had my focus serviced at 80k and the drop link on the front suspension replaced. I have got the bill – seems huge! How much would you expect to pay at a local (none main dealer) for this?

A lot less than at a rip off ford dealer!

I’d probably expect the service to be £200 ish and the link similar?

I would guess an annual diesel service at a non main dealer would be around £150-£180 and the ARB drop-link about £10-£15 plus 1 hours labour (£35-£40) so I guess it should be no more than £250-£260.
This is just what I would expect to pay, anymore and I would be asking questions.

£312 🙁

£140 parts plus labour and vat apparently!

Don’t know about the link, but I paid £150ish for a full service and front pads on my old megane. It was the 1.9 DCI 130 and used synthetic oil too. Done at a local garage. III had the interim oil changes done at Renault, was only £40 there too and they did a full visual inspection with a print out.

I would just ask for a breakdown of their costs. Maybe their labour costs maybe a bit more and if they have used a genuine Ford droplink but I would have thought they would use a motorfactors eqivalent. Also check what is involved in an 80k service. It may involve brake fluid change or other things. This will put the price up quite a bit.

Just read £140 parts. Thats a tad excessive imho.

Well, I’ve paid for around 15 ford services over the last few years, and I’m not sure if any of them have come in much under £200, main dealer or not.

Bit hard to tell without knowing what was replaced! An 80k service could include a timing belt, which will involve a belt (£20) and some pulleys, possibly a recommended water pump too?
Never trust my car with anyone, seen too many people suffer the dealer/mechanic “forgetting” to change the oil or “forgetting” to bolt wheels back on properly. Or change someones gearbox (yet remarkably having the same mark on the casing and sign of a quick lube change). Only time I’d have someone else do it is if I had to for warranty reasons, and even then I’d check it afterwards.

aye up mate – where did that get done? not in tidsa i hope, taking mine there in a couple of weeks!

Do they have a retail-side? Might be an idea (mrcrushrider) to go to a service centre only for your Ford service. I imagine a few companies are trying to claw back ‘sales’ (revenue) on the service side to make up for lower retail sales.

Was the service major or minor?
Minor service on my Ibiza TDI rarely comes to more than £90 whereas just had the major done and it was £188 (independent garage prices).

So if it was a major service, I’d have expected near £300 although i don’t know how much a droplink costs and how much time it takes to replace one.

Does your bill not come fully broken down – my bill always comes with a list of exactly what was change and how much it cost.