I really really hate motor mechanics

radderfire said:
Just to say also, my guess is the reason many won't work on electric vehicles is because they require specialist training, and they can be dangerous to work on if you haven't had training, and they could also do a lot of expensive damage to the vehicle.

At the end of the day, complex procedures such as servicing a car are not suited to e-mail correspondence, it's not the way garages work. Unfortunately, you are going to have to adapt how you communicate to the way garages communicate best. This means having an initial phone call to get a rough idea if they can help you or not, and then leaving the vehicle with them for them to assess it. You could ask them to inspect first and then quote, I think most would do this. Re choosing the right garage, then you need to make the assessment whether to take to a local or the dealership, and it's here where asking for advice and recommendations will help you - and you can do this on the computer via forums!! Obviously you can ask on our own motors subforum and a lot of car brands have enthusiast forums as well.

I can understand why someone might be interested in a warranty, but my experience has always been there is too much fine print and the insurance company gets out of it, so I would rather take the chance with repair bills.

I am sure that Nissan UK would not be happy to hear about your customer experience, but if you communicate with them via their preferred methods I think you will get better results.
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correct. most garages will shy away from unknowns , plus the extra training for evs and not a lot of courses. why risk potential damage to the vehicle doing something your not trained for.
as regards emails again if the garage is a independent they may not have the staff to reply or even read emails, i know when i left the trade they were starting to come in with so called garage packages (web site email even computers. i had one at the unit for 2 years and the only use it got was printing invoices) maybe the email is there but they dont access it.

also to the op im sure i have seen a guy who travels around the country just servicing evs mobile, maybe more expensive but at least he is trained (probably better than some of the dealers who i guess would still put trainees on the basic stripdown with maybe a tech overseeing the rebuild.)
 
Another thought about the e-mail side of things - some of the manufacturers offer price match services of local indies if you can get it in writing and they confirm on parts being used. I'm sure some of the indies have latched on to this and know that if they provide a quote in writing, it could very easily end up with them not getting the business after going to the hassle of quoting.

I'll admit when I had my A6, I used a VAG specialists website to beat up Stafford Audi to get a price match. The indy has since removed the prices off the website and everything is quoted over the phone - he even told me he won't put quotes in writing anymore on e-mail for this reason.
 
gc123 said:
correct. most garages will shy away from unknowns , plus the extra training for evs and not a lot of courses. why risk potential damage to the vehicle doing something your not trained for.
as regards emails again if the garage is a independent they may not have the staff to reply or even read emails, i know when i left the trade they were starting to come in with so called garage packages (web site email even computers. i had one at the unit for 2 years and the only use it got was printing invoices) maybe the email is there but they dont access it.

also to the op im sure i have seen a guy who travels around the country just servicing evs mobile, maybe more expensive but at least he is trained (probably better than some of the dealers who i guess would still put trainees on the basic stripdown with maybe a tech overseeing the rebuild.)
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Yes Cleevley's have a mobile servicing service for EV's. They are down in England somewhere but will go all the way up to Scotland where I am. They basically are the same price for a minor service as Nissan which isn't bad considering they are driving all that way.

I might use them for a major service. But for near enough the same price I can get a Nissan service stamp in the book and a years breakdown cover which is included with a Nissan service.
 
Slackworth said:
Another thought about the e-mail side of things - some of the manufacturers offer price match services of local indies if you can get it in writing and they confirm on parts being used. I'm sure some of the indies have latched on to this and know that if they provide a quote in writing, it could very easily end up with them not getting the business after going to the hassle of quoting.

I'll admit when I had my A6, I used a VAG specialists website to beat up Stafford Audi to get a price match. The indy has since removed the prices off the website and everything is quoted over the phone - he even told me he won't put quotes in writing anymore on e-mail for this reason.
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See a reasoned reply like yours is all I wanted over on that Reddit thread, but the mechanics collectively lost their minds on that thread. I wonder if that is how they feel about every customer who walks through the door? The hostility to someone asking them why they don't answer emails was insane.
 
I was going to suggest that cleevleys guy, I've been following on YouTube for ages for no reason what so ever just find his vids interesting which has now made me realise he hasn't uploaded one in a while, or maybe I stopped following I can't remember and CBA to check

But yeah, he works on EVs all over the country every day and knows all the common faults for each model, definitely knows his stuff
 
Well that's the car booked in for it's service at the Nissan dealership. Completely online booking which allowed me to pick a date, a time, asked if I want to wait while it's done or give me a courtesy car and there is a years free breakdown cover included. It took less than 5 minutes to book and I didn't have to speak to anyone. If servicing is going to be the bread and butter for independents when EV's become the majority of the cars on the roads, they have a lot of work to do. From my experience of independent garages I suspect a lot of them will be going out of business because they won't be either willing or able to adapt. Perhaps sooner than they think.
 
Had my service done yesterday at my local Nissan Dealership and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I have exclusively used independent garages in the past for our old cars on the assumption I would get ripped off if I ever took it to the dealership. As per this thread, my hand was forced this year and I had to take it to the dealership because basically no one was interested in servicing my Leaf and those that were interested were too close in price to Nissan.

I booked the service completely online without having to talk to anyone. I got a phone call the day before reminding me of the appointment.

On the day of the service, I walk into the showroom (they even had a red carpet laid out for me, nothing to do with a "VIP" event!) and one of the staff came right over to me to ask how they could help. No hovering around at the door of a dirty, noisy independent garage trying to catch someones attention. They got me to sign a form, asked if I wanted a tea or coffee and told me I was welcome to wait in their pretty nice showroom. They had very clean toilet facilities as well. I sat and browsed my phone for an hour and a bit until the car was ready. No one bothered me.

Once the car was ready, the staff member came over and explained everything that had been done (not that much being a minor Leaf service), let me know that they had washed and hoovered the car and even offered me free use of their rapid charger. You even get a years RAC breakdown cover included! I was given a link to a video showing the underside of the car and pointing out a bit of corrosion on the front brake discs. They suggested I replace the pads and discs but there was no hard sell from them.

And that was that. A very pleasant experience. I have been very critical of the Nissan Dealerships in the past when trying to arrange warranty cover with them, but this experience has been very positive and completely stress free. I can't even say they are expensive as the cheapest independent quote from a HEVRA garage was only about £15 cheaper and having the Nissan stamp in the warranty book is worth way more than some random independent garage in my opinion. It is certainly worth more than the £15 saving.

Independent garages are really going to have to step up their game when EV's are the majority of cars. By not being keen to look at EV's for servicing, they are forcing potential customers into the dealerships where the experience is very good and the price is reasonable (relatively). It is only a small step from there to just getting the dealership to fix any problems rather than bothering with the hassle of trying to find a decent independent who will look at an EV, be competent, be able to fix it and be able to do so at a price that is cheaper than the dealership. I took my Leaf to an independent garage to fix a seized parking brake cable and ended up paying about the same price as the dealership would have charged because you could only get the parts from Nissan.

I think from now on, unless it is for something relatively simple, such as brakes and suspension, I am just going to the dealership as the experience is so much better than the dinosaur independents.
 
Similar service at my local Nissan place - it is why I keep going back to them despite being a little more expensive than the independents - along with the Ariya Nissan seem to be trying to angle a bit more upmarket currently.
 
This is why I always take my car to the dealership, round here both Ford (when I had my Focus as we ran 2 cars) and BMW (last 4 cars are from here when running 1 car) and we've had the same experience as above (admittedly the BMWs were all brand new and we only keep them for the warranty period), nice atmosphere, no pushy sales pitch and a lovely seating area with tea\coffee and biscuits they even let the wife work from a desk in the showroom 1 day when they didn't have a courtesy car to lend us.

As we don't do many miles the BMWs are only serviced every 2 years so it works out about £140-150 a year and not only do we get the dealer stamp in the (now electronic) service book we can also arrange any warranty work there and then usually if it's small without having to take it back which more than makes up for the £10-20 saving by going to an independent.
 
Maundie said:
This is why I always take my car to the dealership, round here both Ford (when I had my Focus as we ran 2 cars) and BMW (last 4 cars are from here when running 1 car) and we've had the same experience as above (admittedly the BMWs were all brand new and we only keep them for the warranty period), nice atmosphere, no pushy sales pitch and a lovely seating area with tea\coffee and biscuits they even let the wife work from a desk in the showroom 1 day when they didn't have a courtesy car to lend us.

As we don't do many miles the BMWs are only serviced every 2 years so it works out about £140-150 a year and not only do we get the dealer stamp in the (now electronic) service book we can also arrange any warranty work there and then usually if it's small without having to take it back which more than makes up for the £10-20 saving by going to an independent.
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Whilst I was waiting on my car there was another customer having a zoom meeting at the table next to me! Try doing that at an independent!
 
Vauxhall dealership just told my wife that the O2 sensor needing replacing would be "about £500"

U wot

I guess it depends on the dealership right
 
I think routing servicing is a very different kettle of fish to repair work. For the bog standard service, brakes and MOT etc, I think main stealers are focused on being closer to the price of independents these days to retain repeat business especially as there is more used cars on the road which are more likely to wander off out the dealer network.

However, when it comes to repairing faults, they can overcharge for genuine parts and labour costs can drag out - this is where an indie can easily pull back work.
 
DampCat said:
Vauxhall dealership just told my wife that the O2 sensor needing replacing would be "about £500"

U wot

I guess it depends on the dealership right
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nps daughter rang up vauxhall for a price on a cat for her 2008 zaphira 1600 pounds plus fitting ...oh and they wanted a deposit before ordering it in. i bought one from a motor factors for 157 pounds and fitted it. sometimes i think they dont want the work.
 
DampCat said:
Vauxhall dealership just told my wife that the O2 sensor needing replacing would be "about £500"

U wot

I guess it depends on the dealership right
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If it's a wideband sensor then a genuine part won't be cheap, plus the labour rate it's about right. If its a simple narrowband for a 2008 Corsa then that's massively overpriced lol.

gc123 said:
nps daughter rang up vauxhall for a price on a cat for her 2008 zaphira 1600 pounds plus fitting ...oh and they wanted a deposit before ordering it in. i bought one from a motor factors for 157 pounds and fitted it. sometimes i think they dont want the work.
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Genuine cats are huge money, I'd never ring a dealer for a price on one as it's always crazy money. Pattern parts are way cheaper obviously and will be plenty good enough for that car, but it'll be nowhere near the quality of an original part.


Dealers in general aren't the best, I'd sure as hell never work for one, they're often quite dishonest. But genuine parts are often vastly more expensive than the pattern parts.
 
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