Car servicing - who are "authorised dealer"s?

jac1970stone

Hi all
My finance contract on my Vauxhall Corsas (1 year old, 10,000 miles) states that it has to be serviced regularly and by an "authorised dealer".

I am trying to establish though who they include as authorised dealers! Does this include independent firms or just Vauxhall dealers - who want a lot more than the local ones, including Halfords etc.

Any advice would be welcome!

Thank you in advance.

agrinnall

Well whatever you do don't take it to Halfrauds (how could they possibly be an authorised dealer anyway, they don't sell cars).

waamo

Have you looked here https://www.vauxhall.co.uk/

Book via that site and it books an authorised dealer.

Arklight

For the warranty the manufacturer can't insist you use a main dealer. However if you're on PCP or something where you hand the car back, no potential buyer of a 3 year old car wants to see a service history outside of the manufacturer's ecosystem, so you are probably stuck with Vauxhall.

Don't take your car to Halfords to be serviced. If that's really all you can spend then buy the stuff yourself and spend a day on Youtube finding out how to service it yourself.

ssparks2003

An authorised dealer is quite simply a dealer that is authorised by the car manufacturer. So halfords, no. Back street dealer, no. Local fred in a shed mechanic, no. Actual local Vauxhall dealer, yes.

daveyjp

A main dealer, but call a few. Don't use web booking, get prices over the phone and haggle.

Car_54

jac1970stone wrote: »

Hi all
My finance contract on my Vauxhall Corsas (1 year old, 10,000 miles) states that it has to be serviced regularly and by an "authorised dealer".

"Authorised" is meaningless. I can set up tomorrow as a Vauxhall specialist, authorised by my brother-in-law and my mate Jeff.

The finance company probably mean authorised by Vauxhall, but why not ask them?

w211

Look at the service interval requirements first. You say the contract is 1 yr/10,000 miles. If the service interval is beyond that, you won't need to service the car at all.

neilmcl

w211 wrote: »

Look at the service interval requirements first. You say the contract is 1 yr/10,000 miles. If the service interval is beyond that, you won't need to service the car at all.

I'm guessing the 1 yr/10,000 miles is what his car is currently at. Very few PCPs are just a year in length.

neilmcl

jac1970stone wrote: »

Hi all
My finance contract on my Vauxhall Corsas (1 year old, 10,000 miles) states that it has to be serviced regularly and by an "authorised dealer".

I am trying to establish though who they include as authorised dealers! Does this include independent firms or just Vauxhall dealers - who want a lot more than the local ones, including Halfords etc.

Any advice would be welcome!

Thank you in advance.

What are you planning to do at the end of the finance period? Much will depend on whether you are planning on paying the balloon and keeping the car.

jac1970stone

Hi all,

Thank you. Appreciate views given - I did contact Vauxhall and they said they couldn't say on their live chat service but they could book me into a local vauxhall dealer for the service at £175, which does seem steep for a first service. The agreement says it should be after a year or 20,000 miles. Well its a year, but half the mileage. I am still unsure whether or not I will be keeping the car at the end of the finance term - there is a balloon payment of £3.5k and will in a way depend on the approximate value of the car at that time and what the alternative options are. So I therefore don't want to break the rules, but do want to get best value for the costs!