car servicing

daveyjp

frankie1star wrote: »

I am still taking everything in, and not sure what you mean by service indicator. On my old golf, it would normally indicate when the car needed a service, at least two thousand miles beforehand. Nothing has shown on this car, I noticed the main dealer sticker saying service at 10k.quote]

To see how long to next service turn the ignition on then press and hold the trip meter reset button for 2 seconds.

The_Economist

frankie1star wrote: »

Thanks so much for this, could you possibly direct me to the forum please? I knew I would be able to rely on MSE to help me. I merely want to get best value/service for money, and not blow my warranty.

http://www.usedcarmart.co.uk/forum/f38-volkswagen.html

frankie1star

daveyjp wrote: »

frankie1star wrote: »

I am still taking everything in, and not sure what you mean by service indicator. On my old golf, it would normally indicate when the car needed a service, at least two thousand miles beforehand. Nothing has shown on this car, I noticed the main dealer sticker saying service at 10k.quote]

To see how long to next service turn the ignition on then press and hold the trip meter reset button for 2 seconds.

very helpful have managed to establish car needs to be serviced in 4500 miles. its already done 13300, so does that now indicate that the car is on long service

Theo_Cupier

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

;
"Under new legislation, I believe and I maybe wrong that provided the car is serviced using genuine parts, this does not invalidate the warranty."

Correct on all counts, also, although it's not a position you want to put yourself in, even if the car hasn't had an authentic service if the problem is not one that would have been covered by a routine service it is still covered. IE a failure of an electrical component, but you don't want the argument.

From personnal experience I have found the main dealers to be only too happy to carryout waranty work regardless of SH. However I must admit these have only been minor issues or known likely failures.

Our last 2 cars, both of which we still have, were not serviced by the manufacturer. 1 was bought with 192miles on the clock, 6 months old ex dem, the other 11 months old, 27K miles with 2 Renault agent services.
As has been metioned before my issue is how do you know the job has been done correctly?, answer, you either do it yourself or find a garage you can trust and that usually isn't the main dealer. Obviousely from what the OP has said the latter isn't possible. Even if I supplied my own oil to dealer to keep the cost down and to ensure that the right quality stuff was used, how the heck do you even know they've used it. Maybe I'm too distrustfull?, I don't think so.

Sorry for the slight thread hijack but I'd like to ask a slightly broader question about servicing:

Is there any reason to get one's car serviced at a manufacturer's dealership, as opposed to a trusted independent garage nowadays?

We're lucky enough to have found an independent garage that does appear trustworthy, we've put my wife's S reg Rover 216 through them (decision being helped by the lack of Rover garages nowadays!) and they've been very honest about what needs doing and what does not need doing and are priced very attractively too, in terms of parts and labour.

Anyway, my Citroen Picasso is now 4 years old and out of warranty. Up until now it's been serviced at Citroen garages and I was going to keep going to them, just out of habit. However, I'm wondering whether there is any reason at all why I should stick with them going forward.

So long as I get a record of the service being done, do I gain anything at all by sticking with the more expensive main dealer?

Given the block exemption legislation, I guess this question applies equally to cars in warranty as those out of warranty, but since mine is recently out of warranty this is now irrelevant to me!

daveyjp

frankie1star wrote: »

daveyjp wrote: »

very helpful have managed to establish car needs to be serviced in 4500 miles. its already done 13300, so does that now indicate that the car is on long service

Looks like it - my Audi is on 9,000 miles and is showing 10,000 to service and this is definately on long life servicing.

Looks like the different quotes are down to this. You now need to consider if you stay on long life or switch to annual. If you do more than 15,000 miles a year long life is recommended, if you do less than 10,000 go to annual servicing.

frankie1star

Now I am armed with more information I can go back to the dealers and not look ignorant, (or too) questioning about price, what I will get, and feel confident that I know a little bit about the subject. A BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN MORE THAN HELPFUL

manda1205

Hi Frankie, My OH says try taking to skoda in Gorleston(sothtown rd), they were cheaper than chequered flag in alttelborough, they're all part of the group so they will service it for you. We live in your area too and my dads a mechanic so I would suggest him but he's no longer VAT registered so he wouldn't be able to validate the warranty. Although when your warranty is out give me a shout! He'll help anyone out and charges about 1/5 of what a main dealer charges.

frankie1star

manda1205 wrote: »

Hi Frankie, My OH says try taking to skoda in Gorleston(sothtown rd), they were cheaper than chequered flag in alttelborough, they're all part of the group so they will service it for you. We live in your area too and my dads a mechanic so I would suggest him but he's no longer VAT registered so he wouldn't be able to validate the warranty. Although when your warranty is out give me a shout! He'll help anyone out and charges about 1/5 of what a main dealer charges.

Thanks for that I didnt think to call the Skoda garage, I actually live in Norwich there is one right opposite the main dealer I think.

DeskBob

The general direction here is correct, you don't have to use a main dealer, just genuine parts and equivalent standard fluids (ie, oil, PAS fluid etc) to maintain your warranty. There are two other areas worth considering before you make your decision though.

The first one is for any updates needed to your car for safety reasons. These are normally covered by recalls (I had a letter from my dealer when I had a Zaffira, there was a concern over fuel fillers, they said they'd normally just do this when it was in for a service but it'd just had one).

The other is any software updates. Only the main dealers will have the latest software, I've never heard of anyone having problems because their car hasn't had it's ecu updated though, it's just something to consider. If it was a serious software update that was needed, manufacturers would contact you and ask you to bring it in for an update.

They also read the ecu memory to see if it's recorded any faults, though any good garage should be able to do this.

Pssst

What do you mean "service"? If you mean oil an filter ive just done mine. Genuine VAG filter & sump washer £3.50 (GSFcar parts) Oil, 4 L of GTX Halfords,£18. Time to do 45 mins.