Folks,

Missus is a childminder so has a bus in the form of a 2.5 CRD Chrysler Grand Voyager on an 02 plate. I knew when we bought it that the servicing would be scary but just been offered a 'deal' on main dealer 60,000 mile service and MOT of £1000! Yep, you read it right.

This is the timing belt, all fluids, all filters, wheel alignment and x point check jobby and apparently the service is a 5.5 hour job if all goes to plan...

Options are:

Do it all with Chrysler, maintain the (pretty solid) warranty which gives me peace of mind that anything other than consumables is covered. They do the MOT so I get some reassurance that they fix it pre-test and missus gets a free courtesy bus thrown in for as long as it takes. Call the bank manager and beg forgiveness...

Do it with a back street garage using Chrysler parts. Still maintain warranty and might get cheaper labour rates but how many have done yank tanks before?...

Forget the warranty and get it done using aftermarket parts by a back-street...

Spend the money on the kit instead and persuade her that walking 6 kids to school is good exercise. Call the solicitor and plead insanity...

Over to you lot

p.s. Published service charge for 60,000 is £875 plus vat so saving about £100 with deal and was going to try and shave a little more off...

p.p.s For the avoidance of doubt SWMBO considers the last option to be invalid and will kneecap any of you who dare suggest it

I have a mate with a garage business in Bromsgrove not far from you - I'd guess he'd probably charge about half that!

I can make enquiries if you want?

tell her to walk! throw in that maybe she could loose a few pounds doing it?

HAHA!! That will get her mad! but fortunatly she doesn't know where I live.





*p.s. I'm joking Mrs Neilp. Dont hurt me *hides behind couch*

[Edited on 20/11/07 by Dangle_kt]

Its almost has always been the case when a garage quoted me for somat,I almost always paid at least half as much!

You're buildiing your own car and wondering whether to spend £1000 on a main dealer service on a 5 yr old car ? Am I missing something here ?

They're not affectionatley known as "main stealers" for nothing.

I was recently quoted £250 for the 1st service on my wifes VW beetle cab ( basically just an inspecion & oil change)
I asked waht I got for the £250 - I was told that they did lots of extra little jobs such as chage the pollen filter - it's a convertible I replied - what f*****g use is a pollen filter?
Went to their parts dept, bought a gen oil filter for £6, took it to my local MOT place, job done for £60. Lesson for everyone there.

can it not be put through the books if it is her company as a business expense.

what's their labour rate?

Lets guess £200 for parts and MOT, that leaves £800 for labour.
5.5hrs for £800 is £145 per hour
I think that is taking the..

Missus took her pug in for second service, 20K miles a few years ago, they quoted £100 so thought what the hell, do it.

When it came back they wanted £350 because it was 3 years old by now so had flushed the brake fluid, apparantly as the explained to her its very tricky with ABS...

Went ballistic, refused to pay more than 50% quote and never went back. Just do it myself now, must have saved £1000 over the last few years !

[Edited on 20/11/07 by mark chandler]

Been doing some surfin' - Reckon I can get it all for sub £400 and keep the warranty - Pirates!!

Russ - I'll drop you a PM if I need to contact your mate but there's a host of places locally...

The killer on this one is the cam belt change, knowing the access to the engine on the Voyager won't be great it could easily be a £250 at small garage prices if the other belts are also renewed at the same time.

In the old days dealers workshops were kept alive by a steady stream of 5.000 and 10,000 mile services and repair work after the single year/10,000 mile warranty was up.

These days officially most cars don't require any real servicing until 50 or 60 thousand miles -- which is a load of bull. All that happens is problems and costs accumulate and to cover costs the dealers have charge mega bucks for the big services later once the car gets to 4 to 5 years old.

A good example is spark plugs on some vehicles these are supposed to last 60,000 miles without even being re-gapped even with platinium plugs this is too much. When coupled with the excessively wide gaps now specified it can cause problems at anywhere from 20,000 miles onwards resulting in the plugs leads and coil packs needing replaced these are service parts not covered by warranty circa 250 pounds AT THE OWNERS EXPENSE.

Brakes are another ripp off area -- It needs new front pads Sir by the way it is or policy to renew the rears and fit we always fit 4 new discs, all using OEM parts quite easily a 400 pound bill on top of the service.

Times change the days when each village had a small family run BMC, a Rootes or Vauxhall dealer are long gone. When you say ENOUGH ! to the main dealer is a judgement call.

[Edited on 21/11/07 by britishtrident]

quote:

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Originally posted by britishtrident

A good example is spark plugs on some vehicles these are supposed to last 60,000 miles without even being re-gapped even with platinium plugs this is too much. When coupled with the excessively wide gaps now specified it can cause problems at anywhere from 20,000 miles onwards resulting in the plugs leads and coil packs needing replaced these are service parts not covered by warranty circa 250 pounds AT THE OWNERS EXPENSE.

[Edited on 21/11/07 by britishtrident]

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If you want to maintain your warranty, get it serviced at any VAT registered garage and have them stamp the book. You don't have to get it serviced at a main stealer....

Good thing you don't have a Renault Espace v6. Main dealer price for a 72,000 mile service is getting on for 2 grand. Engine out job to replace the spark plugs , timing belt is done at the same time.