Choosing a right car - maintenance cost

Jakg

benham3160 wrote: »

Good question, Saab bits are probably cheap because you buy 'em from Vauxhall..... (Awaits flaming by Saab heads....)

You could say the same for the Mazda (Ford), or the Seat (VW)...

Ionkontrol

BMW 3.18 Ci (2005-2006)

I have one of these. A 2002ci M Sport.

Main BMW dealer servicing.
Oil Service = £115
Inspection 1 = £189
Inspection 2 = £299
http://www.cooperthamesdittonbmw.co.uk/service/value_service/

My independant BMW garage.
Oil Service = £70
Inspection 1 = £140
Inspection 2 = £220

I do my own interim 7500mile oil changes.

Tyres are about £80 a corner.
My exhaust and clutch and battery are all original itiems. (Not bad for 170,000 miles).

zidanee

Mayflower10cat wrote: »

As an ex-Alfa owner ((sobs)) very expensive to service at a dealership. Sadly died on us because the national chain of garages we'd been using failed to replace the timing belt at the appropiate interval.

Neighbour has a two yr old Quashqui - he likes the car but the dealership have been unreliable, telling him parts are in stock when they're not, arguing about providing a courtesy car when they're clearly in the wrong. He's not happy and wouldn't buy another Nissan.

After DH got over the loss of the GTV.... (much counselling & beers!) we did some serious research into reliability, resale values, trawled over customer satisfaction surveys, the JD Power survey etc., etc... He needed a reliable, sturdy saloon that would cope with 90 miles each way to work on the M4. We narrowed it down to a Ford Focus, an Alfa Brera (!), Toyota Auris, a Peugeot 207 and a Honda Civic. After much conversation with all the local dealerships, we finally bought an ex-demonstrator 2.2L turbo diesel Civic which came with (no haggling needed) 5 years free servicing & courtesy car, a three year warranty, free AA cover, Gap insurance (If the car is written off in an accident, you get the full value of the car back) free mats & a few other things I've forgotten about. The dealership is just over the road from the factory the car was built in. It's been serviced once since we bought it and DH had no complaints at all - the car was ready exactly on time and they kept him informed throughout the day what was going on. He bought the car thinking it was going to be 'boring' and 'sensible' - far from it! That turbo engine goes like a rocket and from a standing start it's way faster than the Alfa GTV was.

Sister & husband have had various Audis over the years - they like them very much, but the main point in their favour is they do hold their value very well.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I went to the Civic dealership this weekend and tried out one of the new Civics (1.8 petrol). It was good and I liked the car but I don't know whether I would be able to live with it - the driving position was not very comfortable - the seat was fine, but there wasn't much space there and whenever I was changing gear my elbow kept on rubbing against the handbrake... And I couldn't adjust the seat height as my head would be touching the ceiling..

Main BMW dealer servicing.
Oil Service = £115
Inspection 1 = £189
Inspection 2 = £299

Sounds not as bad as I thought. Pretty much the same as Honda.