DB9 servicing pricing from main dealer
Discussion
I am sure this has been covered many times before, my car (2007 DB9 with 17000 miles on the clock) is due for a service in the next few weeks, I have asked for pricing from my nearest dealer, they have quoted me £1400 for an 8 year service. In the past they have done me a good deal, I believe they did a similar service to this 2 years ago for £960 inc an MOT, so the price this time is much higher & surprisingly they are not willing to negotiate, which have always done previously, so there seems a change in policy. It's the nearest dealer to Bristol, but I won't name them.
Due to my unhappiness about this they have offered me an annual basic service for £950 (which is for an oil change inc filter, brake fluid change & safety checks), which is also expensive as last year this service was carried out for about £750, inc MOT.
The 8 year service in addition to the annual service includes transmission fluid change, pollen filter & air filter change, the thing that gets me is that the air filters & pollen filters were only changed 2 years ago & have only been in the car for 3000 miles.
The question I am asking myself is; should I go ahead with the 8 year service or just go for the annual service, or shall I go to an independent? I am fussy about my car but I find it expensive, wasteful & unecassary to change parts that have been in the car for 3000 miles, just to get the stamp in the book.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks Steve
Due to my unhappiness about this they have offered me an annual basic service for £950 (which is for an oil change inc filter, brake fluid change & safety checks), which is also expensive as last year this service was carried out for about £750, inc MOT.
The 8 year service in addition to the annual service includes transmission fluid change, pollen filter & air filter change, the thing that gets me is that the air filters & pollen filters were only changed 2 years ago & have only been in the car for 3000 miles.
The question I am asking myself is; should I go ahead with the 8 year service or just go for the annual service, or shall I go to an independent? I am fussy about my car but I find it expensive, wasteful & unecassary to change parts that have been in the car for 3000 miles, just to get the stamp in the book.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks Steve
I agree that the dealer pricing is too high to be justified. I tried getting prices from a main dealer, a recognised specialist and an Aston Martin approved but non franchised dealer and got varying prices.
This was for an 11 year service on a 2005 DB9.
Main Dealer............£980
Specialist.............£1080
NF Dealer..............£650
These were plus VAT.
I purchased the oil for £128.00 and the filter for £20.00. Looking through the schedule, there is not a huge amount to do, the pollen filters I bought from ebay for £20.00 pair and took 10 mins to fit. The air filters were clean but cost about £80.00 for serviceable ones and they take an hour to remove, clean, oil and refit. So......£750.00 approx to change the oil and check a few things? Nice work if you canblag get it.
Maybe if the car was under 5 years old and you wanted to parade your invoice around at a golf club, you could swallow the prices, but after the savings by using an indie, or doing it yourself, for the next few years have been calculated, it is far in excess of the reduced vehicle value through not having a full AMSH.
How many people I wonder just laughed at the owner of a car sold recently with 10 main dealer services on a car with under 1000 miles? I just think he must be a complete moron for getting collared into that.
This was for an 11 year service on a 2005 DB9.
Main Dealer............£980
Specialist.............£1080
NF Dealer..............£650
These were plus VAT.
I purchased the oil for £128.00 and the filter for £20.00. Looking through the schedule, there is not a huge amount to do, the pollen filters I bought from ebay for £20.00 pair and took 10 mins to fit. The air filters were clean but cost about £80.00 for serviceable ones and they take an hour to remove, clean, oil and refit. So......£750.00 approx to change the oil and check a few things? Nice work if you can
Maybe if the car was under 5 years old and you wanted to parade your invoice around at a golf club, you could swallow the prices, but after the savings by using an indie, or doing it yourself, for the next few years have been calculated, it is far in excess of the reduced vehicle value through not having a full AMSH.
How many people I wonder just laughed at the owner of a car sold recently with 10 main dealer services on a car with under 1000 miles? I just think he must be a complete moron for getting collared into that.
Thanks Tech8, pretty much what I was thinking, interesting prices you suggest. I will probably go to an independent, not sure who would be best & resonably close to Bristol.
The thing that annoys me is that the dealer I have used previously seems to have hiked up their prices recently & are not giving any flexibility, in other words their pricing seems to be take it or leave it, which really surprises me.
Steve
The thing that annoys me is that the dealer I have used previously seems to have hiked up their prices recently & are not giving any flexibility, in other words their pricing seems to be take it or leave it, which really surprises me.
Steve
I've just had my 2007 DB9 put through a year 8 service and was in a similar situation to you. I checked with all the recognised independents and prices seem to vary from £750-£1000. I then checked with quite a few dealers and also got a bit of variation in price. Highest was £1400 and the lowest was £965 (discounted from £1200). I also got a price from Supercar Rooms which I think was circa £600. Anyway I went with my local main dealer in the end at £965, who also happened to be the cheapest of the dealers. I thought whats the point of losing a book full of dealer stamps to save £200.
I have had another £2000 worth of work on it since then but that's another story.
I have had another £2000 worth of work on it since then but that's another story.
The dealership service pricing is dictated by AM - at the moment, the fixed price servicing deals only apply to post 2012 cars. I was told by a AM manager at the DB11 launch event that they will reinstate fixed price servicing for all Gaydon cars by the end of the summer. So maybe worth waiting for a while...
Jockman said:
Is it 
At least the fixed price servicing policy is...that's what my local dealer tells me. AM Works confirmed this morning that they expect fixed price servicing to be extended to pre-2012 cars "soon" but are waiting for confirmation from "the factory". Edited by Philip0 on Friday 10th June 12:21
KevinBird said:
I priced a 7 year service for my DBS with two main dealers, one was £1400 the other £675. I asked the first dealer why their price was so high and they said the plugs may need changing or investigating as a precaution!
Interesting.The service schedule says that the plugs should be replaced at 70,000 miles, whereas the service is listed as "7 year/70k service". I wonder whether some places do it as part of that service or some only do at based on the mileage.
Edited by Noogly on Saturday 11th June 14:02
Man maths would suggest the mileage per year (or lack of it) is a significant part of the value-for-money problem. Parts are being replaced on a time basis while still reasonably shiny.
Use the car a lot more and wear out the consumable parts, that way you won't feel quite so bad about chucking them in the bin.
Possibly.
Use the car a lot more and wear out the consumable parts, that way you won't feel quite so bad about chucking them in the bin.
Possibly.
Be interesting to see what the fixed pricing for pre 2012 cars may turn out to be Phil - the difference in pricing for the same vehicles baffled me.
I still wonder about the brake fluid change every year - my 'mere mortal' 535d brake fluid lasts 3 years, and the oil 17,000 miles! I service it myself and it coincidental uses exactly the SAME brand and spec fluids as the Aston (but has more torque
)!
I'm minded to go to a reputable Indie this year as I really don't feel this will affect resale - does anyone have an example or instance of this to backup such a claim?
I still wonder about the brake fluid change every year - my 'mere mortal' 535d brake fluid lasts 3 years, and the oil 17,000 miles! I service it myself and it coincidental uses exactly the SAME brand and spec fluids as the Aston (but has more torque
)! I'm minded to go to a reputable Indie this year as I really don't feel this will affect resale - does anyone have an example or instance of this to backup such a claim?
Ken Figenus said:
Be interesting to see what the fixed pricing for pre 2012 cars may turn out to be Phil - the difference in pricing for the same vehicles baffled me.
I still wonder about the brake fluid change every year - my 'mere mortal' 535d brake fluid lasts 3 years, and the oil 17,000 miles! I service it myself and it coincidental uses exactly the SAME brand and spec fluids as the Aston (but has more torque )!
I'm minded to go to a reputable Indie this year as I really don't feel this will affect resale - does anyone have an example or instance of this to backup such a claim?
I'd say the fixed price servicing is an incentive to get newer cars in the hands of owners. An incentive in 2012/2013 to get more new sales and later on to get owners to trade in older models.I still wonder about the brake fluid change every year - my 'mere mortal' 535d brake fluid lasts 3 years, and the oil 17,000 miles! I service it myself and it coincidental uses exactly the SAME brand and spec fluids as the Aston (but has more torque
)! I'm minded to go to a reputable Indie this year as I really don't feel this will affect resale - does anyone have an example or instance of this to backup such a claim?
I'd guess that a more 'track focused' car would have justification for fluid changes where excess heat is a regular and foreseeable event.
I'm just hypothesising.
paulrog1 said:
I'd be interested to see if the dealers will start to offer reduced rates to try to keep the early Gaydon cars inside the dealer network.
My feeling is they would actually want the older cars to stray the nest to make way for newer models which is the segment of the market a dealership is mainly focused on.Generally now, a 10 year old DB9 or V8 cannot be adequately serviced sticking to the original book times because they just don't come apart and go back together how they used to. Pulling in the other direction is a dealerships business model to work like a production line (for want of a better analogy) in terms of when cars get booked in and come off ramps which ties in with allocation of manpower.
A wave of cars which wont comply with such a regimented timing methodology and an army of new sales models needing to have aftersales service / PDI care / warranty will start to cause a conflict considering the (small) size of most dealers workshops.
Rounding off numbers there are already circa 15k Astons on the road in UK with 20 ish dealers and a handful of indie's you would trust your car with - Do the fag packet maths of workshop resource and demand of the numbers of cars and its overload of cars vs shops and this is already not considering the influx of new models promised from factory in the coming years.
Meaning the highest value customers (newer cars / sales / warranty) which is actually the least headache type work compared trying to fix a tricky problem on an older car will inevitably cause dealers to target their business away from the older cars so they can remain production line efficient. How many DB7 and Vanquish are inside a dealer workshop today?? very few is the answer, those cars are mostly now cared for at specialists who have earned the reputation for being the leaders on care for those particular cars - same focus for same reasons will redirect away older new era cars soon enough.
If not such a focus, there will likely be a matrix stating a drive-in service price, which is drawn up for cars that comply to the book times. On cars that don't (all in my experience), the drive-out price will likely be very different to compensate the disturbance to the production line.
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