£420 for a service, really?

[viperdave]

Hi all I’m trying to put my 97 GTS in for its service, (6000 mile 6 year), its the first one for me since buying it earlier this year, I have read the posts that indicate the costs should be around £180 - £260 from a Chrysler dealer but I have been quoted £420 from Frosts, and Suttons don’t even seem to be able to come up with a price after a week of asking, the best I’ve got from them so far is £80/hour + parts with no estimates of how many hours they expect, (do they really expect a blank cheque?) and lots of promises to call me back, granted the car doesn’t have the best service history and as such it is probably in need of a big service but that price seems a bit too high. Does anyone have any real servicing costs and good locations in the south where I can get this done(I’m in surrey/hants area) without writing blank cheques? So far I am not that impressed with Chrysler customer service and am a bit concerned as these two dealerships seemed to be the best bets for a viper in this area.

If £420 is a fair price then off I will go to Frosts, but do any of you guys have any experience you can help me out with.

[viperdave]

Now I am really confused, called motorway sports and finally got Suttons to give me a price and they are all expensive

Frosts £420 15000 mile service
Suttons £411 45000 mile service
Motorway sports £658 60000 mile service £300 in parts and lube

Now they all think i should have a different service, the car has 6000km on it now and had 30,000 mile service in 2000 (@900 km) and a 15,000 (@4000km) in 2001, nothing last year, so I can see where the problem is in deciding what’s appropriate but I’m no expert, and the service booklet is so generic its as good as useless.

I really don’t know what to do now, should probably get a service manual and get under the car myself.

Can anybody with a proper service manual tell me if it has missed anything critical with the services it has had, I’m thinking if I decide to get them to do it, I will probably go with the frosts 15,000 mile service as I was not that confident with Suttons especially when they reckoned the stock filters are as good as the K&N's that everyone else says are way better.

I think I know now why a lot of vipers get sold after a year, it to much hassle to service. Not going to let it beat me though as I have too much fun with the car even if I do have to get under it myself.

Thanks for the help

[viperdave]

You are all making a convincing argument for a DIY service. Neil's sent me the service schedule and yep it looks like that little dealer stamp in the book is a waste of money, its not like I have a book full already so there wont be much loss there.

Wish me luck and I know where to come if I have any problems

Thanks all