stupid prices

20L of fully synthetic VW long life for £3/ l

https://www.onbuy.com/gb/mannol-20l-fully-synthetic-engine-oil-longlife-3-5w30-ll-04-504507-c3~c10488~p22336289/?ag_qid=1816898a81033cc23ce0741e35d3a99c&ag_idx=frontend_product_search_2000

I bet most garages by in bigger quantities at lower prices then that.

Coolant also has a service life.

Not on a VW, as long as it's got the factory stuff.

20L of fully synthetic VW long life for £3/ l

Trying to pour that will be a right pain in the anoos.

Can’t be bothered to do the oil change as it’s a nasty messy job

Pump up vac pump, walk away, drink tea, come back, refill, change filter, take oil to tip.

Mmmm hard.

Similarly brake fluid change is exactly the same as how you bleed (proper) bike brakes. Coolant is as difficult as pulling a hose or plug and knowing where the bleed points are. None of these are difficult jobs in the slightest and can all be done with minimal tools. Barring the oil filter it can all be done with a 1/4 inch drive set and a decent size container. None take particularly long to do and you could do the lot in an afternoon if you were so inclined.

Pump up vac pump, walk away, drink tea, come back, refill, change filter, take oil to tip.

Mmmm hard.

Never said it was hard 🙄

Pump up vac pump, walk away, drink tea, come back, refill, change filter, take oil to tip.

Mmmm hard.

Similarly brake fluid change is exactly the same as how you bleed (proper) bike brakes. Coolant is as difficult as pulling a hose or plug and knowing where the bleed points are. None of these are difficult jobs in the slightest and can all be done with minimal tools. Barring the oil filter it can all be done with a 1/4 inch drive set and a decent size container. None take particularly long to do and you could do the lot in an afternoon if you were so inclined.

+1 but I have the time luxury of not having children, my own workshop and the skills from being a Natural Born Tinkerer.
Spannering my own cars (both 18years old with 280k miles between them) must have saved £10k's over the years.

Spannering my own cars (both 18years old with 280k miles between them) must have saved £10k’s over the years.

I'd rather pay someone to do jobs I don't want to do, mainly using the theory that I can earn more in the time it'd take me to do the job than it costs me to pay someone else to do it.

It's a bit like cleaning the house, we've a cleaner and I/we have pretty much had a cleaner since I was in my 20's (so getting on for +30 years). Sure I/we could do it, but I've zero inclination and never have had plus I/we have never had to 'waste' evenings/weekends doing it. I've always had time-heavy jobs, so the last thing I want to do with my 'spare' time is clean a house - or mend a car.

I have home spannered before - however it is not as simple as some of you are suggesting.

I don't have garage or flat drive, nor some of the kit like vacuum oil pump and oil filter spanner. Even then, oil can be uber expensive now etc etc. I need jack and stands, socket sets and more. Been there, been stung by 'little jobs' that ended up taking hours and hours and needing 'one more tool'.

The most valuable part - I also get someone who is properly trained to look at something and go "oh, that is not right", rather than my amateur eye going "she'll be reet". Eldest_oab's van was also serviced yesterday by same place - and they took one look and noted the tracking off. Under my car they also went 'track rod is wearing' - things I would find hard to spot without knowledge and a lift.

I am not complaining about the price the garage charges - at the end of the day their expertise is what I am really paying for. Just observing how much of a rise in costs there has been...