One reason dislike car "main dealers"

[Aztecs27]

(Apologies in advance to the wheeler dealers on the board who work at main dealers )

Car is due (a bit overdue, actually, which was news to me - mis-informed about service intervals) it's 1st service since I bought it (second overall service)...Called up the Local Ford Dealer to get a quote - That will be £225 sir, all in, including parts AND labour.

Called up local garage that does manufacturers servicing (i.e. servicing that doesn't invalidate the warranty) - That will be £150 sir, all in, including parts AND labour. They just use OE Unipart parts instead of Ford Stamped ones. Oh and they didn't want to charge me for use of a courtesy car.

Just dropped it off and saved myself £75. Happy days.

 

[brendy]

And as long as they are vat registered they will keep you inside your warranty terms.
1st services are a joke anyway, oil and filter change, quick check of a few other bits (but not replaced, unless knackered, not good if the car is only on its first service) and charge a fortune.
I service my impreza myself and the Wifes X5 goes to a local guy who can give me a stamp and knows them inside out, this keeps me under my 3rd party warranty too.

 

[Aztecs27]

Once my 3 years is up, I'll probably end up servicing the Ford myself. I'll do brake changes and stuff myself too (with help of F-I-L's garage and jacks)..Works out much cheaper.

 

[Smiffy]

In response....I guarantee that I would give a few hundred pounds more for a 3 or 4 year old car in part exchange if it had full MAIN DEALER SERVICING rather than a non franchised garage servicing. Makes it easier to sell on and the 2nd owner feels a little more reassured.
So it's not ALL savings, (athough I can see where you are coming from).

 

[USER1999]

I think Merc wanted about £750 to service my old car. Paff, not going to happen. My wifes BM was quoted at £850 for a major service, also not going to happen.

Resale value?

My last 5 cars have been sold for the total sum of £200. Yep, thats £0, £0, £0, £0 and £200.

Not sure the service history counted for much.

 

[Smiffy]

My last 5 cars have been sold for the total sum of £200. Yep, thats £0, £0, £0, £0 and £200.

Not sure the service history counted for much.

I did say a 3 or 4 year old car Murph. With values of £0, £0, £0, £0, and £200.00 sounds like your previous five cars went straight to the knackers yard. So no, FSH wouldn't have made a jot of difference.
I have just sold a nice Volvo V50 to a site member. One owner, 27k and full service history with the local Volvo dealers, ramped and stamped every year. Made it much easier to sell. And we gave more for it than we would have done had it been serviced by Joe Bloggs. Guaranteed.

 

[grumpyjock]

Do agree Rob when you wish to p/ex a car at 4 or 5 years old it makes a diffference, but when you want to drive them into the ground its just not on.
Have mine serviced every year by the local garage and do oil change and other little bits myself.
9 year old this year and done 83000 with no major problems.

 

[chris661]

The first discovery I bought many years ago needed a service and I wanted the timing belt and pre tenioners done as well landrover garage £1000 + vat and that was 12 odd years ago! On yer bike pal, went to a local 4x4 specialist who was the previous chief spanner monkey at the landrover garage and had set up on his own, £300 for the same work. Tell me thats not a rip off.

 

[Doc]

Main Dealers (also known as "Stealers" within the trade)

Someone's got to pay for the plush showrooms and coffee machines.

We have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in diagnostic equipment, training and technical information subscriptions to assure dealer level capability and the manufacturers are doing their best to prevent independants get no share of the work.

Thank goodness for BER (Block Exemption Regulations) that try and level the playing field giving consumers the choice of where to have their vehicles serviced and repaired.

Most of the dealers are also signing up to the new "Motor Codes" which promises everything but appears to fail the consumer massively when garages / dealers are unscrupulous.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Cheers

Steve...

 

[Aztecs27]

In response....I guarantee that I would give a few hundred pounds more for a 3 or 4 year old car in part exchange if it had full MAIN DEALER SERVICING rather than a non franchised garage servicing. Makes it easier to sell on and the 2nd owner feels a little more reassured.
So it's not ALL savings, (athough I can see where you are coming from).

That's fair enough. Luckily that doesn't apply to me. We will keep the Mondeo (providing it runs) for the next 6 or 7 years at least. By which time it will have nearly 150k on the clock I would imagine, making the re-sale value - main dealer servicing or not - next to nothing anyway. Plus I buy all my cars from the same guy who runs his own consultancy company who has always sourced me a top spec car at a VERY competitive price. Only hang up is the fanny of having to sell my car privately, but it's a small price to pay for the price I end up paying on the year old cars that I get when I upgrade.

My only reason for regular services is to make sure the car is running as well as it can be.

 

[MadAdey]

I never touch cars without a main dealer stamp. Take my current car (Merc) bloody expensive when things go tits up on them. At least I know that the car has been serviced properly when I purchased it. Local garages will do servicing to manufacturers guidelines, but do they really use the best of parts when they do. Can you really guarantee that hey have done a proper full servicing on it also?

 

[bladeplayer]

I work in a main dealership, i do agree it can be more expensive , its changing over here a bit now tho , mayb not enough just yet , the added advantage comes here in a two way loyalty regarding warranty in particular , we have the 2 year manuf warranty & 3rd yr dealer warranty the same as the UK (vw), if anything goes wrong in the 4th year we can apply for assistance for you, even into the 5th year in passanger safety aspect (airbags /seatbelts) VW will give a goodwill allowance , we the dealer can put forward a case & an allowance if the customer has been loyal to us, & vw most times will match our allowance .. the other down side is for warranty cases some dealers will prioritise (sp) their own customers .. also the mechanics at the dealership are more aware of faults to their own brand (because we see them more often & get updates from vw not because they are necessiarly better mechanics) but what Doc says is true , somebody (you) pay for the "FREE" coffee & biscuits & heating & lighting the showroom ..

 

[Aztecs27]

I never touch cars without a main dealer stamp. Take my current car (Merc) bloody expensive when things go tits up on them. At least I know that the car has been serviced properly when I purchased it. Local garages will do servicing to manufacturers guidelines, but do they really use the best of parts when they do. Can you really guarantee that hey have done a proper full servicing on it also?

That last part's a bit of an invalid argument. Can you really guarantee that the main dealer has done a proper full service? There's no way of guaranteeing anything like that unless you watch them perform the service. I've experienced cut corners with main dealers in the past.

I used to own a Seat and took my car to a VAG specialist Garage for servicing and repairs. They were all guys that used to work in the VAG group and opened their own business to save people money. I'm more than happy that they know what they're doing.

Also, I'm happy that using a local non franchised garage to carry out servicing and car repairs is helping out a local business too, which is nice to know.

I suppose it depends what you want out of your car and how often you change it. If you change every couple of years and/or have a company car/car allowance for a work car, it makes sense to get it done at a main dealer, but in these tough financial times, I really can't justify paying £75 extra for a service, because I'm not getting £75 extras (IMO). I do alot of miles, meaning I'm likely to have more than one service a year, it's just difficult to justify that kind of cost.

I can see the point Bladeplayer is making, but in my experience with main dealers with previous cars, I have NEVER found this to be the case (the loyalty thing)...Shame really, customer loyalty should be a given in this day and age.

 

[Doc]

Having re-read my post I should also add for parity that not all main dealers are rogues, we have good relations with a lot and carry out their non-franchise diagnostics.

Also there are a significant proportion of independents out there that do nothing to enhance the public's perception of our trade.

Ours is probably the most undervalued trade out there in terms of what we can actually charge for the higher skill levels at the best workshops (both dealer and independent) with the fast fit chains driving down the prices and dumbing down for the customer the astounding levels of technology in today's motor vehicles.

"yes madam we can switch off your engine management/ SRS/ ABS light"

cheers

Steve...

 

[bladeplayer]

I can see the point Bladeplayer is making, but in my experience with main dealers with previous cars, I have NEVER found this to be the case (the loyalty thing)...Shame really, customer loyalty should be a given in this day and age.

The BOOM cost us that mate , there was always loadsa customers , if we p'd you off we got someone else , pigeons coming home to roost now tho in the recession , we were as guilty of it as the rest , the bigger the garage the worse it was tho , Customer coming first was totaly lost . greed took over , thats why over here the realy big garages were/are the 1st to close ..

 

[RGDave]

In response....I guarantee that I would give a few hundred pounds more for a 3 or 4 year old car in part exchange if it had full MAIN DEALER SERVICING rather than a non franchised garage servicing. Makes it easier to sell on and the 2nd owner feels a little more reassured.
So it's not ALL savings, (athough I can see where you are coming from).

Yes, the last two cars I bought were both stamped up from main dealers. On a young and expensive car, it's got to be worth it. On an old one, clearly not.

 

[MadAdey]

I am funny about what sort of person has owned the car before I bought it. If I see main dealer stamps and good quality tyres on the car I know it has been cared for irrespective of cost. When I see a car that has been serviced at a local garage even if it is to manufacture schedule, I wonder if the car has had good quality parts used on it. Like seeing budget tyres on a car really does not make me think that the car has been maintained to the highest standard. I always buy second hand German cars and we all now that the can be expensive when they have major problems.

 

[Tommo21]

I will never ever buy a car from a main dealer, the mark up is outrageous. My 2009 Passat is up for sale right now and hopefully I’ll get the money back I paid for it. Having a few contacts in the motor trade gets me good cars at the prices dealer pay before they put it out on the forecourt. In other words I can run it for a few months for free. It’s a pain selling cars privately all the time and at my last count I’m on my 9th Passat in the last ten years. Oh I’ve had a BMW 5 and 3 series and one Audi A4. I’ll take an honest guess that motoring, the money I actually pay for the cars has cost me no more that £1000 over the last ten years. If I sell this car and don’t buy another then it’s cost me near nothing for 10 years of motoring.

Next to buying your house, cars are the biggest drain on income. Most people except if they buy a car at say £7500, pay it up, keep it for say 4 or 5 years then it will be worth about £2000 if your lucky. I see that as a loss of £5500. It then starts over and over again. Over the years it adds to 20, 30 or £40000 you are paying for your cars alone. More if you like the expensive ones and pay on the drip.

To hell with that. I would rather the hassle of selling my car every 9 months or so rather than loose that amount of money. My last Passat I sold for more than I paid for it and I used it for 10 months.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Our Fiesta is due its 80,000 service and HID has booked it into Inchcapre (local Ford dealer). Expecting it to cost mega bucks as a result but she refuses to go anywhere else even when I try and point out the money saved would buy her a pair of shoes and matching bag. As she uses it and needs it for work she says its her car even though my redundancy paid for it and she'll take it where she wants.

 

[Dodger]

I will never ever buy a car from a main dealer, the mark up is outrageous. My 2009 Passat is up for sale right now and hopefully I’ll get the money back I paid for it. Having a few contacts in the motor trade gets me good cars at the prices dealer pay before they put it out on the forecourt. In other words I can run it for a few months for free. It’s a pain selling cars privately all the time and at my last count I’m on my 9th Passat in the last ten years. Oh I’ve had a BMW 5 and 3 series and one Audi A4. I’ll take an honest guess that motoring, the money I actually pay for the cars has cost me no more that £1000 over the last ten years. If I sell this car and don’t buy another then it’s cost me near nothing for 10 years of motoring.

Next to buying your house, cars are the biggest drain on income. Most people except if they buy a car at say £7500, pay it up, keep it for say 4 or 5 years then it will be worth about £2000 if your lucky. I see that as a loss of £5500. It then starts over and over again. Over the years it adds to 20, 30 or £40000 you are paying for your cars alone. More if you like the expensive ones and pay on the drip.

To hell with that. I would rather the hassle of selling my car every 9 months or so rather than loose that amount of money. My last Passat I sold for more than I paid for it and I used it for 10 months.

I take it you managed to master the handbrake then Auld Yin?!:mmm: