Service in Non Lotus Garage
Discussion
My 07 Exige S is due and in for a service next week, It has done just under 5,000 miles and was last serviced just under 2 years ago at 1500.
Quoted price for the service is £ 325 Plus Vat, Im now thinking if I should just take it to my local village garage Im sure he will charge nothing like that amount I would think based on services he done for my BMW it would be well less than half the amount.
Im happy that he is well experienced for many years in all types of more standard cars but doubt he has worked on too many Lotus, What will the main dealers be doing is it plugged in to all kinds of computers to check preformance and faults or is it all standard stuff that any good mechanic should be able to do.
If it makes a difference I do intend to keep the car forever as its only used for occasional drives so any small saving I may have with a full Lotus stamps may not be of any real benefit.
Quoted price for the service is £ 325 Plus Vat, Im now thinking if I should just take it to my local village garage Im sure he will charge nothing like that amount I would think based on services he done for my BMW it would be well less than half the amount.
Im happy that he is well experienced for many years in all types of more standard cars but doubt he has worked on too many Lotus, What will the main dealers be doing is it plugged in to all kinds of computers to check preformance and faults or is it all standard stuff that any good mechanic should be able to do.
If it makes a difference I do intend to keep the car forever as its only used for occasional drives so any small saving I may have with a full Lotus stamps may not be of any real benefit.
no requirement by law or warranty to go to a dealer so yeah, fine, as long as your local garage use the right bits, follow the service schedule and stamp your book
I think too much value is put on dealer history these days, as most specialists offer same if not better service, for 1/2 the price
if you keep a car a good few years, or do decent miles to do 2 services a year, you can literally save thousands....
I think too much value is put on dealer history these days, as most specialists offer same if not better service, for 1/2 the price
if you keep a car a good few years, or do decent miles to do 2 services a year, you can literally save thousands....
I'd want to know that the local mechanic had the required OBD tool to check the ECU for faults (qv: misfire and camshaft oil spray problem recently on SELOC) but other than that, replacing spark plugs, changing fluids and checking consumables should be straightforward.
The Exige S isn't rocket science, but I'd want to ensure that any error codes from the ECU had been checked and either corrected or reset (depending on the type of error). Especially with a forced induction car, if the ECU is constantly having to rack back ignition due to detonation, there's something wrong.
Most of the car's reliability comes from owner maintenance (something I'm piss poor at...) rather than relying on the dealer / garage - ensuring consumables are replaced in timely fashion and that you don't rag the car to death when it's cold / oil is old, etc...
The Exige S isn't rocket science, but I'd want to ensure that any error codes from the ECU had been checked and either corrected or reset (depending on the type of error). Especially with a forced induction car, if the ECU is constantly having to rack back ignition due to detonation, there's something wrong.
Most of the car's reliability comes from owner maintenance (something I'm piss poor at...) rather than relying on the dealer / garage - ensuring consumables are replaced in timely fashion and that you don't rag the car to death when it's cold / oil is old, etc...
Id opt for a specialist rather than a village garage. someone who deals with Lotus alot will more likely notice the beginnings of an issue or something amiss that a village mechanic might miss. where in the country are you? I take my elise to a specialist £50 labour and they know Lotus inside and out better service than a dealer at half the price and the stamp in the book will still mean something to anyone in the know and the garage has a top reputation amongst owners on here and SELOC so minimal loss at resale i hope 
I would just take it back to the Lotus Factory service shop !
I think I would take to Dealer or very known Lotus specialist to make all the relevent checks.
Not worth saving a few quid on this, also your sell it a lot quicker with better history....
All in my opinion of course
I think I would take to Dealer or very known Lotus specialist to make all the relevent checks.
Not worth saving a few quid on this, also your sell it a lot quicker with better history....
All in my opinion of course
Exigeowner said:
I am in South Norfolk so any in Norfolk would be good.
Stu_00 said:
Fair enough!
Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Ah - its nice to know someone else who is doing plenty of driving.Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Edited by Stu_00 on Thursday 19th March 11:59
Ive only had my Elise coming on 3 months now and ive already done around 4K miles.
steveott said:
Stu_00 said:
Fair enough!
Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Ah - its nice to know someone else who is doing plenty of driving.Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Edited by Stu_00 on Thursday 19th March 11:59
Ive only had my Elise coming on 3 months now and ive already done around 4K miles.
giant catfish said:
I'd want to know that the local mechanic had the required OBD tool to check the ECU for faults (qv: misfire and camshaft oil spray problem recently on SELOC) but other than that, replacing spark plugs, changing fluids and checking consumables should be straightforward.
The Exige S isn't rocket science, but I'd want to ensure that any error codes from the ECU had been checked and either corrected or reset (depending on the type of error). Especially with a forced induction car, if the ECU is constantly having to rack back ignition due to detonation, there's something wrong.
Most of the car's reliability comes from owner maintenance (something I'm piss poor at...) rather than relying on the dealer / garage - ensuring consumables are replaced in timely fashion and that you don't rag the car to death when it's cold / oil is old, etc...
If the ECU detects any fault it would turn on the MIL light on the dash. No point hooking up the computer thing to look for faults as unless hes seen a MIL light then there wont be any ! The Exige S isn't rocket science, but I'd want to ensure that any error codes from the ECU had been checked and either corrected or reset (depending on the type of error). Especially with a forced induction car, if the ECU is constantly having to rack back ignition due to detonation, there's something wrong.
Most of the car's reliability comes from owner maintenance (something I'm piss poor at...) rather than relying on the dealer / garage - ensuring consumables are replaced in timely fashion and that you don't rag the car to death when it's cold / oil is old, etc...
Good idea 100K target ! , I have also done 12K in six months in money company motor. Ops, i better stop driving so much.....
Your depreciation looks much better then, doing low miles just makes me think a car club is better lol.
bogie said:
steveott said:
Stu_00 said:
Fair enough!
Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Ah - its nice to know someone else who is doing plenty of driving.Better try and get some more miles done it, I did 1000 miles last weekend alone! LOL
Edited by Stu_00 on Thursday 19th March 11:59
Ive only had my Elise coming on 3 months now and ive already done around 4K miles.
Edited by Stu_00 on Thursday 19th March 14:50
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