Service Confusion

Pixie5740

My 4 year old Land Rover Discover 4 is due a service or at least so it told me this morning and its MOT expires in about 6 weeks. As part of the deal when I bought my car I received 2 years of free servicing so I am going to take it to the dealer for the service otherwise I'd have looked at independent garages.

Sure enough when I go to the dealer's website to book my car in I have the option of booking the dealership's service for £0.00. However, I also have the option of booking a manufacturer's service for £692.44 or I can buy a manufacturer's 3 year service plan for £739.

Below are the descriptions of the two types of service available:

Manufacturer Service
A full Manufacturer service carried out by one of our Gold Level, Land Rover trained technicians will mean that your car continues to perform at its best. A manufacturer service means that the service is carried out to the Land Rover schedule and guidelines specific to your vehicle and mileage, only genuine Jaguar parts are used to carry out any necessary repairs. This type of service can only be carried out by authorised Land Rover repairers, such as ourselves, and goes all long way to maintaining the resale value of your car.
Below are just a few of the advantages of having your Manufacturer Service carried out at Dealership:
• Servicing to Land Rover specification specific to your vehicle
• Genuine Land Rover parts fitted by Gold Level technicians
• Service booked stamped to guarantee Manufacturer approved quality
• We always use Mobil 1 Fully Synthetic Engine Oil
• Hospitality Waiting Lounge at all of our Dealership Dealerships
• FREE Courtesy Car *
• FREE VHC & Tyre Check with every service to ensure optimum road safety
• FREE mini valet with every Service
• We donate 10% of our profits to charities within your local area

Dealership Service
The Dealership Service is a comprehensive 43 Point Service and Check, completed to Dealership specification.
Below is a quick summary of what is included in every Dealership Service:
• Full Vehicle Health Check
• Remove and replace the Oil Filter
• Drain and replace the Engine Oil with Mobil Fully Synthetic Engine Oil
• Replace the drain plug washer
• Check and top up all vital fluids, including:
o Screen wash
o Engine Coolant
o Brake Fluid
o Power steering fluid
o Stamp your vehicle's Service book
o Reset your vehicle's service light

I have looked on Land Rover's website and I am still none the wiser as to why the manufacture's service is so much more expensive (other than owning and maintaining Land Rovers isn't cheap which I accept because I love this big beast of a car). Has anyone here opted for a manufacturer's service for a Land Rover? Was it worth the money?

Should I opt for the free service, raid my piggy bank for the manufacturer's service, or just go to the (very good) independent garage near the office for my MOT and service?

I plan on keeping this car until either it ends up in the scrap heap or I die, whichever happens first.

BeenThroughItAll

Basically, the dealer's service is a quick and dirty oil and filter plus top up, the Land Rover service is (in theory) a checklist of things, including potentially air filter, fuel filter, pollen filter, plugs (petrol only - I know nowt about Disco4s, is there a petrol?), and a manufacturer branded piece of paper with all the boxes ticked.


If you have a LR warranty, its validity may be conditional upon having the vehicle serviced in accordance with manufacturer requirements - if the manufacturer stipulates that at this mileage/age the fuel filter should be changed, for example, and you go with 'dealer service' which doesn't include that, your LR warranty could potentially be invalidated in certain circumstances.

k3lvc

So is the dealership a main Land Rover dealer ?

Pixie5740

Thanks. My Discovery 4 is a diesel, I'm not if there's a petrol version either. I'll dig out the service book and owners manual this evening to see if there's something that should be done to the car at 4 years/80,000 miles. For some reason the 5 year manufacturer's service is about £100 cheaper which could indicate that something is supposed to be done at year 4. Then the price soars to almost £900 in year 6.

Pixie5740

k3lvc wrote: »

So is the dealership a main Land Rover dealer ?

Yes the dealership is a main Land Rover dealer.

BeenThroughItAll

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Thanks. My Discovery 4 is a diesel, I'm not if there's a petrol version either. I'll dig out the service book and owners manual this evening to see if there's something that should be done to the car at 4 years/80,000 miles. For some reason the 5 year manufacturer's service is about £100 cheaper which could indicate that something is supposed to be done at year 4. Then the price soars to almost £900 in year 6.

At 4 years/80K, I'd expect it to include a brake fluid change, and probably a fuel filter and pollen filter change.


ETA: Online sources suggest it should be a 12month/15K or 12month/16K schedule - so your service should be a 4yr/60 or 64K service, not 80K.


If it's due a 48month service, it includes pollen filter, brake fluid, fuel filter, sediment filter drain, wheel rotation, air filter (3.0L) and an electronic parking brake adjustment, as well as all of the usual checks and topups.

Pixie5740

The dropdown menu on the service booking goes:

1 year/20,000

2 years/40,000

3 years/60,000

4 years/80,000

I'll check my service book when I get home though. It seems like it might be worth just biting the bullet and getting the 3 year service plan after all.

BeenThroughItAll

Pixie5740 wrote: »

The dropdown menu on the service booking goes:

1 year/20,000

2 years/40,000

3 years/60,000

4 years/80,000

I'll check my service book when I get home though. It seems like it might be worth just biting the bullet and getting the 3 year service plan after all.

Mm, well that's interesting. Is the car a 2011 or 2012 model year?

Pixie5740

It's a 2012 12 plate.

BeenThroughItAll

Pixie5740 wrote: »

It's a 2012 12 plate.

As far as I can tell then, should definitely be 15Kmi or 12 month service intervals. The 4 year service is as I mentioned above. How many miles has it done?

Pixie5740

Off the top of my head, more than 48,000 but less than 49,000. It had 44,445 miles on the clock at it's last MOT.