Repair costs- Main dealer or not

Need_More_Money_2

movilogo wrote: »

Though most of the time main dealers are prohibitively expensive, sometimes they can be cheaper too!

My car's cambelt change, independent garages quote from £125 to £200. Main dealer quoted £140.
In the end I did from independent for £125 though.

So, just shop around before committing. There are some complex, you have to go to main dealers!

Exactly the same thing happened to me, I was amazed that the dealer was quoting cheaper than all the independents I phoned

Need_More_Money_2

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

I think the point was that you need to take your car to a main dealer to have warranty work carried out rather than the servicing

But you don't, you just have to make sure the work is done using parts approved by the warranty

scotsblood

Just remember if a job requires a manufacturer special tool then any garage other than a main dealer will have limited options;-

-try to source a special tool from themselves - expensive from manufacturer if its only for the odd job, or in the trade from another dealer who may be closing?!

-work around the lack of the tool, either bodge it or try to use other tools and techniques

or worst of all not do the part of the job that needs the tool!!

The forums are full of tales of people who bought used cars that had been maintained by "specialists" but who "couldn't" replace the cambelt as they were supposed to at the XXmile service as they didn't have the special tool needed!

A friend had a Camry that had a history just like this and the true story only came out after the cambelt failed and warranty company started digging.

Main dealers Menu Pricing can sometimes work out much better than a smaller garage charging you "how long it took" for an unfamilliar job without the special tools!!

plane_boy2000

Need_More_Money wrote: »

But you don't, you just have to make sure the work is done using parts approved by the warranty

May be the case for the third part aftermarket warranties which cover very little, but for a new car warranty you will HAVE to have the warranty work carried out at a franchised dealer. A manufacturer will not pay a back street garage to perform warranty work on a car when they have their own dealer network. However you may have your car serviced at any VAT registered garage using genuine parts, but in the even of a waranty claim they may ask you to prove that the manufacturers servicing schedule was followed and all the checks carried out. This may be difficullt to prove.

brazilianwax

There's a difference here between servicing and warranties (in which case NMM is spot on) and manufacturer recalls where parts are changed under the warranty (planeboy is right on that).


Neither of these are relevant in SP (OP)'s case though!!!!

:rotfl: