Uh, tell me about car servicing!

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2003
Posts
9,682
Location
On the pale blue dot
Hi chaps,

This is an odd question worthy of a flame or two but I'm going to ask anyway. How does car servicing work?

Previously in our family we've only owned old cars so between my father and I we've been able to service the cars ourselves, for example change spark plugs, oil, filters, pretty much everything apart from major repair jobs. Now I own a nearly three year old Focus so want to keep its servicing schedule up to date.

So here's my questions:

  1. It's about to hit its third birthday, do I need to get it serviced before or after this date hits or does it not make a difference? It had servicings after one and two years.
  2. Must it be serviced at a main dealer or can I get it done at a normal garage?
  3. If they discover repairs that need doing that I can't afford or would rather fix myself, will it affect the 'full service history'-ness of the car when it comes to sell it?
  4. The Ford dealership I bought the car from has offered me a free MOT. What's the odds if I take it to them for the MOT they're going to find more 'faults' than normal?
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Hi chaps,

This is an odd question worthy of a flame or two but I'm going to ask anyway. How does car servicing work?

Previously in our family we've only owned old cars so between my father and I we've been able to service the cars ourselves, for example change spark plugs, oil, filters, pretty much everything apart from major repair jobs. Now I own a nearly three year old Focus so want to keep its servicing schedule up to date.

So here's my questions:

  1. It's about to hit its third birthday, do I need to get it serviced before or after this date hits or does it not make a difference? It had servicings after one and two years.
  2. Must it be serviced at a main dealer or can I get it done at a normal garage?
  3. If they discover repairs that need doing that I can't afford or would rather fix myself, will it affect the 'full service history'-ness of the car when it comes to sell it?
  4. The Ford dealership I bought the car from has offered me a free MOT. What's the odds if I take it to them for the MOT they're going to find more 'faults' than normal?
Click to expand...



1, your car has a service schedule, its in the beginning of the service book it will tell you exactly when each service and what type is due.
2, any true garage can service a car, just avoid kwik-fit etc, they are fitters not mechanics.
3, as long as the items are replaced in line with the service schedule it counts as FSH, although telling folk you repaired reported items yourself would probably knock more value off the car then not having a 100% service history.
4, MOT's are pretty much constant, there isnt enough play in the words to find more faults then what exist and most MOT centres would never risk their licence.
 
Wouldnt the money lost not having a FSH be saved in the price of the services? I remember going through my girlfriends service for vauxhall and some of the prices they put on there.. Think they charged £30-40 man charge to drop the oil, and thats before the price of the oil!

I've always done car maintenance myself because garages have your eyes out in charges. I'll alwys use the same trusted M.O.T center too, my dads friend so I know extras done get added on.
 
If it's a 3 year warranty then I would have the 3 year service done at the main dealer before it ends and get them to fix any warranty issues before you come out of warranty!

You can use any VAT registered garage but to save a couple of quid on a focus I'd certainly pony up the dealer prices on the last in warranty service!
 
with ford you have 1 month or 1000 miles whichever is sooner to go over the recommended schedule to keep the warranty kosher. However im assuming you have just bought a 3 year old focus which is just going out of warranty, as long as you have it serviced every year it should be fine, take it to any garage after 3 years, just make sure they follow the ford schedule and use ford parts and all is well.

If you've had it for 3 years and have yet to service it, then you did something very wrong!
 
Seems that your questions have been answered so I want to ask a daft one.

What date is the MOT due? Dads car is an 07 plate but it wasn't registered until June or something. Does he wait until June or is he driving without a valid MOT?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom