Servicing - Who Does It For You?

[cruella]

Just wondering like...

Part of the sales 'package' that I will be getting with my new Rav is free MOTs for life if I get it serviced by the Toyota Garage I'm getting it from (Currie Motors at Chiswick)

I was just wondering if that is worth anything in real terms - or are main dealer services so expensive that isn't worthwhile? I mean, do they just bung a bit extra on your bill to cover the freebie, or are they much dearer anyway?

Is it much better to have all Toyota service stamps on your service history?

Are 'other' garages likely to cover all the things a Toyota dealer would? I read somewhere on here that someone's local garage got a print out from Toyota of all the things they should do - is this common? Are other garages much cheaper?

Do services cover everything, or do you still have to do stuff like top up oil, check brake pads etc; like you do on an old car?

What do you do with yours - and how happy have you been with your choice?

[Bodgit-fixit-run]

I had my servicing done whilst the car was in warranty but at around £200 per go for not much more than a check over and oil change I felt it was expensive. Local garages tend to be cheaper than main agents. Perosnally I do my own serving. My last one included Brake pads etc which would have been extra. I did the whole thing for about £75 including extras. Likes pads, air con and timing belt which I actually fitted later.

[local hero]

Cru get the car first + then don't open the bonnet till something goes wrong, Let him indoors check the oil + water levels occasionally..once every preston guild, keep your bikini + kinky boots, in the boot + then should you ever get stranded (which you won't) don bikini + stand next to car with your best "girlie" look, and i assure you, you will not be stuck for long..Stop worrying + enjoy your new car, they don't go wrong. think about servicing this time next year..

[Hoovie]

Just wondering like...

Part of the sales 'package' that I will be getting with my new Rav is free MOTs for life if I get it serviced by the Toyota Garage I'm getting it from (Currie Motors at Chiswick)

I was just wondering if that is worth anything in real terms - or are main dealer services so expensive that isn't worthwhile? I mean, do they just bung a bit extra on your bill to cover the freebie, or are they much dearer anyway?

Is it much better to have all Toyota service stamps on your service history?

Are 'other' garages likely to cover all the things a Toyota dealer would? I read somewhere on here that someone's local garage got a print out from Toyota of all the things they should do - is this common? Are other garages much cheaper?

Do services cover everything, or do you still have to do stuff like top up oil, check brake pads etc; like you do on an old car?

What do you do with yours - and how happy have you been with your choice?

Curries is a multi-franchise there aren't they? They had a bad rep for the Peugeots in that dealership.

For me, I decided to take out a service plan with my Local Dealers as I preferred to use Toyota for servicing, plus as I have extended warranty, the servicing must be done by Toyota to keep it valid.

Plus a main dealer history def is worth more. having that plus a free MOT each year could be well worth it.

I see the RAV4 as a fairly complex car and best maintained by specialists in it.

Having said that, when I took my Celica GT4 for a service, The Dealer I used wanted to replace £700 worth of parts (in 1995) becuase of a worn bush - an independent specialist sorted it for peanuts.

[cruella]

Cru get the car first + then don't open the bonnet till something goes wrong, Let him indoors check the oil + water levels occasionally..once every preston guild, keep your bikini + kinky boots, in the boot + then should you ever get stranded (which you won't) don bikini + stand next to car with your best "girlie" look, and i assure you, you will not be stuck for long..Stop worrying + enjoy your new car, they don't go wrong. think about servicing this time next year..

:lol: Him Indoors doesn't 'do' car! I do my own oil water and engine changes on my vdubs - I also weld and spray! I do have the AA for those inconvenient engine blow ups on the M1 though. I was just wondering, that's all, the Toyota is a bit 'new fangled' for my expertise ;)

Just wondering like...

Part of the sales 'package' that I will be getting with my new Rav is free MOTs for life if I get it serviced by the Toyota Garage I'm getting it from (Currie Motors at Chiswick)

I was just wondering if that is worth anything in real terms - or are main dealer services so expensive that isn't worthwhile? I mean, do they just bung a bit extra on your bill to cover the freebie, or are they much dearer anyway?

Is it much better to have all Toyota service stamps on your service history?

Are 'other' garages likely to cover all the things a Toyota dealer would? I read somewhere on here that someone's local garage got a print out from Toyota of all the things they should do - is this common? Are other garages much cheaper?

Do services cover everything, or do you still have to do stuff like top up oil, check brake pads etc; like you do on an old car?

What do you do with yours - and how happy have you been with your choice?

Curries is a multi-franchise there aren't they? They had a bad rep for the Peugeots in that dealership.

For me, I decided to take out a service plan with my Local Dealers as I preferred to use Toyota for servicing, plus as I have extended warranty, the servicing must be done by Toyota to keep it valid.

Plus a main dealer history def is worth more. having that plus a free MOT each year could be well worth it.

I see the RAV4 as a fairly complex car and best maintained by specialists in it.

Having said that, when I took my Celica GT4 for a service, The Dealer I used wanted to replace £700 worth of parts (in 1995) becuase of a worn bush - an independent specialist sorted it for peanuts.

The car is having a full service before I get it - and a new MOT, so it should be okay for a year. :) I thought that the main dealer stamps may be a better selling point if/when I come to sell. Also all this computeryness should be dealt with by a proper person eh? I was just trying to weigh up the pro's and cons. The guy I have been dealing with there is very nice - but not as hard nosed as me when it comes to closing a deal I reckon he thought the MOT's thing was a nice sweetener, not realising how long I'm planning to keep the car for! :lol2:

[junebug1701]

I'm taking mine to the Toyota dealer for scheduled oil changes while it's under warranty. As for the other recommended maintenance like inspecting brake pads and such, I can do that myself.

[bothwell_buyer]

I quit using a dealer after the local garage charged me for work that I found had not been done.

Dealers charge mmmmmmmmmmmm about £80 an hour?

The guys who do the work on my 2 RAVs charge £40 an hour, and will use Toyota parts if I ask them. Then again, a dealer will not have a clue how to look after my 2 !!!

[Fujisan]

In these troubled times, a word of caution.

MOT's for life and three, four year pre-paid or monthly direct debit Service plans with a certain dealer are only any good if the dealer is still in business.

Nothing can be taken for granted these days.

[NMaria]

We have had very disappointing experiences of main dealers - diff oil not changed when due, sump plug washers left off and the plug done up impossibly tight, plastic caps and clips missing, wheels badly out of alignment after bearing replacement (VW garage), etc. etc. - no doubt reflecting the experiences of many other main dealer customers.

It seems also that mechanics learn to paint by numbers nowadays, so that they can do standard jobs with a spanner in one hand and the pictorial instructions in the other, but struggle to demonstrate any real understanding or analytical/problem solving ability (although there are some very good ones out there, too!), so you feel you are getting very little benefit out of using an expensive main dealer. Is even this subject being dumbed-down in colleges, d'you think?

The trouble is that while you're within the three year warranty period, we feel safer sticking with a main dealer, not least because, should it come to a repair under warranty, ones hopes that an existing relationship with your dealer will help things go smoothly. As soon as the car is out of warranty, we do our own routine maintenance, though.

[chatman]

The trouble is that while you're within the three year warranty period, we feel safer sticking with a main dealer, not least because, should it come to a repair under warranty, ones hopes that an existing relationship with your dealer will help things go smoothly. As soon as the car is out of warranty, we do our own routine maintenance, though.

Is is not the case, that if the franchise garage use genuine Toyota parts and routines then the warranty is not void.. The days are gone of only going to the dealer because of the 3 year warranty...Think of the poor KIA owners and Hyundai..they have 7 years and 5 years respectfully..even FIAT offer 5 year warranty's now....

I use a franchise dealer (SEAT) but used to be a Toyota garage and still has half and half split between Seat and Toyota... and half the price of the hourly rate the main dealer charges...

[cruella]

All food for thought though, dontcha think?

Interesting to see what others do...

:)

[Davrav]

In these troubled times, a word of caution.

MOT's for life and three, four year pre-paid or monthly direct debit Service plans with a certain dealer are only any good if the dealer is still in business.

Nothing can be taken for granted these days.

I have a feeling most service plans are through an insurance company/third party underwriter. As such you are not necessarily tied to a particular main dealer.

Worth cheking your paperwork or phoning the service plan provider.

[Parts-King]

It seems also that mechanics learn to paint by numbers nowadays, so that they can do standard jobs with a spanner in one hand and the pictorial instructions in the other, but struggle to demonstrate any real understanding or analytical/problem solving ability (although there are some very good ones out there, too!), so you feel you are getting very little benefit out of using an expensive main dealer. Is even this subject being dumbed-down in colleges, d'you think?

Well that is a very simplistic view on things, I can think of umpteen trades where you once served an aprenticeship for four or five years, but those days are gone I'm afraid. Most trades are now three years or less, and more hands on than was the case 20 years ago. When I were a lad you just made tea and blew tyres up for 12 months, not exactly a sharp learning curve!

That said, we have had some exceptional apprentices, some winning apprentice of the year awards and being excellent employees, but thats not to say things dont go wrong, they do, the idea is to have a culture that if something does go wrong, then we all learn from it and try not to let it happen again

Dealer charges will always be a bone of contention, why are they high? Well its quite simple really, the cost of running a modern dealership is horrific. The manufacturer dictates the standards, which very often includes expensive showroom refits, fleets of demo cars, minimum levels of training and equipment (a Toyota handheld tester for OBD will set you back many thousands) insurance, licences, heat light power and the list goes on and on. Our labour rate is monitored and compared on a regular basis with older cars enjoying a much lower labour rate, what you also get is access to is a level of technical expertise through special tools, training, manuals etc which is very often lacking at an independant. The main dealer will always be the whipping boy when labour rates are quoted, but do your homework, ask for an estimate and dont be afraid to haggle, the majority of dealers want your money just like an independant does, so get prices from BOTH before judging your dealer on a "labour rate only" basis

Kingo

[vivianM]

Just wondering like...

Part of the sales 'package' that I will be getting with my new Rav is free MOTs for life if I get it serviced by the Toyota Garage I'm getting it from (Currie Motors at Chiswick)

I was just wondering if that is worth anything in real terms - or are main dealer services so expensive that isn't worthwhile? I mean, do they just bung a bit extra on your bill to cover the freebie, or are they much dearer anyway?

Is it much better to have all Toyota service stamps on your service history?

Are 'other' garages likely to cover all the things a Toyota dealer would? I read somewhere on here that someone's local garage got a print out from Toyota of all the things they should do - is this common? Are other garages much cheaper?

Do services cover everything, or do you still have to do stuff like top up oil, check brake pads etc; like you do on an old car?

What do you do with yours - and how happy have you been with your choice?

Curries is a multi-franchise there aren't they? They had a bad rep for the Peugeots in that dealership.

For me, I decided to take out a service plan with my Local Dealers as I preferred to use Toyota for servicing, plus as I have extended warranty, the servicing must be done by Toyota to keep it valid.

Plus a main dealer history def is worth more. having that plus a free MOT each year could be well worth it.

I see the RAV4 as a fairly complex car and best maintained by specialists in it.

Having said that, when I took my Celica GT4 for a service, The Dealer I used wanted to replace £700 worth of parts (in 1995) becuase of a worn bush - an independent specialist sorted it for peanuts.

I had my previous RAV serviced, for five years, at the dealer where I bought it, they did an excellent job always, Culvers in Stockport, now RRG and they will service my T180 in the future - it pays to build up a good relationship with your dealer - the main dealers might be more expensive than small garages but they should know the models they service.

I will not have my (expensive!) T180 serviced at a local garage, but might get the MOT done there in due course.

Use the main dealer if you can afford it, gone are the days when I would change an engine on my Ford specials in an evening, everything is too complicated now for own serviceing unless you are an Anchorman!

Best wishes to all

Guy

[NMaria]

I had my previous RAV serviced, for five years, at the dealer where I bought it, they did an excellent job always, Culvers in Stockport, now RRG and they will service my T180 in the future - it pays to build up a good relationship with your dealer - the main dealers might be more expensive than small garages but they should know the models they service.

I will not have my (expensive!) T180 serviced at a local garage, but might get the MOT done there in due course.

Use the main dealer if you can afford it, gone are the days when I would change an engine on my Ford specials in an evening, everything is too complicated now for own serviceing unless you are an Anchorman!

Best wishes to all

Guy

Agree - local garages (non main dealers) can be very good, honest etc. but they are unlikely to have the in-depth knowledge of any particular make or model that the main dealer will (should!) have, or the information as to what work is required at any particular service/mileage, and something important could easily be overlooked.

[anchorman]

I think that these days the cost of labour can inhibit what used to be "real mechanicing". In my day we regularly stripped engines and gearboxes but a labour rate approaching £100 an hour make it more viable to exchange units. For this reason engines and gearboxes tend to get shipped out for "remanufacturing" and the traditional skills are being lost. I spoke to some NVQ students who had never ground valves or fitted pistons and the prospect of stripping a gearbox appeared to be quite daunting. By losing these skills the ability to diagnose faults becomes limited and "technicians" become more reliant on manufacturers fault finding by elimination guides "if this is OK go to this". The problem comes when the guide doesn't have the symptom or "the computer says no"!!! A Friend of mine recently traded a 4 month old Merc B Class for a Honda CRV simply because it kept literally stopping at the side of the road (it would start again after a few minutes). Mercedes Benz Macclesfield (there! named and shamed!) told him there was nothing wrong with it as nothing was stored in the computer - bewildering isn't it. In any case I'm not always convinced that people (in a lot of trades) have the same degree of conscientiousness as they used to have and so short cuts and lack of attention to detail creeps in.

Yes I agree there are some genuine stars out there but while there are exceptions I prefer to do my own wherever I can. If I make an odd error so be it. At least I didn't pay £100 an hour for somebody to do it for me and then charge me again to put their error right.

[local hero]

I think that these days the cost of labour can inhibit what used to be "real mechanicing". In my day we regularly stripped engines and gearboxes but a labour rate approaching £100 an hour make it more viable to exchange units. For this reason engines and gearboxes tend to get shipped out for "remanufacturing" and the traditional skills are being lost. I spoke to some NVQ students who had never ground valves or fitted pistons and the prospect of stripping a gearbox appeared to be quite daunting. By losing these skills the ability to diagnose faults becomes limited and "technicians" become more reliant on manufacturers fault finding by elimination guides "if this is OK go to this". The problem comes when the guide doesn't have the symptom or "the computer says no"!!! A Friend of mine recently traded a 4 month old Merc B Class for a Honda CRV simply because it kept literally stopping at the side of the road (it would start again after a few minutes). Mercedes Benz Macclesfield (there! named and shamed!) told him there was nothing wrong with it as nothing was stored in the computer - bewildering isn't it. In any case I'm not always convinced that people (in a lot of trades) have the same degree of conscientiousness as they used to have and so short cuts and lack of attention to detail creeps in.

Yes I agree there are some genuine stars out there but while there are exceptions I prefer to do my own wherever I can. If I make an odd error so be it. At least I didn't pay £100 an hour for somebody to do it for me and then charge me again to put their error right.

I have seen in my travels a lot of specialist garages, not main dealers but smaller garages who specialise in one make..IE BMW, MERCEDES, PEUGEOT etc but have never seen a TOYOTA specialist, So i think Anchs should set up his own (financed by us) Toyota specialist garage, where we could all have our cars serviced + little jobs done, and know that we were getting the proper job done by someone who we know we can trust + will at least try his very best...

[Fujisan]

In these troubled times, a word of caution.

MOT's for life and three, four year pre-paid or monthly direct debit Service plans with a certain dealer are only any good if the dealer is still in business.

Nothing can be taken for granted these days.

I have a feeling most service plans are through an insurance company/third party underwriter. As such you are not necessarily tied to a particular main dealer.

Worth cheking your paperwork or phoning the service plan provider.

Don't worry, I never take out these plans or any other type of add on insurance for anything

No, what it was and I can't remember where I was reading it, in the papers or on the net, somebody had taken out a service plan, the whole dealer group had gone belly up and he was left several hundred quid out of pocket, with a useless piece of paper in his hand.

[cruella]

I'd best make that a nice tin of biscuits/box of sweeties when I go in to pick it up tomorrow then... ;) :D

[m4xmw]

Having read most of the posts on this thread, I`d agree with Parts-King, and to some extend, Ive found dealers of Toyota and VW will discount their labour rate forolder cars.

Thats not to say they all will, Ive had to phone around various dealers to get a good discount and travelled some distance for my VW Passat cambelt change, due to saving hundreds!

Id say if you appy with the level of service and price(it will work out more than an independant in most cases) from a main dealer then stay with them!

Mark

[anchorman]

For most people car servicing is incident free. This is because a large percentage know nothing about cars and rely heavily upon what they are told. I've used this analogy before but I know nothing about a colour TV. If I look inside it might as well be full of liqourice allsorts and if the repair man says it needs a foo foo pin to make it go again I have no alternative than to let him get on and fit it. Whether it needed it or whether he did a good job of fitting it only becomes an issue if the TV fails to work again. In this case as long as the car doesn't cause a problem inbetween time most people seem content to cough up a fee and I have watched in awe at people paying their servicing bills at both dealers and independents.

I'm not saying for one minute that all garages do bad work and rob people. Lots of garages are doing good work but I really really feel for people that have to take these costs as normal on top of what will generally be the biggest consumer of money they have to contend with - the depreciation of cars. Mine is a complete extravegance and at the moment I enjoy it but I have to admit that if I knew nothing about it I would probably be scared of it and very wary of setting off on long journeys incase it broke down. I guess I have quite a lot of admiration for those that do know nothing and put thier trust into what could be a risky business - dealing with the motor trade.

I'm sure that foo foo pin is on the blink again........

[bothwell_buyer]

I'll babble on again - I have nothing but admiration for the guys at The Garage for doing Europes first 3SGTE into RAV4 conversion. Having picked up a small handful of parts from our local Toyota Dealer (before I knew about Parts-King), they were amazed at a 3SGTE actually fitting into a RAV. If its the bog standard then the dealer can normally sort things, or should be able to. Outside the box is when you need a specialist.

Having learnt things from the first conversion, they have converted the 2nd RAV and its looking good.

As far as their knowledge of Toyotas, then I can see from their workshop and yard what their specialism is - high performance Jap cars. Celicas, GT4s, MR2s, are amongst them and all with mega big turbos etc fitted. And if the guys can fix it, they do - using stock parts, or if one-offs are needed (like my RAV conversions) then the fabricate stuff themselves - true professionals.

If I want an explanation, I get it - and am welcome to view work proceeding at any time.

Thats what a garage should be like. I'm happy to rely on them to maintain and work on my cars.

I never managed to get into a Dealers workshop - Health & Safety etc.....