Getting your car serviced – independent or franchised dealer?

I have used dealer servicing for cars up to three years old and have rarely been happy with their work. Sometimes I discover that jobs have not been done and I know this because I mark parts to check what has been attended to. In one case the service manager said that a job was not part of a service so I referred him to the vehicle manual. I have had the engine of one car anointed with oil, so it smoked alarmingly when it burned off the exhaust. I have lost count of the times when I have been charged for a bottle of screenwash despite having topped it up before taking the car in for service.

The only reason I have used dealers is to maximise my chance of goodwill if something goes wrong. I once had a new engine fitted to a three year old car for the cost of the labour thanks to having my car serviced by the dealer.

I have an independent garage that I trust completely, though I have only used it for jobs that I don’t want to do myself.

I used to dread getting my car serviced. We always went to the franchise dealer and would regularly get the most enormous bills and I felt as though I wasn’t getting a great customer service either. If you don’t know about cars it can be difficult to discuss spark plugs, cam belts, break pads, etc and sometimes I suspected that I was being exploited for this.

How things have changed! Thanks to Which? Local and word of mouth I just love my local garage. Just this week they picked up the car for free as it wouldn’t start. They fixed and serviced it immediately and kept me in touch about the work. They are so friendly and I feel that I’m getting a good deal. I will not be going back to franchise dealers when this type of service is on the doorstep.

Sadly, even though you can have your car serviced by an independent garage without invalidating the warranty, in practice it’s such a hassle that it simply isn’t worth the trouble. The franchised dealers dealers realise this and they know they can charge their captive audience whatever they like.

And it’s not just cost, but attitude. I’m fairly self-confident with a responsible management job in a large international company, yet a BMW Service Rep can make me feel like something nasty stuck to the sole of his shoe three yards through the showroom door. I’m staggered how they do it; they must get special training.

Almost as proof of this, BMW (used to?) offer 4+ servicing for cars over four years old – at discounted prices. The staff always seemed much friendlier too.

PS. I don’t buy BMWs any more.

I stuck to the main dealer where I bought my new car for a while. Inspired a bit more confidence in my mind regarding the warranty, but it was unnecessary to be honest.

The truth is that for regular servicing, cars don’t need much these days beyond oil and filter changes and some lubrication here and there, So they concentrate more on cleaning it, and tell you how much tread your tyres have left. We don’t need a garage to tell us either of those things, so it’s all a big rip off.

A great approach I’ve found when I’ve had older cars before, is to call the AA out when the car is misbehaving, they will plug the laptop in, and code read the fault, then you can book it in with any garage, and you don’t need to pay for any diagnostics, becuase you already know what needs doing.

I have owned the same car for 16 years – purchasing it from a franchised dealer as an 18 month old car wih 9,000 miles on the clock (it now has 175,000). For the first few years it went to the franchised dealer, but after two breakdowns very shortly after a service (arousing suspicion) I changed to a different franchised dealer. That was not too bad until they got taken over by a large company. That company treated me like a cash cow to be milked of as much cash as possible – with bills regularly topping £500 and occasionally £1000. Eventually I caught them red handed trying to charge another large sum of money for another unecessary job when all the car needed was an oil top up. The car has now been looked after by an excellent local independent garage for about the last 8 years, and surprise, surprise, apparently needs less work doing on it now than it did 10 years ago – plus I get much better service. No contest. I have just recently purchased a replacement car for my wife, but no way will it ever be serviced at the franchised dealer.

wavechange – I have no problem at all with the manufacturer insisting on the use of their own parts to preserve the validity of the warranty. They can’t be expected to stand the cost of a repair that may be caused by use of a substandard part as you say. The 100,000 mile warranty may well be of use to us, as the Zafira replaced my wife’s Corsa – owned from new and about 138k on the clock. This is still in the family (now with 142k on the clock!) as we gave it to our daughter for her first car. For my own part I run a 1994 Omega that I have owned since 1995, and which has covered 177k miles.