Could someone step through that list and to educate muppets like me what needs doing and what is them taking the piss (overcharging, replacing early, etc)?

All advisories, probably only the front tyres are really a worry, I’d swap them to the back to get some more life out of them.

She can plane on having a bigish bill for the front suspension at some point in the next few years though.

Plenty of meat left on the pads and discs*

I got my money’s worth out of my last set.

Cae batteries are funny things and do have a habit of just dying so this check is useful.

I had been having no issues with my car – drive Sheffield to Nottingham for Christmas Day and then had to take the MiL back to her home.

On leaving the car just wouldn’t start. Needed a new battery.

Same thing happened to my mum’s car a few years ago. Had been starting fine – stopped to fill up with petrol and again wouldn’t go. Battery completely gone.

Don’t know about the rest of the list…

depends how far from your mother you are and how much of an inconvenience it would be….. if it was my mother it would be the end of the world as we know it…. (but in reality little more than the car wont start ill go in and have another cup of coffee)

Audi are indeed terrible for invented work, I have posted before a number of examples we experienced – £1000’s of quids worjth. We also had a Toyot where they kept changing the “cat” under warranty.

Anyway OP I would look at the tyres and give the car a brake test yourself – does it stop promptly in a straight line ? Battery you can do yourself if you want – eurocarparts are good. The other stuff is all likely to be bollix.

If you MiL wants to sell however I am certain I could beat the dealer trade in price – seriously interested assuming its a 4 door and not a horrible colour. My kids all shared a Yaris – 10years okd now 120k miles and only really had consumables and a recent new exhaust

Disappointed they missed a trick with the carpet mats. Should’ve first insisted the car requires mats installing at some exorbitant price, thus setting up the necessity to replace unsafe carpet mats next time. Must try harder.

Got all the hallmarks of the Bury branch, from my experience with them when my Mrs’s had a Yaris.
A Relative lives in Bury but goes to Colne for servicing etc…!

All a car needs is an oil and filter change once in a blue moon, everything else just gets picked up at MOT time.

Our daughters Yaris started clunking on bumps, turned out to be the wish bones bushes if I recall, it was cheap as chips to replace them at a local independent.

Volvo dealer was gonna charge my old man for 8 spark plugs on a 4 cylinder engine, luckily I reviewed the work sheet as I was with him at the time.

Admin error apparently.. Yeh right.

Just because it’s a main dealer do not assume they are honest or competent.

There’s such a thing as a ‘car mat safety check’? Wow.

We had a 1999 Yaris for 17 years until last year. In that time it needed very little – tyres, pads etc. Water pump bearings went during warranty, and the fuel pump went when we decided to sell at 17 years old – we had it fixed, and the new owner is very happy with it.

That’s a dodgy dealer and a half.

Also the first service on my old fiesta at a ford dealership, they ‘replaced the air filter’.

Well it wouldn’t have needed replacing at that millage anyway, but i felt I had to ask them what they did to the expensive custom induction system that I’d fitted.

Friend took her X trail in to get the panoramic sunroof looked at (auto open or close only prompted 10cm moves before stopping). Nissan Main Stealer had a quick look and said they’d need it for a day at least to strip out the head lining and look at the motor etc.

30 mins on google and I found the “re-learning” setup procedure for the auto open and close function. Emailed it to her and hey presto it was fixed after the correct button press sequence.

So either the Main Stealer in Eastbourne are really thick or they are a bunch of scammers. I’d go for the latter are the non replacement of our XTrails pollen filter.

That list is either:

A: the car is about to fall apart.
B: the dealer smells an easy sell.

From my dealings with Yaris’ of various ages I’d say B.

Seeing as my dad’s X reg Yaris is near-mint and I have eyes on it as a winter car when he gives up driving I’d be getting yours to an independent you trust for a check-up.

You mean people still use main dealers for service/repairs/mot outside of warranty…

I do for my Fabia as they’re the cheapest around and have yet to try and rip me off. I can easily do the servicing myself but the ease of handing them £120 or £170 depending on which service it is, getting to play in a new courteousy car for the day and having that stamp in the book for resale time makes it a bargain. The next best is In N’ Out but they want to halve the service interval (to every 5K!! That’s 3 services a year!) and charge more due to it having ‘Special VAG oil’ I’ll stick to the main dealer thanks.

Nissans have a lot of ‘secret’ fixes as do many cars. Ignition key/pedal presses to get and clear codes.

My Wife’s replacement to the Yaris, had supposedly had 4 services in the 23k miles it had done in the 3 year old car when we bought it, all main dealer. Local garage did the recent service, and changed the pollen filter – leaves and crap all over – not one of the other ‘services’ had changed it.

Prefer local independents.

There’s such a thing as a ‘car mat safety check’? Wow.

Toyota recalled 6 million of their vehicles in 2010 for dodgy car mats causing “unintended acceleration”.

Before they did it’s thought 37 people were killed at least partly because of it, the total cost to Toyota was $2bn.

So yeah, they check the mats on 2009 Toyotas whenever they see them.

Mowgli – let us know how you get on challenging the dealer.

The finest one I had was from a garage I was recommended in Stirling when we first moved here. Mrs_oab took our Yaris for it’s MOT and service, walked to work. Garage called and told her the headlights had sagged, and there was no adjuster, so needed two new headlights fitting….!

I’m not planning on confronting RRG – just hoping I can convince MiL not to a) believe a word they say and b) visit them again in future. Unfortunately I think their last 5 or 6 cars have come from RRG so they obviously trust them. AFAIK they’ve not actually had any work done other than replace the worn out tyres and possibly take a new Yaris for a test drive.

Seems like a comprehensive list of recommended work to me – presumably that’s what the traffic-light system indicates (is there a key?)? All of the warning (orange) items are potentially valid (brakes are low, battery is apparently on it’s way out, corrosion is starting to be evident) and you can’t really say otherwise without the benefit of detail / context. If they’d not highlighted the issues they’re not doing their job.

Prices are another thing, but that’s just the usual main dealer pricing structure – who’s surprised at that these days!?

I guess it depends on whether you prefer to use stuff to the point of destruction or employ preventative maintenance.

Frogstonp, you can guarantee that when the list was handed to the customer it wasn’t just friendly advice and useful info. Service desks in stealers have sales targets to make, I’d be pretty certain that it was implied that this is the work that should be done, and I bet they even offered to make an appointment there and then

I always employ preventative maintenance on my oil filter.
It has to be replaced every 25 miles lest my oil may get dirty.

Can you guarantee to the contrary? Maybe they implied it should be done, maybe it really should be done!

It’s the usual STW pitchfork party based on incomplete information..

OP sad to hear I won’t be buying a nice low milage Yaris 😐

No reason not to buy a new car if she really wants – new model is great and proof the French can build a decent car, she can check around for prices, carwow etc. Just don’t have the work done on the old one and don’t part-x it with the main stealer. As for the battery if she wants it changed she can go to an independent battery place or you can do it next time you are there. As an aside eurocarparts suggests (I am guessing model/engine size) that a battery is £75 (Lion)-£100 (Bosch) although they do have a sale on. Buy one and take it over.

Did the lightbulbs no need repainted?

frogstomp – Member
Seems like a comprehensive list of recommended work to me – presumably that’s what the traffic-light system indicates (is there a key?)? All of the warning (orange) items are potentially valid (brakes are low, battery is apparently on it’s way out, corrosion is starting to be evident) and you can’t really say otherwise without the benefit of detail / context. If they’d not highlighted the issues they’re not doing their job.

Prices are another thing, but that’s just the usual main dealer pricing structure – who’s surprised at that these days!?

I guess it depends on whether you prefer to use stuff to the point of destruction or employ preventative maintenance
Hallelujah
A reasonable post at last!
Maybe you should have a chat with RRG. Confrontation sounds very aggressive. Maybe they’re sat in the brew room talking about the MIL who is so in love with her car they’re amazed she’s thinking of either changing her car or having ALL the work done. Most of the work is listed as advisory and as mentioned has a traffic light system. I don’t know how the info was delivered maybe a misunderstanding maybe not. You should pop in with the MIL for a chat
then let us know if you still think they where trying to have the shirt off her back.

I wonder how may of the people who have commented work for free or cost things out at near cost. Which seems to be how they expect to pay for things.
After all we are all responsible for the vehicles we drive. They are very dangerous and we don’t seem to really get that!!
Yes some prices are expensive. Excessively so in some cases but there is a reason some things cost more. Are the 40 quid brake set going to last as long? probably more susceptible to falling apart, sqealing or developing judder. More importantly are they going to stop your wife and kids as well as the ones that cost more. They probably in most cases cost more because of the extra R&D.

I would change battery from ECP at about £60 with code, take car to local reputable MOT centre (avoid £20/free MOT deals as they want you in the door to fail parts they can sell you) this will tell you what parts are actually needing replaced and get it serviced at local independant garage. I bet she at least halves that estimate. Also I believe discs are 22mm new so probably 2 years before they are at minimum at normal driving (please remember the DOT will have a built in safety allowance even at 20mm)

I’ve added it all up and it’s £450 in parts from Eurocarparts or similar. Probably best part of a day for me to sort it all – and I’m nowhere near being a mechanic. Only bit I’m not sure on is how to access the fuel filler pipe so that might be messy and difficult, but then again, probably not too bad.

My main gripe is all the stuff like ‘would benefit from…’. It might benefit from a solid gold gearstick knob being fitted, but that doesn’t mean it needs doing!

Spot on Mowgli.
As an ex ‘motor mechanic’ as opposed to a ‘motor technician’ I fully agree with your thoughts. The dealer’s just trying to do a rip-off.

A guy I know has a Yaris that has at least 335,000 miles on it. I say at least, as that’s what it had last year on its MOT
( stalker 😆 )

My car has been to a main dealer once for a recall where they had to replace a module that was likely to burst into flames.

The lady on service reception walked around the car with me to note any dents etc. As we were walking around, she noted how tidy it is. ” not bad for 105,000 miles ” I replied. She didn’t believe it had that many miles on such a young car so I just said ” aye, it’s still running coz it’s never been here before I have it serviced properly ”

Needless to say I don’t like main dealers.

Are the 40 quid brake set going to last as long? probably more susceptible to falling apart, sqealing or developing judder. More importantly are they going to stop your wife and kids as well as the ones that cost more. They probably in most cases cost more because of the extra R&D.

You do realise that the parts you get from Euro Car Parts etc are OEM spec if you buy a decent brand? If a dealer doesn’t have a part in sock in a Branded box to do a service they’ll get the same part we can buy from them to do the job. They won’t fit the budget own-brand filter for example but they’ll happily fit a Bosch or Champion spark plug.
Plus there is no way a motor factor could get away with selling brake pads that crumble! Stuff like that has to be of a certain quality, usually within OEM spec, so buying non-manufacturer branded parts is not dangerous.

A reasonable post at last!

I said the same thing on page 1 😉