Having worked in the motor trade for over 20yrs and experiencing Ford, Iveco, Volkswagen, Mercedes I would say that there is an absolute load of bullshit spouted on here that is pretty easy to counter in nearly every situation.

Ok, if you don’t like dealership business model, don’t use them. If you do then work the system to suit yourself. But those trying to convince themselves that the motor dealers are basically out and out fraudsters are pathetic. You do realise that the dealers cant fart without the franchise threatening to take it off them. You do realise that everything is target related and that parts is probably 10x more important than the actual vehicle sales targets. Imagine the uproar when a dealership who has x number of services to carry out every month only uses a 10th of the appropriate oil for it but is using shit loads of the cheap stuff. Imagine when the dealer principle asks the part/service manager why have they carried out 200 services but only used 10 new oil filters.

Absolutely everything is computer driven now for stock and replacement and this is the kind of info a manufacturer and dealer principle can pull up in seconds. Yep it may have happened to a friend of a friend who fell out with the service manager because he didn’t wipe your friends backside but come on, if you buy a new car, it pays to take it to a main dealer.

You would be better off having a discussion of how to make the most of main dealers. Things like price matching, service contracts, how they will have up to date info on your car ecu etc etc. Yep you pay for that shiny facility but if you can get them to charge similar to the backstreet garage, why complain?

I don’t work in service dept but for example you can get Mercedes commercial main dealer servicing for a Vito (T5 type motor)for £15 per month. That includes A & B services, all labour, filters & parts. It also includes full breakdown cover for another 12mths following the service. This is a subsidised price for new vehicles but it gives an example.

that’s an easy one to avoid, every time you do an oil change, you have to remember to steal a filter to sell on eBay later. 😀

Same vented front discs and rear drums as on the Clio on the Zoé. Why do people keep posting false information about electric cars without checking?

People adapt to a car’s characteristics. I’ve noted people pull away quicker than they would in a normal car as that’s what happens without the normal penalty of lots of noise and spinning wheels. Check out the front tyres on Zoé/leaf, they’re often more worn than you’d expect for the mileage. However, the energy recovery braking works so well that the road brakes only bite when something goes not to plan, when a car continues around a roundabout when you were expecting it to pull off, for example.

Just booked my car in a my local BMW place for a service and sort some warranty stuff out. They said it’ll probably be in for a while because of the stuff that needs looking at, but they don’t do courtesy cars on a Saturday. WTF, seriously considering going back to a Hyundai next, the service from a main dealer is shyte.

Another vote for Opie oils.
I joined a single marque club to get a discount with them as well.