Is the service plan worth it?

[Primus1]

Have taken out the service plan for three years, £ 972 , it shows I’m also getting road side assist for that period plus 1 mot, is this good value/worth it?, as I can cancel anytime…

[FROSTYBALLS]

It really your choice as to whether it is good value for you.

The additional 2 years roadside assistance is around £176. MOT £55. £741 for the two Intermediate (2 x £230) and one full service (£315) - current rates.

A service plan can be paid monthly or in total, and it fixes the costs for the plan's duration - so bypasses any price rises.

[Cyker]

You can work it out by seeing what services you'd need for that period (Full/Inter) and calculating the cost of that.

When I've been quoted for a service plan in the past, it's just been the same as the cost of doing the services, so not saving any money. Basically the only advantages were spreading the cost over a long period, and protection against price rises - Not really worth it IMHO.

If yours includes the MOT and roadside assistance for not extra charge, that's already a better deal (Esp. given how much the roadside assistance costs now!)

 

[RonYarisX]

An MOT is worth around £30 ( someone always has an offer ) and road cover can also be bought cheap - especially if you don't require benefits such as Euro cover.

Most garages will price match service quotes in the local area to have your  business but if you're paying std prices:

Intermediate service £270 ( x2 )

Full service £355

Total:  £895.

Can't see what you stand to gain by taking out thie plan but the elephant in the room is what's their T&C?  If you're able to service the car at any Toyota dealer then you could argue you're beating inflation ( we're talking saving peanuts tho ) BUT if you're restricted to that one dealership, I wouldn't go near it with a barge pole because:

1. If that dealer goes bust you've lost your money

2. They already have your money so you're at the bottom of the list when it comes to customer service.  If say you're the dealer and you have a service slot, are you going to give it to customer A who has paid his money and is compelled to service the car at your garage or customer B who has just inquired and may take their business elsewhere if they can't have the car serviced a.s.a.p.?

I never ever pay up front if I can avoid it.

[Lawnmowerman]

I took the deal on Friday when I collected my YX Excel. Took it out on the RAV4 PHEV previously. 

I'm not having it serviced other than the dealer so it gets you interest free for 36 months - felt it was worth it.

[Lawnmowerman]

4 minutes ago, RonYarisX said:

2. They already have your money so you're at the bottom of the list when it comes to customer service.  If say you're the dealer and you have a service slot, are you going to give it to customer A who has paid his money and is compelled to service the car at your garage or customer B who has just inquired and may take their business elsewhere if they can't have the car serviced a.s.a.p.?

I think you may be over-thinking it Ron, but you may have had a bad experience in the past. When lead times for servicing are 3-4 weeks I have never been called to step aside for any reason - be it illness (or as you may fear being gazumped). Respectfully - Bill.

[FROSTYBALLS]

We've had service plans on our last 12 new cars  - including one service pack covering 3 years servicing @£199, and a free service plan with the current i20.

Never had a problem with booking any of the cars for a service, obtaining courtesy cars, the dealer going bust, etc, etc. Just treated like any other customer.

The majority of service plans are managed by a service management company, so the dealer doesn't get their cash until they invoice the management company for the service.

[RonYarisX]

22 minutes ago, Lawnmowerman said:

I took the deal on Friday when I collected my YX Excel. Took it out on the RAV4 PHEV previously. 

I'm not having it serviced other than the dealer so it gets you interest free for 36 months - felt it was worth it.

Not overthinking it at all. You have your location as Rossand Cromarty so you'll be familiar with Arnold Clark loosing their Toyota franchise up here in Scotland

When they closed down their Skoda dealership in Inveness, AC customers were complaining they had to travel all the way to Aberdeen if the car needed to be taken to a Skoda dealer. What AC did was allow them to service their Skoda at other AC franchises in Inverness. Probelm solved? No.

The problem with that is to honour the 10yr warranty, you must have your car serviced at a Toyota franchise. So the question is, what happened to those AC Toyota owners who took out a service plan with AC?  It means they're compelled to have their car serviced with Arnie's non-Toyota franchise dealerships, or pay twice and have the car serviced at a Toyota dealer.

I don't have a crystal ball. If the incentive was attractive then yes it's worth a gamble, but £972?

I also don't get the monthly payment thing. If people prefer to pay monthly, why not pay yourself each month rather than give it to the dealer?

I've taken out service offers with my last six or so cars, but it's been at half price and being a manufacturer backed scheme, it allows me to use any franchised dealership. I refused the unilateral Toyota offer for the reasons above.

[Mojo1010]

3 stars Start Rescue breakdown cost 30-40gbp a year for newer cars. 

[Primus1]

Well I did take out the fixed plan, I don’t normally do this either, but I just thought , what the hell , saves me finding a lump sum every year ( yes I know you could save each month , but you only have to forget a few times,) I can cancel at any time , so , I’ll see how it goes..

[Vainona70]

Toyota UK offer service contracts so you can use any Toyota dealer. I did this as I didn't want commit to a Dealer's scheme, eventhough I'd have to drive many miles to escape the Steven Eagell network.

[TonyHSD]

There won’t be any difference in customer service between already paid for and awaiting payment work imo because they charge the same plus if anything needs additional work on top of the regular service both customers has to pay extra therefore no difference between.
The service plan it’s not bad idea especially if you put it on monthly payments, or get extra goodies like mot or roadside assistance, it just adds a bit on top to the car payments if on finance and you don’t need to think about it. Just book in whenever time comes up. If it’s more expensive than going separately for all inclusive extras then might not worth it, but giving the current economy and how fast the money lose their value still be a better deal. 

[Roy124]

2 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

There won’t be any difference in customer service between already paid for and awaiting payment work imo because they charge the same plus if anything needs additional work on top of the regular service both customers has to pay extra therefore no difference between.

Quite.  I had to pay for wheel alignment 

  NSF was slightly out, potholes probably. £66 extra.

[CruxisCore]

I guess no reason not to, if you plan on doing official Toyota maintenance regularly. In a way it doesnt matter until the actual warranty runs out, since only Relax starts "requiring" the official servicing.. But I'm pretty sure just about literally everyone will value official servicing higher than random shops when you try to sell the car. The regular servicing is a bit overpriced though I guess, but a peace of mind in a way for you

I got it, but they gave it to me free without even asking lol. 5 years of the regular services, but no roadside assist etc. That said, almost every regular car insurance comes with that here in Finland. Also we dont have MOTs in that service plan, so I guess we have little different plans alltogether. Then again we dont have to take new vehicles into our MOT equivalent until they are 4 years old.

[Cyker]

The cost has gone up a lot over the years - I think the intermediate service now costs what the full service used to when I got my first Toyota!! Then again tyres for that were £35 a corner back then...

It's definitely not cheap, but in terms of dealer prices they're actually pretty good - I have friends with german cars and their dealer servicing costs are a good chunk worse...!

I've always said I don't find the service plans very compelling - If they threw more freebies in I'd likely take them up on it, but as it stands it's very neutral, so you don't gain much but you don't loose much either.

I will say some of Ron's points aren't 100% absolute - For instance, usually the service plan is a Toyota one and dealer agnostic, so if the dealer did go bankrupt you wouldn't loose the money, just go to another dealer and they'd see it's on file. There are dealer-specific service plans that are limited to specific franchises too though so you need to check this. Even if the plan was terminated early, you'd only loose what you'd paid up til, so if they went bankrupt after the first service and you'd only made 1 payment you'd be quids in!  

As for the priority, the people that run the booking departments generally don't give a flying monkey about that - They don't get paid enough to care so they'll just book things in as they come. I've definitely never had any preferential treatment as a cash-paying customer! Mostly just polite indifference  

 

[dannyboy413]

Here in Ireland, we get three free services and 3 year breakdown cover included in the purchase. Obviously, if they were not included in the purchase price, the purchase price presumably would be less, (as we all know most things that are called 'free' are not actually 'free').