pros and cons of specialist over dealer ?

[scotte]

Hi,

Looking to get an R soon but got the old Scottish dealer problem (i.e lack of them).

Thinking of taking a 1 - 2 year old Elise to a specialist for servicing instead of main dealer.

Is this worth it being that my log book wont look so good when i come to sell again ?

Major dilemma for us Scottish lotus enthusiasts. Appears to be enough of a problem to put some would-be owners off the car altogether - unfortunately.

Cheers
Scott

[bogie]

as long as the specialist is well known, its not a problem..most good specialists have a better rep than the dealers and are 1/2 to 1/3rd of the price.

[TCee]

well I can tell you one pro.....

Wilsons Lotus in Chadwell Heath A service - £299
Sinclaires in Romford A service - £185

'Nuff said

>> Edited by TCee on Thursday 30th June 02:56

>> Edited by TCee on Thursday 30th June 02:56

[sl7023]

I live in Edinburgh and have just had an A service & cambelt change carried out by Dan Jude in Newcastle. Drove down the Coldstream Road on the Sunday evening - weather was fantastic, managed to slow down at all the "right" bits ! Spent the night with a mate of mine in Newcastle, had a few beers. Took the car over to Dan on the Monday morning , wandered around Newcastle (very pleasant on a sunny Monday !) and picked the car up at 3.30pm. Drove back up the same road, car felt fantastic (just had new tyres fitted, again from a local specialist). Perfect couple of days.

Conclusion - no need to go to main dealer, specialists such as Dan much more knowledable, friendly & enthusiastic, as well as significantly cheaper.

Don't not buy an Elise because of concerns over servicing !! You'll regret it !!

Garry

[S Works]

TCee said:

well I can tell you one pro..... Wilsons Lotus in Chadwell Heath A service - £299 Sinclaires in Romford A service - £185 'Nuff said

Or in the south (not much good to you in Scotland admittedly) you can go to Fibreglass Services in Yapton nr Arundel and get Miles to do it with a Lotus stamp (yes he's listed as an official dealership and servicing agent - check the log book list!) for about £100.

As was said above - do not let some main dealers put you off.

>> Edited by S Works on Thursday 30th June 07:34

[shirepro]

sl7023 said:

I live in Edinburgh and have just had an A service & cambelt change carried out by Dan Jude in Newcastle. Drove down the Coldstream Road on the Sunday evening - weather was fantastic, managed to slow down at all the "right" bits ! Spent the night with a mate of mine in Newcastle, had a few beers. Took the car over to Dan on the Monday morning , wandered around Newcastle (very pleasant on a sunny Monday !) and picked the car up at 3.30pm. Drove back up the same road, car felt fantastic (just had new tyres fitted, again from a local specialist). Perfect couple of days. Conclusion - no need to go to main dealer, specialists such as Dan much more knowledable, friendly & enthusiastic, as well as significantly cheaper. Don't not buy an Elise because of concerns over servicing !! You'll regret it !! Garry

This is just the problem. Losing a day to get the car serviced doesn't make sense, because I could take it to the main dealer and pay the difference between a specialsit and a main dealer for the cost of a days work, and my holidays are too valuable. I had enough of this cary on when I had a very delicate Lancia with hours and days spent arranging lifts, catching trains, waiting in remote dealerships and paying massive bills (service intervals were 3000 miles). In fact I hung on to it so long that by the time I sold it, the turbo unit had gone and that full service history counted for nowt. I had a pile of invoices the size of Bono's file for the litigation on his trousers.

[paulwakinshaw]

I have to agree with Garry

Dan at Jude performance Services knows his stuff and has serviced loads of local cars and even two that I know of from North of the boarder, one being Garry and another who had HGF and that’s a big bloody job to fix one of those!

I have heard loads of stories about the two Lotus franchised dealers in Scotland, some good but more bad especially when it concerns the workshops and servicing departments.

I have had loads of work done by Jude Performance Services and I would recommend them to any Elise owner without doubt. Apart from the comments above price is also a big concern for people so compare this:

F1 Lotus Newcastle C service inc VAT, parts & labour £650

Jude Performance Services C service inc VAT, parts & labour £400 (+£20 for VVC)

Wako

[scotte]

Thanks for the info guys. There is apparenly an elise specialist in Arbroath (about 20 miles away from me). Wish i could find a few people that have been there to get some feedback.

Im just scared of destroying a machine over the years not getting any cash back. A good S2 appears to hold their value pretty well.

Jude Performance Services seems like it could be a good option though but its still 4 hours drive away -well in a normal family saloon

I just wonder what im letting myself in for if i need to take a day off twice a year for servicing and god knows how many days for repairs i.e plan to keep the car a while.

mmm.........really want a liz though

[paulwakinshaw]

Scotte - where are you in scotland?

Wako

[scotte]

Im in Dundee Paul.

You ?

[paulwakinshaw]

Near Newcastle so Jude Performance is only a 20 mins drive for me. I spend much of my time North of the border and Dundee aint so far TBH

Its only A90 to Perth, 25 mins, M90 to the bridge 30 mins, M720 bypass to Dalkeith - 20 mins then 2 hours to Newcastle and Dan is only 10 mins from the A1.

I thought Drednaught was a TVR place anyway?

[scotte]

Drednaught appears to be TVR and MG so i guess they know the K-series.

www.dreadnought-tvr.co.uk

I dropped them an email to see if they know much about the R.

"Jude" and his services appear to have a really good rep though - thanks for letting me know about them. I posted on a scottish elise forum too - will hopefully get a few options come the time.

Cheers
Scott

[scotte]

just got an email from specialist, said the were "reluctant" to work on the 111R's toyota engine as their experience is with the K-series - which is fair enough.

Scott

>> Edited by scotte on Thursday 30th June 14:57

[paulwakinshaw]

well fair enough, at least they were honest. Still try Dan at Jude Performance services.

Paul