Importance of a more expensive dealer service

Goudy

You stated you need original manufacturer parts to keep the warranty intact, yet now you can buy parts through a local motor factors.

Which local factors sell orignal parts and which sell them for less than the dealers?

You might get parts that are made to the same OE standards or even OEM from a factors, but I don't think any manufacturer will entertain a warranty claim if they suspect anything but the OE parts are fitted.

Dealers will go so far as sending oil away for testing if they suspect the wrong stuff is in there, I'm sure they'll spot a pattern oil filter before they get that far.

An indie might have access to OE parts, particurlarly if it's a high volume, common car that's been on the road for a while, but you'll pay the same price for these parts as in the dealers.

BOWFER

Goudy said:

You stated you need original manufacturer parts to keep the warranty intact, yet now you can buy parts through a local motor factors.

Which local factors sell orignal parts and which sell them for less than the dealers?

You might get parts that are made to the same OE standards or even OEM from a factors, but I don't think any manufacturer will entertain a warranty claim if they suspect anything but the OE parts are fitted.

Dealers will go so far as sending oil away for testing if they suspect the wrong stuff is in there, I'm sure they'll spot a pattern oil filter before they get that far.

An indie might have access to OE parts, particurlarly if it's a high volume, common car that's been on the road for a while, but you'll pay the same price for these parts as in the dealers.

Do you think OE parts are exclusive to dealers?
Because they're absolutely not, I can go buy a VW filter for my Polo from umpteen places right now.
I'd have to check if the parts themselves are any cheaper, I only care that the total price is.
Example, my Nissan Juke was £60 cheaper for the same service at a local independent.

Goudy

No. I said as much in the post you quoted, the last line.

But it wasn't me that may be misleading anyone.

You stated correctly that a service with manufacturers parts would be enough to satisfy a manufacturers warranty.

But then went on to state your garage can buy these parts from a local motor factors, which we know don't stock or sell genunie manufacturers parts.

Other places apart from the dealers may sell the genuine parts, but the likes of the local motor factors or Halfords, ECP etc won't.

No one on this forum would think it a good idea or cost effective to blow anything up to 6 years of warranty for the sake of saving a few pounds on an oil filter or some other fairly cheap part because someone tried to make a point on a forum rather than get their facts right.

To have a chance of maintaining a manufacturers warranty make sure whoever does the work uses genuine manufacturers parts and not anything else, no matter how cheap or expensive it may appear.

Ibrahim5

I love the fact that manufactures don't make these parts. They just buy them from another company and put their name on the box. So it's often possible to get them at a fraction of the price with the name of the original manufacturer on the box 

BOWFER

Goudy said:

No. I said as much in the post you quoted, the last line.

But it wasn't me that may be misleading anyone.

You stated correctly that a service with manufacturers parts would be enough to satisfy a manufacturers warranty.

But then went on to state your garage can buy these parts from a local motor factors, which we know don't stock or sell genunie manufacturers parts.

Other places apart from the dealers may sell the genuine parts, but the likes of the local motor factors or Halfords, ECP etc won't.

No one on this forum would think it a good idea or cost effective to blow anything up to 6 years of warranty for the sake of saving a few pounds on an oil filter or some other fairly cheap part because someone tried to make a point on a forum rather than get their facts right.

To have a chance of maintaining a manufacturers warranty make sure whoever does the work uses genuine manufacturers parts and not anything else, no matter how cheap or expensive it may appear.

I have not and would not condone fitting pattern parts when getting an independent service under warranty.
Maybe the local motor factors don't sell OE parts, perhaps I'm wrong with where my independent is sourcing the OE parts, but the fact is it is OE parts with an OE part number.
Given I book ahead and they have time, maybe they're buying off ebay - I don't care!
Very easy to check too, given how easy it is to see air and oil filters on some cars.

neilmcl

Goudy said:

You stated you need original manufacturer parts to keep the warranty intact, yet now you can buy parts through a local motor factors.

Which local factors sell orignal parts and which sell them for less than the dealers?

You might get parts that are made to the same OE standards or even OEM from a factors, but I don't think any manufacturer will entertain a warranty claim if they suspect anything but the OE parts are fitted.

Dealers will go so far as sending oil away for testing if they suspect the wrong stuff is in there, I'm sure they'll spot a pattern oil filter before they get that far.

An indie might have access to OE parts, particurlarly if it's a high volume, common car that's been on the road for a while, but you'll pay the same price for these parts as in the dealers.

It doesn't have to be manufacturer produced parts, most car manufacturer's don't actually produce service parts anyway, they just have to be manufacturer approved to comply with the block exemption rules. Most OEM parts manufactures will have these approvals in place and can quite often be easily sourced cheaper via an independent than you main dealer. In fact most of these parts can usually be sourced by yourself cheaper than the main dealer.

Steve182

We've just negotiated a service contract for our fleet of 40 vans at our local indie. £75+VAT for minor service, £125+VAT for major.

We've decided to do major's for all services.

This is not based on genuine manufacturer's parts. Vans under warranty will still be serviced by indie but will be fitted with genuine parts to preserve warranty, at additional cost.

The garage is even going to buy one of our old vans from us to loan back as a courtesy van FOC.

I've no idea what the main dealer would charge for comparable service, but I know my last trip to BMW for routine car service was around £500

BOWFER

Steve182 said:

We've just negotiated a service contract for our fleet of 40 vans at our local indie. £75+VAT for minor service, £125+VAT for major.

We've decided to do major's for all services.

This is not based on genuine manufacturer's parts. Vans under warranty will still be serviced by indie but will be fitted with genuine parts to preserve warranty, at additional cost.

The garage is even going to buy one of our old vans from us to loan back as a courtesy van FOC.

I've no idea what the main dealer would charge for comparable service, but I know my last trip to BMW for routine car service was around £500

I'm not sure of the relevance of a BMW car service cost when talking about vans....?
FWIW I've had BMW services for £200 (3-series), which is cheaper than I've had Renault and Nissan services etc.
BMW doesn't necessarily = expensive.

Bigphil1474

I've always had my cars (usually old) serviced at an Indie until I bought my recent car which was 2 years old. I was a bit weary about having it serviced at the dealers, but I'm glad i did. Not only do they collect from my house and return it, cleaned inside and out, they also do a full vehicle check and give me a report, as well as the service. Cost £40 more than my usual indie service. I know they've done the checks, as they rang me up to go through it, and told me that the pads would probably need changing in about 3 to 5k miles. Also, saves me the half hour walk home and back again from taking it to the Indy.