Do people not bother with servicing anymore?
Discussion
I have been making enquiries about new cars over the last few months, and my queries usually go as follows;
Me: Hi, does the car have full service history?
Dealer: Yes, it has 4 stamps in the service book
Me: Great, could you let me know the dates and milages of the stamps?
Dealer: Of course...Dec 08 - 15K.... Dec 10, 22K... October 11 43K, Jan 13 65K.
Me: err, Thanks but no thanks... the car is meant to be serviced every 10k / 12 months
Have a just been unlucky in choosing cars which havn't been looked after, or does the wider public not care that a car has been serviced to its intervals? I can live with crap body work or bald tyres but if a car hasn't been serviced to 10% of its schedule I leave well alone... especially on performance motors.
Its now the first thing I ask, after once travelling 200 miles to look at a car with "FSH", only to find that they have been rather generous with their intervals...
Me: Hi, does the car have full service history?
Dealer: Yes, it has 4 stamps in the service book
Me: Great, could you let me know the dates and milages of the stamps?
Dealer: Of course...Dec 08 - 15K.... Dec 10, 22K... October 11 43K, Jan 13 65K.
Me: err, Thanks but no thanks... the car is meant to be serviced every 10k / 12 months
Have a just been unlucky in choosing cars which havn't been looked after, or does the wider public not care that a car has been serviced to its intervals? I can live with crap body work or bald tyres but if a car hasn't been serviced to 10% of its schedule I leave well alone... especially on performance motors.
Its now the first thing I ask, after once travelling 200 miles to look at a car with "FSH", only to find that they have been rather generous with their intervals...
Seems to me that a lot of people want to spend the bare minimum on their cars. I know several people who do not service their cars on time, and indeed are happy to leave it for years between servicing as they just "can't afford it" - but can afford plenty of other stuff. A question of priorities I think.
Chicane-UK said:
Seems to me that a lot of people want to spend the bare minimum on their cars. I know several people who do not service their cars on time, and indeed are happy to leave it for years between servicing as they just "can't afford it" - but can afford plenty of other stuff. A question of priorities I think.
I work with a couple of people who buy old cars and don't bother doing any servicing - just fix whatever goes wrong when it breaks. If the breakage is too much, they junk it and get another old car. One of them, the Scenic they had lunched its cambelt - hadn't been changed in 5 years at leastWhat kind of car was it? Many have long or variable service intervals and the mileages you quoted aren't massive.
There are two ways to define FSH - The way most of us car geeks do 'Serviced according to manufacturers guidance, recorded in a nice book' and the way lots of sellers describe it 'a record of all the services carried out despite not being what the manufacturers said'.
It doesn't help that its fairly easy to buy a stamped up service booklet.
There are two ways to define FSH - The way most of us car geeks do 'Serviced according to manufacturers guidance, recorded in a nice book' and the way lots of sellers describe it 'a record of all the services carried out despite not being what the manufacturers said'.
It doesn't help that its fairly easy to buy a stamped up service booklet.
Ours is one with a 20,000 mile or every 2 years interval. Must admit when I first bought it, it seemed far too long and I did plan to get it done every 10,000 or every year, regardless. However I then I realised it would probably just be a waste of money.
The manufacturers built and tested the engine, so I think they know best, plus like most modern cars it has a service indicator that counts down depending on you're driving. Ours is counting to get the service done a couple of thousand before, so about every 18,000 miles.
The manufacturers built and tested the engine, so I think they know best, plus like most modern cars it has a service indicator that counts down depending on you're driving. Ours is counting to get the service done a couple of thousand before, so about every 18,000 miles.
Car is a Subaru Legacy 3.0r Spec B. I know the service intervals because I have one! Am looking at getting a facelift version.
Oil changes are really important as the AVCS runs off oil pressure and the H6 engine needs quality clean oil.
I am aware that longlife services are avaliable - also been looking at Mk5 Golf R32's and its amazing how many of them are on longlife. I think that is fine if the car has been doing mostly motorway journeys, but most of the ones I have seen havn't. There is also something un-nerving about buying a 6 year old car with 58k on the clock which has only had two services!
Maybe I am being paranoid - I am sure there are manufacturers tolerances to allow for numpties to forget a service.
It is probably just an indicator of how the car has been looked after, If I am spending £££ on a car I want to know that the previous owner has looked after and cared for it...
Oil changes are really important as the AVCS runs off oil pressure and the H6 engine needs quality clean oil.
I am aware that longlife services are avaliable - also been looking at Mk5 Golf R32's and its amazing how many of them are on longlife. I think that is fine if the car has been doing mostly motorway journeys, but most of the ones I have seen havn't. There is also something un-nerving about buying a 6 year old car with 58k on the clock which has only had two services!
Maybe I am being paranoid - I am sure there are manufacturers tolerances to allow for numpties to forget a service.
It is probably just an indicator of how the car has been looked after, If I am spending £££ on a car I want to know that the previous owner has looked after and cared for it...
Having had a few chats with my younger brothers' generation it would seem that most of them didn't even know that a car should be serviced. Their parents haven't been involved in their car purchases and there is no guidance at any stage of their education that a car requires upkeep. Some if them are truly blind to the conditions of owning a car.
My mother has never had a car serviced.
Her 1995 Clio did 147,000 miles!! Fook knows how the cambelt never snapped.
None of the belts have ever been replaced on any of her cars, nothing has ever broken!
TBH most of her cars end up getting scrapped when random things start breaking - they start going really rusty, heater matrixes break that are uneconomical to fix - often not stuff that a service would fix anyway.
Although her latest Fiesta has just failed its MOT on a load of ARB and axle bushes, which obviously would have come up in a service.
Still, some people just don't care. I've started doing mine myself, I have more faith in me than most garages.
Her 1995 Clio did 147,000 miles!! Fook knows how the cambelt never snapped.
None of the belts have ever been replaced on any of her cars, nothing has ever broken!
TBH most of her cars end up getting scrapped when random things start breaking - they start going really rusty, heater matrixes break that are uneconomical to fix - often not stuff that a service would fix anyway.
Although her latest Fiesta has just failed its MOT on a load of ARB and axle bushes, which obviously would have come up in a service.
Still, some people just don't care. I've started doing mine myself, I have more faith in me than most garages.
I can understand people doing it on sheds like old clios and fiesta's.. if they buy it for a few hundred quid and can't be bothered fair enough. But we are talking here about cars which cost upwards of £28,000 new.. why spend that kind of money on a performance orientated car and then not bother to service it and seeing its resale values sink or have reliability issues?
Azur said:
Car is a Subaru Legacy 3.0r Spec B. I know the service intervals because I have one! Am looking at getting a facelift version.
Oil changes are really important as the AVCS runs off oil pressure and the H6 engine needs quality clean oil.
It is probably just an indicator of how the car has been looked after, If I am spending £££ on a car I want to know that the previous owner has looked after and cared for it...
Possibly owned by someone used to VW/Audi longlife services, who thought 15-20k intervals were acceptable.Oil changes are really important as the AVCS runs off oil pressure and the H6 engine needs quality clean oil.
It is probably just an indicator of how the car has been looked after, If I am spending £££ on a car I want to know that the previous owner has looked after and cared for it...
If the rest of the car is good, is it still worth considering? Especially given that it has just had a service in Jan 2013 - was this a major service or just an oil change?
I would definately say that of the wider public (Non enthusiasts) servicing doesn't seem to be a priority..
Most of the vehicles that come in to us as part exchanges do not have a full service history and even when described as full by the customer there is generally a discrepancy or two.. The main one being casual adherance to manufacturer's guidelines such as 1 year or 10K whichever comes sooner..
I think that unfortunately we are living in a society now where people do not care so much about having a car serviced.. To most people a car doesn't look/feel any different for spending £150 on a service so for them it is hard to justify the expense.. It's a shame they seem to be the lucky ones and the person who buys the car after them seems to be the one who gets the snapped cambelt etc!
Most of the vehicles that come in to us as part exchanges do not have a full service history and even when described as full by the customer there is generally a discrepancy or two.. The main one being casual adherance to manufacturer's guidelines such as 1 year or 10K whichever comes sooner..
I think that unfortunately we are living in a society now where people do not care so much about having a car serviced.. To most people a car doesn't look/feel any different for spending £150 on a service so for them it is hard to justify the expense.. It's a shame they seem to be the lucky ones and the person who buys the car after them seems to be the one who gets the snapped cambelt etc!
Azur said:
I can understand people doing it on sheds like old clios and fiesta's.. if they buy it for a few hundred quid and can't be bothered fair enough. But we are talking here about cars which cost upwards of £28,000 new.. why spend that kind of money on a performance orientated car and then not bother to service it and seeing its resale values sink or have reliability issues?
Because they keep it for 2-3 years, and get shot of it to a dealer who's keen to do a p/x or some nit who doesn't even know what the stamps in the service book are for presumably. Must be plenty of them out there! I went to look at a Seat Altea the other week; I was told the cambelt had recently been done.
Being one to double check these things, I flipped through the service book and the folder of receipts.
Cambelt was done in 2008 and 60k miles ago which was also when it was last serviced (sorry forgot to add that which was the main point of the tread)!
Recent, what the hell would he have deemed a while ago!
Being one to double check these things, I flipped through the service book and the folder of receipts.
Cambelt was done in 2008 and 60k miles ago which was also when it was last serviced (sorry forgot to add that which was the main point of the tread)!
Recent, what the hell would he have deemed a while ago!
Edited by Kentish on Friday 1st February 10:20
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