Dealer Service Rip Off

ididgetwhereiamtoday

At least with the leaf it was 18000 miles or 1 year between servicing and they plug it in and do software updates and give you a battery health check sheet. 

With the Kia ev it is just 10000 miles which is absurd for an ev. I have just had mine serviced at main dealer. A 40000 miles service cost £244 and I didn’t get Any updates or battery health check. They didn’t even print out the invoice. They didn’t rotate the wheels like it says in the schedule and tried to charge me £30 for a wiper blade I knew didn’t really need. 

They couldn’t even give me £1 change because they don’t have a cash float. 

Terrible experience just to keep the warranty. 

I will not be using that franchise again. 

Frozen_up_north

A friend with a Renault Zoe only paid just over £100 for a main dealer service.

Northern_Wanderer

Since when did a garage not charge for a service? Main dealer labour costs are likely far higher than a small garage. Main dealer does far more checks and reports back to you on what might need attention. The small garage will just change the oil and do whatever it is you ask them to do, they "might" use the correct fluids. I have never had a report of the checks the small garage have done on any service so I assume they havn't done any. You get what you pay for.

Tucosalamanca

Northern_Wanderer said:

Since when did a garage not charge for a service? Main dealer labour costs are likely far higher than a small garage. Main dealer does far more checks and reports back to you on what might need attention. The small garage will just change the oil and do whatever it is you ask them to do, they "might" use the correct fluids. I have never had a report of the checks the small garage have done on any service so I assume they havn't done any. You get what you pay for.

I would find a 'better' small garage...

WellKnownSid

Northern_Wanderer said:

Since when did a garage not charge for a service? Main dealer labour costs are likely far higher than a small garage. Main dealer does far more checks and reports back to you on what might need attention. The small garage will just change the oil and do whatever it is you ask them to do, they "might" use the correct fluids. I have never had a report of the checks the small garage have done on any service so I assume they havn't done any. You get what you pay for.

All garages will follow an IMI or similar checklist.  Your main dealer will have a high cost base to offset so they will be under much greater time pressures to get cars out the door. If you want to avoid cut corners a good honest small garage is usually a safer bet. You can always specify exactly which fluids or supply them if you want to be sure.

EssexExile

Northern_Wanderer said:

Since when did a garage not charge for a service? Main dealer labour costs are likely far higher than a small garage. Main dealer does far more checks and reports back to you on what might need attention. The small garage will just change the oil and do whatever it is you ask them to do, they "might" use the correct fluids. I have never had a report of the checks the small garage have done on any service so I assume they havn't done any. You get what you pay for.

Crikey, someone who thinks main dealers are better than the local garage, you don't come across those very often.

The Honda dealer told me I need new discs and pads all round at the service. I declined his offer and took it to my favourite garage at the end of my road. I went back to collect it later and he told me the brakes have thousands of miles in them yet, no charge for looking at them.

Goudy

EssexExile said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

Since when did a garage not charge for a service? Main dealer labour costs are likely far higher than a small garage. Main dealer does far more checks and reports back to you on what might need attention. The small garage will just change the oil and do whatever it is you ask them to do, they "might" use the correct fluids. I have never had a report of the checks the small garage have done on any service so I assume they havn't done any. You get what you pay for.

Crikey, someone who thinks main dealers are better than the local garage, you don't come across those very often.

The Honda dealer told me I need new discs and pads all round at the service. I declined his offer and took it to my favourite garage at the end of my road. I went back to collect it later and he told me the brakes have thousands of miles in them yet, no charge for looking at them.

Did either garage tell you what they were actually worn too?

If I take my car in for a service I expect to receive a report of all the things they checked at that particular interval.
Some items will only be a "It's been checked and it's ok" tick.
Other items like tyres and brakes I expect to be given a wear rate in some form.

With tyres I expect a edge, centre edge measurement of all the tyres.
With brakes I expect a wear percentage at the minimum, but in millimetres would be just as acceptable of both pads and discs. 

For wear items, "They are OK" means nothing to me, I want to know OK for how long or at least a measurement/percentage so I can work that out for myself.  

I know they do these things which is why I take it to them and are happy to pay for them.
I think in my case it really does pay, the unexpected bills are almost always expected.

Recently it's become part of the "servicing" experience for some garages to quote for things like tyres and brakes as a matter of course if they think the parts won't make it to the next service, but I'd still want the report that tells me the wear.

Quite often these wear item reports are in the form of a video/email and images as well as printed.

My car's next service is due in March and based on all the previous services and reports I know they will flag the front tyres and front brakes.
The tyres are well within legal limits as I can easily check them myself but I and they will know they won't be a year down the line from that service.
They will almost certain flag the front brakes. Again there's a fair amount of life left in them but I know based of the previous reports of the last couple of years they'll think they won't see March '26 and I'm certain they will be correct.
From this next service/report, that will give me an idea of when I need them doing.

I might not let them do these things though. For tyres I'll shop around as for brakes I may even do them myself if I can get it on a mates lift or he can do them for me if I'm busy.
This way I'll get to choose the brands that get fitted, you don't always get the choice at a dealers or other garages.

Bigphil1474

Got to say, since I got my relatively new Peugeot a few years ago and decided to use the dealership for servicing, I didn't know what I was missing. I used to use Dave the mechanic in the little garage round the corner. he was cheap and did a good job as far as I could tell, but his invoice basically just said Dave's Service done. With the dealership I get a full vehicle check report and it maintains my warranty on a now 7 year old car. Last time they did the service and MOT, they identified the front discs and pads needed replacing which were then covered by the MOT cover on the warranty, so done for free. A standard interim service was £170 last year, think the full service was about £350. Last time Dave did it in 2019 it was about £110.