CHEAP DEALER SERVICING

If you are anything like me you will hate the idea of getting your car fully serviced at an official dealer for your car make. These dealers don't make their money from new car sales so much as from used cars and more importantly parts and servicing. The shiny dealer showroom is getting paid for by people like us paying over the odds for parts and servicing. It's not fair.

However, if you are trying to sell your car in a couple of years time, the prospective owner will most likely want to see a service book full of dealer stamps, and that's precisely what you want to give them.

So how do you get round this?

Taking your car in for a service doesn't mean that any repairs or faults they find actually have to be repaired by the dealer. They have a checklist they go through and a few parts to change and fluids to top up. That's what you pay for in your service price.

However, at some point on service day your dealer will call you up and say "Er, the brakes are getting a bit low. Would you like us to change them?". This is the point at which you have to wake up and say NOOOOOOO. That brake change will probably cost you twice as much as it would at a local independent garage. Give them an excuse "No, not today, I'll maybe bring it back in next week to get it done" then get your car back, pay for the basic service and the all important stamp in your service book (make sure they do this) then beetle over to your local garage and get them to do it.

I don't want to say bad things about dealers but I have heard of instances where the things they've wanted to "fix" at the service have not actually needed done when checked by an independent garage later.

So remember, at a main dealer, basic service only (and service book stamped) and get any repairs done elsewhere.