Buying a Service Plan from a Dealership

motorguy

fred246 said:

Much easier to service it yourself. Do it when it's most convenient.

Funnily i just bought a BMW off a guy who until recently had been getting the work done by a local BMW indy, but was now doing the spannering himself on the "simple" jobs.

The day after i got the car the coolant light came on.  To cut a long story short my mechanic got the car today and the guy - bless him - had replaced the oil cooler but had nipped the oil seal causing an oil leak and had twisted some of the water pipes causing them to perish in a short time.  The jubilee clips werent even tightened up properly apparently. 

Perhaps the youtube guides hadnt covered those bits?

He'd upgraded the "angel eye" bulbs too on the car and both those had blown within the week.  Probably cheap ebay chinese knock offs - better than paying a local indy to put the proper ones in eh?

Still, at least its in safe hands now - even if its me paying for the previous owner failures.

BOWFER

I don't mind DIY on cars but, in some ways, routine servicing is worse than repairs.
I can change pads/discs easy enough, but I don't have the kit to potentially get right under a car and change the oil/filter.

jimbo6977

A friend who works at a global manufacturer's UK HQ tells me the service plans on new and "approved-used" cars are generally good value for the consumer. The benefit to the manufacturer and dealer is that they can keep trying to sell you another car when you go for a service. They're betting a £40 discount on some services in the hope of making thousands on a repeat sale. 

BOWFER

These service plans are just good business sense, in that you're getting money 'now'
Great for cashflow.
I wish I could convince our clients to prepay for services, even discounted.

Grumpy_chap

moneysavinghero said:

I always used to get a phone call saying that the Air Con needing doing and did i want to go ahead. Always had to tell them that the car didn't have air con. Wish i'd gone along with it just to see if they would have actually tried to charge me for it.

You should have gone for it and then asked for them to demonstrate the new air conditioning is working just at the point of payment.  Would be nice to have air con upgrade.

motorguy

jimbo6977 said:

A friend who works at a global manufacturer's UK HQ tells me the service plans on new and "approved-used" cars are generally good value for the consumer. The benefit to the manufacturer and dealer is that they can keep trying to sell you another car when you go for a service. They're betting a £40 discount on some services in the hope of making thousands on a repeat sale. 

Yup.  And its extra touch points with the customer.  Keeping them "warmed" to the idea of dealing there again next time.

BOWFER

.Grumpy_chap said:

moneysavinghero said:

I always used to get a phone call saying that the Air Con needing doing and did i want to go ahead. Always had to tell them that the car didn't have air con. Wish i'd gone along with it just to see if they would have actually tried to charge me for it.

You should have gone for it and then asked for them to demonstrate the new air conditioning is working just at the point of payment.  Would be nice to have air con upgrade.

Audi used to charge every client £3 for draining and refilling the washer bottles as part of a service, even if it was full and even if you had high quality washer fluid in already.
Caused quite a stir on the biggest Audi forum a few years back.
£3 isn't much, but x that by how many cars they service a year.

motorguy

BOWFER said:

These service plans are just good business sense, in that you're getting money 'now'
Great for cashflow.
I wish I could convince our clients to prepay for services, even discounted.

Generally though, its the manufacturer offering them as an incentive to take their finance, so the franchise wont get any money at that point.

When the car somes in for a service they'll back charge that to the manufacturer, at a less than retail price rate.

Ganga

The company i worked for had Merc vans  used to put them into the dealership on an evening and collect next day ,always ready and washed and cleaned ,great service and the company got extended warranty by having the dealer do the work.

wazza99

I use Seat for service plans, very good imo, keeps all warranty up to date, get 12 months full breakdown cover costs about £15 a month. My older classic cars i service myself and could do the Seat ofc but tbh its just not worth it. I also make a point of eating and drinking at least £10's of tea and biscuits while i wait (or did !)