Car Service-Should I Find Cheaper?

[Johnnie5]

$400 for a major service is quite reasonable. You will find most labour rates from a dealer are around the $90 - $100 p/h mark these days. The good thing about using a dealer is if something does go wrong and has service history from a dealer always looks good for you even if it is out of warranty they have a thing called good will. And if you jump up and down enough you will get them to come to the party.

lets hear all these good will stories

think you will find they are very few and far between

[Johnnie5]

Paul, if you were in Brisbane I would give you the name of a fantastic mobile mechanic who works for himself. If anyone else in Brisbane wants details, shoot me a PM. He comes to you whereever is convenient, when I used to work for the Bank he used to service my car in the shopping centre carpark! My family have all been using his services for about 20 years. When we bougth the Rav 4, as it was under 100,000 kms I had Toyota (also known as Rip-Off Merchants!) service the car for a small fortune each time, but now that it is over 100k km I have started using Bob again. His prices are fantastic, and can usually see your car very quickly.

why did you go to toyota ?

there is no reason for staying with dealership service , its a myth created by the stealers as thats where they make the easy money

[Neka79]

i agree with johnnie...ive heard horror stories of dealer mechanics ...by my dads best mate...his son was the head mech at a dealer in nsw...he went out on his own (use to look after my car) and did a much better job than the "monkeys" who worked for him..and charged less...

[nahima]

This is the first time I've taken the car to the dealer for service but then their not charging like wounded bulls. It's convenient because it's just before the city and they have a courtesy bus to take me in and pick me up. for the other car I have an awesome mobile mechanic who is inexpensive and has done a great job each time. For the bikes, it's brighton Kawa.

[Lucas]

Hmm.. just rang the local kmart tyre/auto. They quoted $345... so i'm thinking I may aswell just take it to Mitsubishi. thought kmart would be heaps cheaper like sub200's or something. For the sake of $50 I may aswell just get the dealer service hey

i use to here this all the time when i was in the motor trade
at the end of the day it isnt the place that works on the car but the person

All i'm saying is the service is only as good as the person working on it
for the sake of $50 i'd keep the dealer history in my Service book
as this will make a differance late in your warranty if you have problems
seen this a hundred times while working at holden dealers

[blackninja]

i was told by a mechanic that used to work for a dealership that if a waranty item such as an oil leak is detected they dont mention it to the owner cos then they gota fix it, where if a private mechanic detects a fault or problem of any kind they will point it out.

[Felix]

i was told by a mechanic that used to work for a dealership that if a waranty item such as an oil leak is detected they dont mention it to the owner cos then they gota fix it, where if a private mechanic detects a fault or problem of any kind they will point it out.

I don't really believe that, as the dealer can bill the hours to the manufacturer. But then, there seems to be a lot of dodginess with some brands, especially the locals...

There's only a few brands of car I'd own anymore, and it is all due to the after sales service.

[Johnnie5]

i was told by a mechanic that used to work for a dealership that if a waranty item such as an oil leak is detected they dont mention it to the owner cos then they gota fix it, where if a private mechanic detects a fault or problem of any kind they will point it out.

I don't really believe that, as the dealer can bill the hours to the manufacturer. But then, there seems to be a lot of dodginess with some brands, especially the locals...

There's only a few brands of car I'd own anymore, and it is all due to the after sales service.

except that the manufacturer has their own ideas how long something should take and what they pay for it and the dealer has to suck it up

[Paulie]

WELL!!! I should have listened to good reason and what ya,ll had to say.. but NOOOOOOO I thought i'll just pay that little bit extra and get the dealer service-will look better when it comes time to sell the car and blah blah blah... so I have decided to NEVER EVER go back to LANDER MITSUBISHI at blacktown... heres why

They supposedly did the log book servuice and gave me the printout of what was done/checked. Not being a mechanic but being skeptical because it was ready in 2.5 hours after they told me it would be there most of the day i checked a few EASY things that were on the list such as...

CHECKED ALL LIGHTS (as per book). I have a blown high beam bulb which was blown before I took the car in for the 15,000km service-they missed it then and of course they MISSED it again. So... they obviously didnt check the lights on 2 occasions.

CHECKED/TOPPED UP BATTERY LEVELS: (as per book).. I had a look and lo and behold.. the fluids are BELOW the LOW mark... so obvously they didnt bother checking the battery fluid levels.

CHECKED/REPACKED wheel bearing/ drive shaft boots (as per book). Now, I asked my old man and he said that they have to take the wheels off the car to do this? BUT of course the wheels havent even been touched (covered in brake dust-no fnger prints) So obviously they couldnt have checked/repacked wheel bearings/shaft boots>?

CHECKED TYRE PRESSURE: The car felt a lil odd so i took it in to check the tyre pressures at a servo. And the tyres were below the manufacturers specs. though i run on 36psi as my tyre mate told me too. So obviously they didnt bother to check the tyre pressue.

CARRIED out road test.... ODOMETRE went up like 20metres.... does driving the car from the parking lot next to the service centre inside count as a road test?

The only easily checkable items which were done that I could see was the engine oil was changed, and the air filter replaced. (I didnt go about getting under the car or pulling out spark plugs) . Oh and they topped up the window washing fluid! YAY!

So yeah, from now on I aint gonna bother paying the extra $$ for dealer servicing and will take it to someone who will actually WORK for their money,

The public relations lady rang me yesterday to ask if i was "very happy with my service"... naturally, I told her all of the above and she said she,ll pass it on to the service manager who of course has not rung me.

Not impressed AT ALL. t also makes me wonder if they replaced my clutch springs 15,000 kms ago as they said they were going to. They said they,d need the car overnite then rang me 3 hours later and said that the service AND the clutch thing were done. Apparently whatever the issue with the clutch was they had to drop the engine out to get to it..

GRRRR... maakes me angry...

Sorry.... end of rant

[Felix]

If you are a memeber of RACQ, NRMA or whatever you could ask them for advice...they may be able to inspect the car and determine if a service has indeed been performed and that may help you get a refund...

[MrStompy]

i found with a new toyota i had once that ultratune werent a heap cheaper than toyota (about $50 from memory). it was a diesel though so they had to order in the oil etc so it was some extra hassle for them i spose.

maybe with petrol vehicles they are more competitive

[blackninja]

i had the falcon done at ultra tune today for less than half as much as ford wanted i wish they did bikes

[Neka79]

yea fark em dude...kick and scream and get ur $$ back...

they didnt do what they charged u for...

[esie]

I had the 110,000km service (at 115,000km) done on my Rav4 today by my mobile mechanic, for the grand total of $95.70! At the 120,000km mark he has to do the normal service, plus spark plugs, air filter & timing belt, but I had him give me a quote today, and it will cost about $400 all up. Toyota wanted $650 just for the timing belt!

[Zombie]

Mine is around the $600 for the major 100,000kms
Its done at the Honda dealer, always ready on time, they send my text messages, one the day before to remind me and one when its done. Also I get to drive one theirs around for the day, got the CRV-Sport last time. Very nice, I put a few Ks on that clock.......................