Does my car really need a service?

Ibrahim5

Only a BMW main dealer would have the factory trained technician with the BMW specialist tools.and equipment and software updates of course to work on a BMW.

seatbeltnoob

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

why do people buy cars brand new but they can't afford a £300 annual service.

I don't think it's about that, really.
it's about not spending unnecessarily, and it's certainly annoying to be faced with manufacturers who stick with fixed yearly services when the likes of Covid may mean you've done very few miles since the last one.
People berate the likes of BMW as expensive, but their variable servicing can work in your favour.
I had one BMW for nearly three years and it only needed one service at a very reasonable price.
Our Evoque also doesn't need a service until 2 years or 20000 miles from new.

Wirth all due respect. If you own a £25-30K asset. You shouldn't even need to think about spending £300 a year on servicing.

People fill up £60 a week at the forecourt every week without a thought and they drag their heels over servicing. £300pa works out £5.76p/w. It's nothing.

Ibrahim5

£300 represents a figure that people are likely to pay for a main dealer stamp rather than paying for work done. Interestingly I was reading that someone who was trained at a national chain of fast fitters was told that people would pay £300 without arguing or questioning.

coffeehound

Ibrahim5 said:

Everyone has a smartphone these days. You should always take a close up photo of the dipstick with the engine stone cold to compare before and after a service. If they look exactly the same go and complain. You will be told that they have changed the oil but they will 'repeat' the change for you. Afterwards you will see a difference.

Presumably marking and photographing the oil filter would achieve the same as they can’t cx the filter w/o an oil cx

[Deleted User]

coffeehound said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Everyone has a smartphone these days. You should always take a close up photo of the dipstick with the engine stone cold to compare before and after a service. If they look exactly the same go and complain. You will be told that they have changed the oil but they will 'repeat' the change for you. Afterwards you will see a difference.

Presumably marking and photographing the oil filter would achieve the same as they can’t cx the filter w/o an oil cx

Of course everyone checks their oil on a regular basis (you all check it right?), they will notice the levels change over time, perhaps a top up when required and they will notice the change in colour. I check all mine hot as per manual but when a service is done the oil is always at the correct level and it is shiny clean (even the oil burner was clean for a short while) but then I trust my indie not to rip me off.

Of course if you don't check the oil then...... oh.

Edit. Soz. The marking the filter reminded me of the old adages form days of yore, also some filters I understand are not going to lose the oil.

On adages it was don't trust automatic, don't trust fuel injection and so on. Saw dust on a gear box house pre sale to quieten the thing up and so and so garage will just stamp the MOT without seeing it (though I expect there is a bit of that but a lot harder to do).

BOWFER

seatbeltnoob said:

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

why do people buy cars brand new but they can't afford a £300 annual service.

I don't think it's about that, really.
it's about not spending unnecessarily, and it's certainly annoying to be faced with manufacturers who stick with fixed yearly services when the likes of Covid may mean you've done very few miles since the last one.
People berate the likes of BMW as expensive, but their variable servicing can work in your favour.
I had one BMW for nearly three years and it only needed one service at a very reasonable price.
Our Evoque also doesn't need a service until 2 years or 20000 miles from new.

Wirth all due respect. If you own a £25-30K asset. You shouldn't even need to think about spending £300 a year on servicing.

People fill up £60 a week at the forecourt every week without a thought and they drag their heels over servicing. £300pa works out £5.76p/w. It's nothing.

The post is about spending money on a service the OP doesn't think is necessary, as he's not covered anything like the mileage expected.
I agree with him, these 'must have a service every year' schedules are annoying, especially when COVID has resulted in cars sitting doing nothing.
Variable servicing is the best method.

ontheroad1970

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

why do people buy cars brand new but they can't afford a £300 annual service.

I don't think it's about that, really.
it's about not spending unnecessarily, and it's certainly annoying to be faced with manufacturers who stick with fixed yearly services when the likes of Covid may mean you've done very few miles since the last one.
People berate the likes of BMW as expensive, but their variable servicing can work in your favour.
I had one BMW for nearly three years and it only needed one service at a very reasonable price.
Our Evoque also doesn't need a service until 2 years or 20000 miles from new.

Wirth all due respect. If you own a £25-30K asset. You shouldn't even need to think about spending £300 a year on servicing.

People fill up £60 a week at the forecourt every week without a thought and they drag their heels over servicing. £300pa works out £5.76p/w. It's nothing.

The post is about spending money on a service the OP doesn't think is necessary, as he's not covered anything like the mileage expected.
I agree with him, these 'must have a service every year' schedules are annoying, especially when COVID has resulted in cars sitting doing nothing.
Variable servicing is the best method.

You do know that a car sitting around doing nothing is worse for a car than pretty much anything else, right?

BMTH

Think this is getting blown out of proportion here.

My car was about £15k new. My original services were around £100-£150 which I had no problem with paying. I was simply questioning why I need to pay an extra £200 for a major service when I've hardly drove the thing and whether I could get away with using a smaller indepedant garage to get the service done. (Granted the title of this thread is a bit mis leading)

As it is, I've booked my MOT in today with kwit fit and getting my service done with Hyundai next week in the hope that, as pointed out here, it will keep some value to the car having a full hyundai service history when I come to sell it 2-3 years time.

BOWFER

ontheroad1970 said:

You do know that a car sitting around doing nothing is worse for a car than pretty much anything else, right?

Yes, and?
Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "nothing", I didn't think people would take it quite so literally and would use a bit of common sense.
Evidently not, so replace "nothing" with "greatly reduced"

Tokmon

BOWFER said:

ontheroad1970 said:

You do know that a car sitting around doing nothing is worse for a car than pretty much anything else, right?

Yes, and?
Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "nothing", I didn't think people would take it quite so literally and would use a bit of common sense.
Evidently not, so replace "nothing" with "greatly reduced"

The "greatly reduced" part is also worse for the car if someone is now only doing a couple miles a few times a week to a supermarket instead of a longer regularly commute to work. The short journeys (especially in towns) where it never gets up to temperature will mean if anything it needs the oil changed more regularly. 


Your comment below seems to be suggesting that you can justify servicing it less often because of less use but that certainly isn't the case. A yearly oil change minimum is a must for all driving styles if someone wants to look after their car.

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

BOWFER said:

seatbeltnoob said:

why do people buy cars brand new but they can't afford a £300 annual service.

I don't think it's about that, really.
it's about not spending unnecessarily, and it's certainly annoying to be faced with manufacturers who stick with fixed yearly services when the likes of Covid may mean you've done very few miles since the last one.
People berate the likes of BMW as expensive, but their variable servicing can work in your favour.
I had one BMW for nearly three years and it only needed one service at a very reasonable price.
Our Evoque also doesn't need a service until 2 years or 20000 miles from new.

Wirth all due respect. If you own a £25-30K asset. You shouldn't even need to think about spending £300 a year on servicing.

People fill up £60 a week at the forecourt every week without a thought and they drag their heels over servicing. £300pa works out £5.76p/w. It's nothing.

The post is about spending money on a service the OP doesn't think is necessary, as he's not covered anything like the mileage expected.
I agree with him, these 'must have a service every year' schedules are annoying, especially when COVID has resulted in cars sitting doing nothing.
Variable servicing is the best method.