The £69 service

[Rick101]

Seen a couple of places this week offering cheap servicing.

One was on a roadside A board offering a £69 service.

T'other was an offer from a local garage posted up at my work. £29 for MOT or £90 service and MOT.

I'd assume this is for a standard car 2.0L or less. Very cheap price but surely the oil & filter would take up a large portion of it. I'm always up for a bargain but think at this price they would be certainly cutting corners.

Anybody any experiences? Good or bad.

[steveo3002]

just a cheap oil n filter change and kick the tyres , possibly no worse than what you get for paying alot more

[Bear Phils]

>snigger<

[cptsideways]

An oil & filter costs about £8-£12 trade price, you do the math

[Rick101]

Can hardly be described as a service surely?

If I had a manufacturer warranty claim they may well question the quality of work.

[Andyjc86]

The idea is to get the car on the ramp and find as much work as you can be bothered to look for. Changing the oil glorifies it.

If you are good at saying 'no thank you' then go for it.

[Bitzer]

Bear Phils said:

>snigger<

Me too

[300bhp/ton]

Rick101 said:

Seen a couple of places this week offering cheap servicing.

One was on a roadside A board offering a £69 service.

T'other was an offer from a local garage posted up at my work. £29 for MOT or £90 service and MOT.

I'd assume this is for a standard car 2.0L or less. Very cheap price but surely the oil & filter would take up a large portion of it. I'm always up for a bargain but think at this price they would be certainly cutting corners.

Anybody any experiences? Good or bad.

Not being funny, but what do you think a service actually involves?

99% of the time a service is oil filter and oil. And sometimes air filter. And that's it.

Everything else is just "take a look, but do nothing", e.g. check brake fluid level, but don't top it up, check rubber boots and only tell the person they are worn, check the bulbs work.


On rare occasions there is scheduled work at set mileages such as cambelt, or plugs and & leads. But these are not every service. Same as, some places may well replace items like wiper blades as part of a service, but you'll be massively over paying for them to do so.

[300bhp/ton]

Rick101 said:

Can hardly be described as a service surely?

Maybe you should check out exactly what a service covers...

Seriously what do you think a typical "service" actually does and covers?

[daemon]

I've a mechanic who does servicing and a quick check over of brakes, suspension, etc for £40.

I would say though in general these cheap services are designed to general other work and build a customer base.

[TonyHetherington]

300bhp/ton said:

Everything else is just "take a look, but do nothing", e.g. check brake fluid level, but don't top it up, check rubber boots and only tell the person they are worn, check the bulbs work.

Not everything. There is a lot of "check and adjust" too - for example the handbrake. Also there are a lot of lubrication points that need checking and re-greasing. So there is actually work that needs doing in addition to the oil and filter change.

Whether that gets done on your £500 Audi/Lotus/Merc/BMW/VW/whatever service I don't know, but I suspect there's more chance than it being done on the £69 service.

[steveo3002]

alot of lubrication points ? you mean spray some grease on the door catches if youre lucky?

tbh dont go thinking any small service is much more than a oil change and a quick look round the important parts

[Rick101]

Quite clear on servicing. Been to main dealers, independants, specialists and tyre shops. Also done my own a few times.

My concern is, regardless of the fact that 95% of a minor service is checks, do they even do those checks? Are they just going to stick the cheapest oil in and give the filter a quick wipe over?

I know when I've done home servicing and I've greased the battery terminals, checked the pressure of the spare tyre and checked the glovebox light works, i've wondered how many garages would do anywhere near what I do for £150-£200+. At £60 odd it seems too cheap. There is an old adage 'If it seems to cheap to be true....'

If i were running a £300 snotter, wouldn't bother me. But my pride and joy, I'd have serious concerns.

[JonnyFive]

TonyHetherington said:

Not everything. There is a lot of "check and adjust" too - for example the handbrake. Also there are a lot of lubrication points that need checking and re-greasing. So there is actually work that needs doing in addition to the oil and filter change.

You're wasting your breath, no one believes servicing is anything more than kicking the tyres. If people read their handbook they'd see the service check sheets, and still claim it's only kicking the tyres.

[Captain Muppet]

TonyHetherington said:

Also there are a lot of lubrication points that need checking and re-greasing.

On a classic maybe, but on a modern car?

[300bhp/ton]

TonyHetherington said:

Not everything. There is a lot of "check and adjust" too - for example the handbrake.

I think that's a mute point and I'm not convinced I've ever seen any real evidence of this.

For example, if the rear drums need stripping, cleaning and the adjusters resetting, no service for the standard rate will cover this. All they'll do is bodge it by winding out the linkage at the lever end. This doesn't "fix" anything and only masks a potential issue.

TonyHetherington said:

Also there are a lot of lubrication points that need checking and re-greasing.

Depends on the vehicle on this one. A Land Rover Defender, yes. Many FWD hatchbacks no as there really aren't any lubrication points you can grease.

TonyHetherington said:

So there is actually work that needs doing in addition to the oil and filter change.

I'm not fully disputing this, but can you actually cite some examples?



for example, this is the service schedule for a 2011 Ford C-Max 1.6, this is the "1 Yearly" service schedule (they do offer a oil & filter lesser service too )

Take a look at how much they actually do. I highlighted the items where they actually do anything that isn't a checking....

Basically it boils down to:

-oil & filter change
-applying a sticker to tell you when you need it done again





Everything else is "checking only", or it's an additional labour item, so isn't covered under the standard service cost anyhow.

[Rick101]

Maybe that's the problem. Most aren't that interested in cars. Maybe thats a great offer for them. But a great offer for PH'ers? I'm not so sure.

I find the attitude of some on here (a car site) quite bizarre. Supposedly into cars, but happy to accept a ste maintenance regime.

I love my car hence I have it serviced somewhere I can trust to do it properly.
I have it detailed at swissvax
I have it mapped by Shark
I have geo by WIM
I have Eagle F1 tyres

I have a lot of time and money invested in my car, it's no Ferrari but it's mine and I want to look after it as best I can. A £60 service is not on my to do list!

[300bhp/ton]

Rick101 said:

Quite clear on servicing. Been to main dealers, independants, specialists and tyre shops. Also done my own a few times.

My concern is, regardless of the fact that 95% of a minor service is checks, do they even do those checks? Are they just going to stick the cheapest oil in and give the filter a quick wipe over?

I know when I've done home servicing and I've greased the battery terminals, checked the pressure of the spare tyre and checked the glovebox light works, i've wondered how many garages would do anywhere near what I do for £150-£200+. At £60 odd it seems too cheap. There is an old adage 'If it seems to cheap to be true....'

If i were running a £300 snotter, wouldn't bother me. But my pride and joy, I'd have serious concerns.

No offence, but do you really need to pay someone to tell you if your glove box light is working or not?? Talk about mixed up priorities...

Changing the oil & filter is just a valid "service" as pissing away an 3/4 hour looking at things that don't really need checking.

[300bhp/ton]

Rick101 said:

Maybe that's the problem. Most aren't that interested in cars. Maybe thats a great offer for them. But a great offer for PH'ers? I'm not so sure.

I find the attitude of some on here (a car site) quite bizarre. Supposedly into cars, but happy to accept a ste maintenance regime.

I love my car hence I have it serviced somewhere I can trust to do it properly.
I have it detailed at swissvax
I have it mapped by Shark
I have geo by WIM
I have Eagle F1 tyres

I have a lot of time and money invested in my car, it's no Ferrari but it's mine and I want to look after it as best I can. A £60 service is not on my to do list!

I think you are missing the point entirely..... throwing money at a car doesn't mean you are more of a PH'er

Lets face it - not everyone can afford, or justify spending money on detailing.. or a £500 service when all it needs is an oil & filter change.


Personally as a PH'er I think it's far more PH to check most of these trivial items myself and more often than the service interval.

[steveo3002]

fools and thier money and all that