Biggest servicing sticker-shock?
Discussion
Kia never fail to amaze me with their £300 oil changes, sorry, services for my 1.4 Rio.
Just called Audi for a price for a timing belt kit for my A6 - they don't do a kit for that model, sir, but the prices for the parts are £45 for the belt, £85 for one of the tensioners..... Bought a kit online for £60.
Just called Audi for a price for a timing belt kit for my A6 - they don't do a kit for that model, sir, but the prices for the parts are £45 for the belt, £85 for one of the tensioners..... Bought a kit online for £60.
From the other direction, I was quite surprised to find that skoda have a national fixed price servicing plan which local independents can't beat. they do however rape you for any non service items, they wanted £750 to replace my aircon compressor, with the part on backorder and no idea when it would be in. Local aircon specialist did if for the half the price and had the part in stock.
w00tman said:
Apologies for the Americanism.
Anyone have any interesting servicing, repairs etc prices that have suprised them?
I need cheering up after finding out my little Abarth's second year service is £500+! Sigh.. I thought it was supposed to be a semi frugal choice of car, too!
I never understood Fiat's servicing prices on the 500 - they're insane. I had a first year service on a 500 Pop that I ran a couple of years ago. I was staggered at the price for what was essentially just an oil change and an inspection. I've had other cars given a 'major' service including plugs and a variety of filters for less money. Anyone have any interesting servicing, repairs etc prices that have suprised them?
I need cheering up after finding out my little Abarth's second year service is £500+! Sigh.. I thought it was supposed to be a semi frugal choice of car, too!
w00tman said:
Apologies for the Americanism.
Anyone have any interesting servicing, repairs etc prices that have suprised them?
I need cheering up after finding out my little Abarth's second year service is £500+! Sigh.. I thought it was supposed to be a semi frugal choice of car, too!
Had a 63 plate merc TD in last month for a headlight bulb change, Merc wanted £200 to do it (inc £120 bulb) we did it for £150 inc bulb, the reason he didn't want Merc to do it was he'd just had the cars first service, it cost him £1200, yes i nearly feinted as well.Anyone have any interesting servicing, repairs etc prices that have suprised them?
I need cheering up after finding out my little Abarth's second year service is £500+! Sigh.. I thought it was supposed to be a semi frugal choice of car, too!
KTF said:
Toaster Pilot said:
Kia never fail to amaze me with their £300 oil changes
Yeah, you can see how they cover the cost of the 7 year warranty. They know they have you by the balls as well, although if you buy a new one the service plan options are a lot more palatable.A fixed price major service for my 996 Carrera 4S is £395 including vat at all OPC. The price is £504 at a specialist!
I know that they might recommend other things to be done at the same time as the service but I can always say no and take it elsewhere for the work to be done or a second opinion.
Official dealer cheaper than independent shocker!
I know that they might recommend other things to be done at the same time as the service but I can always say no and take it elsewhere for the work to be done or a second opinion.
Official dealer cheaper than independent shocker!
McSam said:
It's almost as if servicing costs are a complete secret until you buy the car..
I bought a Mazda 5 2.0D as the new family bus. It replaced a Zafira (in angry dad silver) where the last fixed price service was £112.50. Being Jap I "presumed" the service might cost me £50-£100 more than the Zaf.
So I called up and the mention of a diesel 5 drew a sharp intake of breath. The service receptionist said: "I hope you're sitting down.... the first service for a diesel 5 is £470!"
Ferk me! Apparently on the diesels the cam cover has to be removed to check valve clearances and requires a new gasket.
McSam said:
It's almost as if servicing costs are a complete secret until you buy the car..
Well, you say that, but if you read this thread (you'd have to be pretty bored, but still):http://www.abarthforum.co.uk/500-abarth/service-co...
It turns out that:
- Abarth cannot decide what the servicing costs, nor the intervals;
- Dealers are actively lying about the costs (even I was told that "Sir, abarth MAKE us charge XXX amount, it's part of our contract".. I called back to be told different by another technician;
- FIAT disagree with Abarth about what service intervals should be; and
- The system that dealers use to price services, gives incorrect advice as to what needs to be carried out at what time!
So yes, to some degree, I didn't quite know what I was due to be charged. I was also told at the point of sale it would be about £300 which doesn't help, but oh well, what are you doing to do.
Oh, and the question about access to the engine - Abarth say it should take no more than 2.5 hours to do the full thing. Not a bad rate per hour!
vikingaero said:
I bought a Mazda 5 2.0D as the new family bus. It replaced a Zafira (in angry dad silver) where the last fixed price service was £112.50. Being Jap I "presumed" the service might cost me £50-£100 more than the Zaf.
So I called up and the mention of a diesel 5 drew a sharp intake of breath. The service receptionist said: "I hope you're sitting down.... the first service for a diesel 5 is £470!"
Ferk me! Apparently on the diesels the cam cover has to be removed to check valve clearances and requires a new gasket.
Nice trick - you take your car for service and they put a 1 litre bottle of oil in the boot for you, it gets added to the bill. A year later it goes for another service, the unused 1 litre bottle comes out, fresh one goes in, added to the bill... usually at an extortionate rate.
Crafty_ said:
Whats the other £465 for then ?
Nice trick - you take your car for service and they put a 1 litre bottle of oil in the boot for you, it gets added to the bill. A year later it goes for another service, the unused 1 litre bottle comes out, fresh one goes in, added to the bill... usually at an extortionate rate.
Even worse a change of job meant my commute dropped from 120m/day to 15m/day so the car only covered about 6k by the time the first service was due.Nice trick - you take your car for service and they put a 1 litre bottle of oil in the boot for you, it gets added to the bill. A year later it goes for another service, the unused 1 litre bottle comes out, fresh one goes in, added to the bill... usually at an extortionate rate.
Matt Harper said:
$1000+ for one front strut for a 2007 Chrysler 300 SRT-8
Pah! Merc SL500 with ABC. Front struts £1260. Plus vat. Each. With welded on balljoint that wears out.
PAS pump. £840+vat.
SBC pumps - £1600.
Various black boxes and relays 500 - 1000 a pop.
Mine did me for about £18000 in 3 years and 50k miles. Servicing and repairs.
Utter dogs
t. (Biggest single bill was £3040, rear shock (one) and a PAS pump. )Edited by Dog Star on Monday 24th February 20:56
Crafty_ said:
Nice trick - you take your car for service and they put a 1 litre bottle of oil in the boot for you, it gets added to the bill. A year later it goes for another service, the unused 1 litre bottle comes out, fresh one goes in, added to the bill... usually at an extortionate rate.
My father had a bit of a rant at landrover about that. His freelander doesn't use any oil between services so he now has several litre bottles sat in the garage.I bought a Honda 125...for economy and cheap running costs. Had to buy the up front 3 year servicing plan as the "normal" service cost for a 1 cylinder bike is apparently £180 and the service plan brought that down to abot £90.
They still look you in the eye when they say this...
Thankfully, the bike does about 120mpg to offset this robbery.
They still look you in the eye when they say this...
Thankfully, the bike does about 120mpg to offset this robbery.
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