Why don't main dealers offer a service where they do a meet + greet at the airport and service your care whilst your away? Makes sense to me- avoids parking charges, means you're not without your car when you need it, garage has no hurry to get the car serviced. Surely it's win-win. Which makes me wonder why as far as I'm aware no-one has ever thought of it!

My immediate thought is that if I am planning a holiday, getting my car service is way down the list of things to get done.

Maybe money is an issue as well.

It has been thought of before.
Remember the McDondalds advert a few years ago, the guy getting his wiper blades changed while he went off on holiday.

But as for why isn't it done? Well the car park people won't want to loose trade, so they're not going to help at all.
The garages, although as you say, can take their time, they may also be left with having to store a car for 2 weeks, which will ultimately cost them money. And then they have to get to the airport, back to garage and then back to airport again. This will cost, even for close dealers. And I'm sure they won't want to hear about delays or early arrivals.

So the upshot of all that is, yes, sounds like a good idea to the customer, but unless they up the servicing costs, then what is the benefit for the dealers?

I could argue that it would be great if my car could be collected from my home, with an empty tank, an 11pm, then serviced in the small hours of the morning and returned ready for me at 7am the next day with full tank. This is a service I would want. The cost of the fuel not massively different to the cost of airport parking. Car gets serviced when its not an inconvenience to me.
So, night time servicing, that is the market to open up. And you are not tied down to garaged near airports.

The garage could still put the car in storage- just for less time. I pay a bit extra for my garage to collect and deliver my tintop from home as it is. I guess I'm conscious of it at the moment because I'm about to go on my holidays and about to get the car serviced.... the only downside I can see is delayed flights and /or imprecise arrival times at drop-off. I suppose the real issue would be the limited target audience. .....

there is valet parking at gatwick, where you give them the car at the airport, and they take it 'somewhere' and bring it back for your arrival
they will also wash and polish it for a bit extra cost

http://www.gatwickparking.com/our-car-parks/parking-options/valet/

The garages also wouldn't be able to phone you up midway through and say 'sorry, your big end needs rotating otherwise the cams will wear out, it'll cost you £200'...

Or have I just taken my car to Kwik Fit one too many times?!

Overnight garages would be a good thing though, or even ones that do an evening shift. Just being able to go to one out of hours would suit me really well at the moment!!

Why should mechanics have to work evening/night or weekend shifts ? I for one will not be doing it , I work enough hours as it is , it is a physically hard job with little or no thanks . It's bad enough trying to get parts on a Saturday morning let alone evening or nights . You want your car serviced at a time to suit you then you will pay extra then whinge about the cost .

You could arrange for your service to happen while you are away and take a taxi/train to the airport, my dad frequently leaves his car at the dealership for a few days when its serviced due to his work patterns.

I think the main reason we don't have this though is there just isn't a market for it, for a start you'd have to plan your trips around when your car needed servicing, then most airports are away from towns.

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Originally posted by BenB
Why don't main dealers offer a service where they do a meet + greet at the airport and service your care whilst your away? Makes sense to me- avoids parking charges, means you're not without your car when you need it, garage has no hurry to get the car serviced. Surely it's win-win. Which makes me wonder why as far as I'm aware no-one has ever thought of it! [/quote

Sytner BMW Solihull offer it for BHX.

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swanny - 7/3/16 at 08:47 AM

there is a garage at east midlands airport, looks like it used to be just for servicing airport vehicles but when i was there last week i noticed it said open to thre public for servicing, so maybe they are going to give it a try?

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prawnabie - 7/3/16 at 10:25 PM

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
Why should mechanics have to work evening/night or weekend shifts ? I for one will not be doing it , I work enough hours as it is , it is a physically hard job with little or no thanks . It's bad enough trying to get parts on a Saturday morning let alone evening or nights . You want your car serviced at a time to suit you then you will pay extra then whinge about the cost .

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+1

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02GF74 - 9/3/16 at 10:58 PM

In a similar vein, why cant dentist come round at night when you are sleeping?

You wont loose time from work plus be asleep in a horizontal position through any treatment carried out.

Dentist would not need a surgery so win-win for all.

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adithorp - 9/3/16 at 11:57 PM

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Originally posted by prawnabie

quote:

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
Why should mechanics have to work evening/night or weekend shifts ? I for one will not be doing it , I work enough hours as it is , it is a physically hard job with little or no thanks . It's bad enough trying to get parts on a Saturday morning let alone evening or nights . You want your car serviced at a time to suit you then you will pay extra then whinge about the cost .

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+1

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+2

We do have customers who either leave there cars with us while they're away on holiday, then we take them back once the work is done; or they leave the keys and we pick up/return when it suits us). We have to be able to do it that way as we don't have room to store them. It has to be a regular so we know we'll get paid later.

What I can't do though is what a customer asked for today. Came in with a busted window regulator. Can't it leave this morning, needs it this afternoon and tomorrow and Friday.... "So when can you spare it?"... "I didn't need the car YESTERDAY" WTF!
True story!

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02GF74 - 10/3/16 at 05:05 AM

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Originally posted by adithorp

What I can't do though is what a customer asked for today. Came in with a busted window regulator. Can't it leave this morning, needs it this afternoon and tomorrow and Friday.... "So when can you spare it?"... "I didn't need the car YESTERDAY" WTF!
True story!

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Ah, but did the customer come out of a victorian police box which had appeared out of nowhere

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