dealer servicing

D

D3x!

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/Rant

servicing a vehicle at a dealership is absolute madness. After arguing and getting discount a "Major" service, cost was R3600 on a 1.0 Picanto... how on earth can they justify that. it literally takes them less than an hour, 3 spark plugs, maybe 2.5L of oil, some filters etc. there is nothing major of this service, in my opinion that is a stock standard service, the exception maybe being the spark plugs, which should for decent stuff maybe be R80-R100 each.

and the best part is on a trade in they will use a non dealership service history against you, but at the same time it honestly wont bump the value they are willing to pay you either if you have a dealership service history.

/Rant
 
Sounds about right. I got quoted around R4500 for a "major" service at Renault.
 
D3x! said:
/Rant

servicing a vehicle at a dealership is absolute madness. After arguing and getting discount a "Major" service, cost was R3600 on a 1.0 Picanto... how on earth can they justify that. it literally takes them less than an hour, 3 spark plugs, maybe 2.5L of oil, some filters etc. there is nothing major of this service, in my opinion that is a stock standard service, the exception maybe being the spark plugs, which should for decent stuff maybe be R80-R100 each.

and the best part is on a trade in they will use a non dealership service history against you, but at the same time it honestly wont bump the value they are willing to pay you either if you have a dealership service history.

/Rant
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Are you mechanically minded?

It does not sound as if you have ever changed the oil on a car.

it literally takes them less than an hour
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Really?
 
Only reason to service at dealer is because of warranty, if warranty is expired go somewhere else.

If worried about trade in price, well, you paying more now to hopefully get a better price at some later stage, rather safe the money and get the cheaper services.
 
There is a reason why they are called "stealerships"
 
Purply said:
Try R1500 for wiper blades :(
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yeah effing insane

boxerulez said:
Are you mechanically minded?

It does not sound as if you have ever changed the oil on a car.

Really?
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yes and I have serviced many older cars myself, it really does not take long. You think the dealership lets the car sit completely draining for hours, or flushes it or anything? many of them use those oil vacuums and doesn't even open the sump nut. They call you now at 13:00 to confirm and get go ahead for basic service and any extras and the car will be ready at 16:00 along with 10 others, i am sure they are paying special attention.....
 
Just buy a nice looking rubber stamp and ink pad from CNA, get your name engraved in, and stamp the service book yourself after you service your car. Don't forget to sign it with an illegible signature.
 
There is a lot of competition in the bottom of the car market, so they have to make the selling price as low as possible. They still need to make money, so they do this with parts and service costs. A lot of the small cars have unique parts that cost a lot more than the parts for normal cars and only the dealers have it.
 
furpile said:
There is a lot of competition in the bottom of the car market, so they have to make the selling price as low as possible. They still need to make money, so they do this with parts and service costs. A lot of the small cars have unique parts that cost a lot more than the parts for normal cars and only the dealers have it.
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Yip, I found this out the hard way. Had a Daihatsu Sirion that I needed new shock absorbers for. Unfortunately there is only one specific type of shock absorber made by one company in the whole world that fits this model of car. And of course the ONLY place in the whole of South Africa that you can buy them from is from the Daihatsu dealer. R8000 later for 4 shocks. Normally you can just get shocks from Midas for a few hundred rand.
 
D3x! said:
yeah effing insane



yes and I have serviced many older cars myself, it really does not take long. You think the dealership lets the car sit completely draining for hours, or flushes it or anything? many of them use those oil vacuums and doesn't even open the sump nut. They call you now at 13:00 to confirm and get go ahead for basic service and any extras and the car will be ready at 16:00 along with 10 others, i am sure they are paying special attention.....
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Then why didnt you service it yourself? We all know the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on anyways.
 
furpile said:
There is a lot of competition in the bottom of the car market, so they have to make the selling price as low as possible. They still need to make money, so they do this with parts and service costs. A lot of the small cars have unique parts that cost a lot more than the parts for normal cars and only the dealers have it.
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this is not a car that has unqiue parts, it is about as common as a citi gold these days.

Drifter said:
Then why didnt you service it yourself? We all know the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on anyways.
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because they send you an sms stating your car is due for service and basic service costs start at R895... bla bla and while the car is still under 5 years old you think sure let they do what is in my mind a basic service at that sort of pricing.
 
I got "serviced" by the local BMW dealership on Saturday - and they didn't even use Vaseline.

And hour after dropping the car they phoned me with a quote of between R6500 and R7000 to service the car, change coolant and change brake fluid. I told them to leave the coolant and brake fluid, and she said that would be R3700 about. More than I am happy to pay but the whole idea was to gauge whether they will be getting any more business from me or not. I arrive to collect the car and she hands me an invoice for R4500 odd. I complain, she says she didn't include VAT in the R3700 she quoted me. I mention that this is illegal, and besides R3700 + VAT isn't R4500. The foreman (I think) comes through and tells me that they charged me an extra R60 to charge my battery. I explain that the battery didn't need charging. He explains that after the battery test (also R60), it did need charging. I asked why they tested it. He said that it's part of the service. I asked why it was charged separately, and he reversed the two charges, leaving me with a total invoice of R4300 odd.

In theory you need to do this from time to time just to confirm to yourself that avoiding the agents is actually the best thing you can do for your blood pressure and bank balance.
 
im afraid of what ill find when I eventually pick up my picanto from the B**** agents!

im already dreading he thought; those people give me nightmares;

its been almost a month at a dealer with no idea of what is the issue here; changed ECU so far, they wanted 12K, I brought one from PRY for 3k;
so far no dice; now they say something different;
the wiring diagram we used for your car was wrong, we need to contact kia to find out what it should look like?

one thing ive never understood, is why dont we have multi franchise dealers in SA?
IE one that services all asian cars; like toyotas,kias,hyundais ect.....

and one that service all german or european cars; like VW, opel ect......
 
eg2505 said:
im afraid of what ill find when I eventually pick up my picanto from the B**** agents!

im already dreading he thought; those people give me nightmares;

its been almost a month at a dealer with no idea of what is the issue here; changed ECU so far, they wanted 12K, I brought one from PRY for 3k;
so far no dice; now they say something different;
the wiring diagram we used for your car was wrong, we need to contact kia to find out what it should look like?

one thing ive never understood, is why dont we have multi franchise dealers in SA?
IE one that services all asian cars; like toyotas,kias,hyundais ect.....

and one that service all german or european cars; like VW, opel ect......
Click to expand...
Because vw has fokol in common with merc, Toyota has nothing in common with haaaahnda, etc.
 
koeksGHT said:
Try R600 for an i20 hubcap

Got it for R200 used.
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Yaris one wasn't much cheaper, so don't feel too bad.
Gonna wait till I'm down in Durban again. There's that intersection where there's a bunch of hubcaps on the fence for sale. Edwin Swales I think.
 
That's cheap. R400 for a mirror cap that's barely the size of my hand, R1100 for the actual mirror.

That being said, the closest RMI workshop to my workplace wanted to rip me a new one. I always get estimates first so I told them it's a minor oil change service with only oil and oil filter to be done, they added all sorts of extra filters and spark plugs coming to a whopping R3900 total. I politely told them to go forth and multiply. Another workshop bit further down the road gave me an estimate of R1450 with Volkswagen quoting me R1480 for the same service, needless to say I booked my car with the agents. Even though my car isn't under warranty any longer the VW stamp in the service book will be worth more than R30 I think.

Of course while the car is being serviced (later this week) I'm expecting all sorts of calls for whatever else needs replacing ...
 
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