Why get a car serviced at the dealer's garage?

deepseadiver

This is an post which is a current hot potato with me. I currently lease two new cars which are both under 12 months old. They are both subject to "Fixed" servicing every 12 months and this time is fast approaching.

As a result I have two questions

1. Do I have to use a franchised dealer for servicing? I ask this as I thought vehicles remained under warranty if they were serviced at a VAT reg garage. I am considering National Auto Centres (Tesco Deals!!!)

2. If I hand my vehicles back to the leasing company, say 1 week before they are 24 months old, do I need a second service? My last lease was a BMW on variable servicing so only one service carried out.

To put you in the picture, I currently pay £223 inc VAT for an Astra Sport 1.9CDTI SRI and £105 inc VAT for a Citroen C1 Vibe per month.

alared

As far as I`m aware when buying a new Ford you get a three year warrenty on the condition that you have to get it serviced by a Ford dealership every 12 months or 12,500 miles.

Is this correct?

goldspanners

alared wrote: »

As far as I`m aware when buying a new Ford you get a three year warrenty on the condition that you have to get it serviced by a Ford dealership every 12 months or 12,500 miles.

Is this correct?

no this is not correct.

jeannieblue

alared wrote: »

As far as I`m aware when buying a new Ford you get a three year warrenty on the condition that you have to get it serviced by a Ford dealership every 12 months or 12,500 miles.

Is this correct?

As Goldspanner said, definitely not correct. You can go on Ford Motor Company's website and look at the warranty conditions for yourself. If any dealer says you have to have it serviced with them, they are breaking the law.

jeannieblue

deepseadiver wrote: »

This is an post which is a current hot potato with me. I currently lease two new cars which are both under 12 months old. They are both subject to "Fixed" servicing every 12 months and this time is fast approaching.

As a result I have two questions

1. Do I have to use a franchised dealer for servicing? I ask this as I thought vehicles remained under warranty if they were serviced at a VAT reg garage. I am considering National Auto Centres (Tesco Deals!!!)

2. If I hand my vehicles back to the leasing company, say 1 week before they are 24 months old, do I need a second service? My last lease was a BMW on variable servicing so only one service carried out.

To put you in the picture, I currently pay £223 inc VAT for an Astra Sport 1.9CDTI SRI and £105 inc VAT for a Citroen C1 Vibe per month.

Regarding your first point, recommend you read the leasing agreement, we have a company and we service all their vans and cars - except for the 'top bod's' vehicle which is leased and the leasing company stipulate that it is done at a main stealership.

Re your second question, don't know - recommend you read the agreement on this one too.

deltic_2

If your car or van is under warranty and you use an independent, in order to ensure you remain fully covered by your warranty the independent must:

- service the vehicle in exact accordance with the manufacturer's service schedule (and these vary by vehicle, specification and model year etc)
- complete regular maintenance items outside the schedule e.g cambelt
- replace any parts with manufacturer's parts or exact OE equivalent
- use the correct grade and type of oil for any oil replacements

If you have a problem with your car and it's under warranty and its cause it possibly related to the service and maintenance schedule not being completed correctly or with the wrong parts, then the manufacturer has the right to ask you to prove that the above conditions and possibly others have been met in full per the terms of the warranty.

If you cannot prove these without any element of doubt you could have a very expensive bill or be in the hands of the manufacturer's goodwill.

alared

jeannieblue wrote: »

As Goldspanner said, definitely not correct. You can go on Ford Motor Company's website and look at the warranty conditions for yourself. If any dealer says you have to have it serviced with them, they are breaking the law.

Do you have a link for this please?

moonrakerz

alared wrote: »

Do you have a link for this please?

If you look under Classic Warranty (60K or 3 years) it says it can be serviced by any repairer, it must only be serviced by a Ford dealer if you are going for an enhanced warranty package.

http://www.ford.co.uk/ns7/warranty/-/war_new/-/-/-/-#

jeannieblue

deltic wrote: »

If your car or van is under warranty and you use an independent, in order to ensure you remain fully covered by your warranty the independent must:

- service the vehicle in exact accordance with the manufacturer's service schedule (and these vary by vehicle, specification and model year etc)
- complete regular maintenance items outside the schedule e.g cambelt
- replace any parts with manufacturer's parts or exact OE equivalent
- use the correct grade and type of oil for any oil replacements

If you have a problem with your car and it's under warranty and its cause it possibly related to the service and maintenance schedule not being completed correctly or with the wrong parts, then the manufacturer has the right to ask you to prove that the above conditions and possibly others have been met in full per the terms of the warranty.

If you cannot prove these without any element of doubt you could have a very expensive bill or be in the hands of the manufacturer's goodwill.

The garage must also be VAT registered. It is important that all owners read the service book thoroughly - we've had a few people lately who have brought their cars in as it is due on 'mileage' - they've not read it properly and not seen the and/or part thats says, for example, annually - whichever comes first.

chris147_2

jeannieblue wrote: »

Twaddle :rotfl:

One or two so called Technicians if you're lucky... plus alot of youngsters (I shouldn't generalise, but s*d it), who basically don't give a t*ss...

A good independent hands down anyday! They can order in genuine parts you know - and, they care - which is really important!

You shouldn't have to buy 'goodwill' by being blackmailed to going to the main stealers for over priced, often badly done, servicing. Its under warranty, fix it. End of.

They'd get more business, if they charged sensible prices and did the job properly.

Not read the full thread but felt I had to post at this one!!! I agree with JeannieBlue. Don't use a franchised dealer because you end up paying for the showroom rather than the servicing.

I have an Alfa 174 GTA and took it to the dealers twice when I first bought her. The stealers, oops sorry, dealers, ahem, told me all sorts of rubbish when I questioned the service cost. Stuff like it needs special oil, fully synthetic 10w40. When I pointed out that the manual states 10w60 the bloke behind the counter got all shirty with me. Went through the same with the brakes on it when they were warped (service counter telling me one thing, forums and others telling me something else, dealer backed down in the end).

I now use (and have done for a few years) and independant garage. The bloke knows his stuff (plus he's Itlian so I feel better at least!) and despite the last time he saw me was 7 months ago walked in today and he knew my name.

There is no way a franchised dealer would know me several months later. They didn't even care that I had a top of the range car from them. They just treated me like I had a 1.6 ltr run of the mill car not a performance car therefore knew a bit more about the car and used it as it was intended!

They thought they could fob me off with rubbish and when questioned and challenged they just gave up arguing because they knew they had no excuses.

Nearly all dealerships are like that, been through the same with my parents car. Dealers couldn't care less and tryed to fob us off. When challenged got shirty saying 'well you're not a mechanic'. Didn't like it when I said I look after race bikes and have my own track car. Immediately called the manager because they ran out of excuses.

At the end of the day if the independant uses certified parts and sticks to the manufacturers schedule there's nothing to worry about.

The worst thing is the indendant I use has admitted the 'official' garage send cars to him if they've overbooked. And yes I have seen brand new cars in his workshop having services carried out on them. That's when I swapped fully to him for servicing!