UKC

what's a ballpark figure for servicing a diesel in a decent (but not dealer) garage? the guy who did my MOT yesterday for £35 said he'd do the service today for £120. sounded steep to me, or have i just got used to paying backstreet prices?

In reply to Dom Whillans: £120 - ouch! A basic service usually only entails an oil / filter change and an inspection. Kwik Fit used to do oil changes for about £25! Probably nearer £40 these days but you often get a basic inspection for free as they are effectively canvassing for extra work.

In reply to Dom Whillans: My good independent is an hours labour + bits + vat. Which usually comes in at £100-120 depending on the nature of bits.

In reply to Dom Whillans:

Depends what car it is and what you get, if it needs 6 or 7L of fancy synthetic oil and a box full of filters it's going to cost more than changing the oil in an old Astra van.

Get some more quotes if you don't like that one but it doesn't seem mad to me if the car takes a lot of or expensive fluids.

Could be: £30 oil, £30 filters, £40 labor + £20VAT... Not cheap but not absurd. If I get mine serviced for three figures this time round I'll be doing well

jk

In reply to Dom Whillans:

I use a decent fully synthetic oil in my Focus and to do an oil, oil filter, air filter change on that costs about £60 in parts and fluids with me doing the work myself. I'd have thought £100 - £120 is about right IF they are using good quality oil. Check what they are putting in it for the price they are charging. If it's a cheap, bog standard oil then the price sounds a bit high.

In reply to Dom Whillans:
I think you need to be wary of getting low to mid range service (see what they are checking / doing). Quite often it amounts to very little more than an oil change and what gets covered in an MOT, (plus checking the levels of a couple of things that literally would take you a few minutes to do yourself).

In reply to Dom Whillans: depends what you are getting done for that money and what quality of materials is being used. By way of comparison I service my own car and last time the parts cost me about £130 (spark plugs, oil & air filters, synthetic oil, gearbox oil and diff oil). Fair enought it was all brand name, performance stuff but the costs do mount up quite quickly.

If someone is offering to do an oil change for £25 they must be using crude oil.

In reply to M0nkey:
I paid over 300 quid for a service + MOT at honda main stealer when I got my car (second hand), but it was the highest level service they provide. I'm sure the parts alone would have come to more than half the service cost (minus the MOT). I'm guessing labour of the service alone was probably around 100 quid which seems OK given the amount of stuff they did / checked!

Its not something I'd probably do again (as 3 years on the car is now 9 years old), but I still consider that service as worth while given that the car hadn't had more than oil changes for 3 years when I got it.

In reply to Dom Whillans: I pay aroun £130 for full service on my van (diesel) (service every 10k), and I thought this was ok considered I've paid as much as £150 in the past.
Mark.

In reply to browndog33:
Its not what you pay its what they do. Once my cars get old I stop getting services and just do oil changes, but ask the garages to do specific tasks along with it which I consider worthwhile from the service schedule. Most services amount to little more than checking the levels of a few very easy things, doing the same stuff as an MOT and changing the oil.

In reply to Dom Whillans: Ileave my car at a garage while I have a month or two abroad ,on return its fully serviced and washed and it costs me nothing.Im a lucky sod ,my son owns the garage .Great

In reply to Dom Whillans: I do all my own servicing on my Mondeo diesel car. The Oil is the most expensive part at £30 for 6 litres (if you know where to look!). Everthing else is generally quite cheap and the last service I did cost me about £60 for everything so I'd expect a garage to charge double that so £120 doesn't sound far out!

DIY I say! it's not hard to do with the right tools!

In reply to CurlyStevo: The garage I use gives me a piece of paper with a list of things checked, it has about 100 check points. I presumed this was a standard full service?
Mark.

In reply to higherclimbingwales:

I agree £120 sounds reasonable. A main dealer would easily charge twice that.

Neil

In reply to browndog33:

It's a sales technique to squeeze more money out of you. A full service, to me at least, is a replacement of all filters, change of oil, check brake fluid level and maybe top up screen wash. A basic service would generally only really include an oil and filter change, everything else is kind of pointless checking if it will cost you extra to fix.

The last garage I used for a service claimed that the price of the oil wasn't included in a 'full' service, but was in a basic one! go figure!

In reply to Dom Whillans:

Sounds about right to me.

In reply to higherclimbingwales: So how much should I be paying for a decent service?

In reply to browndog33:

I very much doubt their standard service is the same as a honda level 4 service, this includes nearly every single item that ever needs doing on your honda service schedule (bar timing belt and engine coolant change)

In reply to browndog33: Depends on how much oil your car needs and what type (part/full synthetic/mineral), how much labour is, whether its a chain garage or an independent but my guess would be, based on what I was quoted, about £100 for an oil/filter change, fuel filter, air filter and screen wash.

In reply to Dom Whillans:

As a minimum a basic service should involve changing all your filters, changing the oil, checking the fluid levels (power steering, brake fluid, windscreen wash etc)and once over inspection while the car is up on the ramp and checking of tyre pressures. Depending on the size of you engine you will need anything between 5 and 8 litres of oil that costs anything between £15 for cheap mineral oil and up to £60 for fully synthetic performance oil. Fuel and oil filters are about £5 - 10 each and an air fitler around £15. Thrown labour and VAT and I think £120 is not bad. If someone is offering to so it for half that dont be surprised if you find your engine full of chip fat.

Of course you can save money in the long run by buying a few very cheap tools and a Haynes manual and do it yourself, it is really not that hard.

In reply to Cú Chullain:
OR you can save money by checking the fluid levels and tyre pressures your self, the MOT covers the basic safety and just getting an oil and filter change at the garage - unless the service schedule indicates something important needs doing. That is very straight forward.

In reply to Neil Williams:


Main dealer service costs me £99

In reply to Dom Whillans:

£120 is what I pay for a petrol Fiesta on a lease agreement so serviced at a Ford main dealer

In reply to Dom Whillans: £350-£400 for an Audi A6 2 ltr D main dealer, £100 all in for my local garage to service my old Passat D

In reply to ebygomm:

I'm guessing that's one of those "fast fit at a main dealer" type arrangements intended to compete with those centres, rather than a standard main dealer service?

Neil