Do you have to use the dealer network for service on a PCP?
Discussion
My experience is that if you have a main dealer service it then it'll help if you need to make warranty claims.
If you get it done yourself which you can from any vat registered garage the even though the warranty is valid, they have cause to blame someone else. I hope that makes sense.
My mum's wheel bearings were changed under warranty on a four and a half year old i10 because she always went to the dealer for services, they were quite clear about it. It's a loyalty thing.
Don't give them an excuse.
If you get it done yourself which you can from any vat registered garage the even though the warranty is valid, they have cause to blame someone else. I hope that makes sense.
My mum's wheel bearings were changed under warranty on a four and a half year old i10 because she always went to the dealer for services, they were quite clear about it. It's a loyalty thing.
Don't give them an excuse.
Super_G said:
It’s not about saving money to me. It’s about trust. After so many bad experiences... I have decided to use my own guy. He is not priced too far off from the dealer though. I am thinking genuine parts come with a 2 year warranty and keeping my invoices for the parts.
I'm not a fan of dealer servicing either, I don't think that they are any better than the 'man down the street'. But you are opening yourself up to a world of pain should you need to make a warranty claim without having dealer history. If you've got a three year warranty then you will probably only need a couple of dealer services to keep it fully valid during the warranty period.CoolHands said:
^ so your mum probably paid for that wheel bearing 5 times over. Good choice, not.
My NV200 was 14 months and 16000 miles out of warranty when it needed a new ECU and wiring harness, roughly £3K.
I`d had it serviced 4 times at the selling dealer.
Nissan paid for it all under goodwill.
Good choice.
I have a customer with a 65-Reg 320d GT that was looking to Trade it in or voluntary terminate and wanted to know what the most cost effective way to change would be. I appraised the car which I had a fair few scuffs and scrapes and noted when I got into it that it flashed up ‘service due 12/16.’ I mentioned it to the customer and she said that she’d never had it serviced after 3 and a half years and 30,000 miles! It had essentially missed two oil services and a brake fluid service. Not wanting to take it in I told her the best way would probably be to VT but not sure how stung she would get on charges through lack of servicing. I called BMW FS on her behalf and the chap on the end of the phone said that it wouldn’t make any difference! Apparently as long as there are no warning messages or service lights up when they collect the car they wouldn’t pursue for lack of service history. To me this sounds like madness but there you go, if you plan on just handing the car back don’t worry about getting it serviced!
I had a Vauxhall with a Z20LET engine (which weren't very common at the time). It self-destructed after less than 3.5 years and under 65k miles. Unfortunately this was just outside the warranty (3 years, 60k miles) and despite a complete dealer service history, including one only a few months before, Vauxhall didn't give me any goodwill at all. Not a jot, not even the diagnostic costs of finding out that their engine had lunched itself (so at that point I couldn't even take it elsewhere to get it fixed without incurring a massive bill, which the dealer [not Vauxhall] reduced slightly, as long as I bought a new engine from them and paid them to fit it). So I vowed never to buy another Vauxhall as long as I lived and I hope that telling this story puts a few other people off ever buying one as well.
syl said:
I had a Vauxhall with a Z20LET engine (which weren't very common at the time). It self-destructed after less than 3.5 years and under 65k miles. Unfortunately this was just outside the warranty (3 years, 60k miles) and despite a complete dealer service history, including one only a few months before, Vauxhall didn't give me any goodwill at all. Not a jot, not even the diagnostic costs of finding out that their engine had lunched itself (so at that point I couldn't even take it elsewhere to get it fixed without incurring a massive bill, which the dealer [not Vauxhall] reduced slightly, as long as I bought a new engine from them and paid them to fit it). So I vowed never to buy another Vauxhall as long as I lived and I hope that telling this story puts a few other people off ever buying one as well.
But vauxhall ford Peugeot Citroen Renault are notorious for this sort of thing. The Japanese Korean and to some extent German dealers are a bit better.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff