Servicing

[Frankie-Boy]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the rules regarding servicing.

My wife's car is due a service and the dealer is set to charge us a humungus amount for its first service, I'm told that we can get it serviced away from a franchised dealer if we want to but according to them we must use genuine parts to ensure the warranty isn't invalidated, however the service centre that we'd like to take it to says that provided we use parts that are up to a certain standard it doesn't have to be a genuine replacement.

Anyone shed any light on this, as we have a lifetime warranty on this car and don't want to lose it over a non branded oil filter or something similar.

[ben-dent]

as far the company i work for sees it you can have it serviced anywhere and use, either guenuine or pattern parts, aslong as they are to the same spec as the manufacture we do services on 1 year old vehicles and use fram filters on them, and they dont invalidate the warrenty

[LiftedDisco]

Hi Frank

Niki's Freelander 2 is on a lease deal and I didn't want to do anything that might be deemed as 'non-compliant' (ie costing me lots at the end of the lease) and their line was that it could be serviced anywhere as long as genuine parts were used - ie Landrover filters etc.

Oils etc are to standard specs.

Not sure if this helps in the light of Ben's comment!

Rob

[Reaper]

I have worked in the aftermarket parts industry for 11 years and the bottom line as it stands at the moment is you can have your brand new vehicle serviced anywhere you choose as long as the parts used are OE quality and the correct Procedures are followed.
Its all about the Block Exemption rules, of which you can read more below.

http://www.r2rc.co.uk/landing/index.htm

[Frankie-Boy]

Hmmm, still a bit confused really, cant decide one way or the other here.  :(

[Reaper]

Well I dunno if it helps but about 8 of my biggest customers are main dealers  Peugeot, Citroen, BMW, Nissan, Audi, Fiat, Land Rover and Ford all in the local area and all buy aftermarket parts when they have no stock.

[carbore]

In your position I would be carefull as the key issue seems to be its its a leased vehicle.  As they have specifically said it has to be GENUINE parts, unless you make sure they are genuine and it says it on the invoice then you could face a drop in final market value when you return the vehicle form lease.

[LiftedDisco]

It's Niki's car that's leased... Frank is talking about something with a lifetime warranty...

[CaptainColourful]

Lifetime warranty ?   
That has to be worth using genuine parts and not risking losing out for the sake of a few quid.
Ten or so years down the line and still covered ? WOW !
 
Where on earth do you get a lifetime warranty from ? I presume it's valid until you sell/swap the vehicle.

[Frankie-Boy]

The Lifetime Warranty was offered when we got the car new, we had a very good deal too - the missus wanted the basic model but it had to be a certain colour and it had to have 3 seat belts in the back, Fiat couldn't supply a basic one and the only thing they could do was sell us a top of the range car at the basic price, a saving to us of over £2000 and with a lifetime warranty thrown in.
 :D

The lifetime warranty is for the time we own it, fancy that - warranted  all the way to the scrapyard  ;)

[waveydavey]

It has to be said that if you can save the cost of the main dealer labour then the difference on price in the parts seems not worth the risk really?

[Frankie-Boy]

The difference in cost to my mind is quite a lot for a small car :- Dealer service price is quoted at £170 and we can get it done for less than £100.

Bearing in mind what's been said earlier I may go with the cheaper option and insist on genuine parts being used, I just hope that genuine means genuine unlike Land Rover who seem to be flogging Britpart stuff as their own, makes you wonder doesn't it?

[Reaper]

In this day and age the term "Vehicle Manufacturers" is quite misleading, they should be reffered to as "Vehicle Assemblers" as most of the components are made by outside companys and fitted together as moduels.  The point being that any vehicle assembler worth his salt nowadays is not going to waste time and money on the R&D and construction of little things like air filters and oil filters.  These items are almost always bought in from a specialist filter company like Fram, Mann & Hummel, Mahle etc all of which sell to the aftermarket.
Other items that are bought in by most large name vehicle suppliers can include.

Wipers, spark plugs, complete petrol and diesel injection systems, ECU's & EDU's, all lighting, relays, instruments, exhaust systems, complete braking systems, radiators, heater matrix, cooling fans, complete air conditioning systems, wiper motors, window lift mechanisms, alarms & immobilisers, gaskets, shock absorbers & springs, mirrors,
sound systems, starter motors, alternators, power steering systems...etc...etc

Just about all of the above systems and more are available to the aftermarket from the OE supplier at significantly lower prices that the main stealer.

[CaptainColourful]

The lifetime warranty is for the time we own it, fancy that - warranted  all the way to the scrapyard  ;)

Or until she gets bored with it ?

[muddyjames]

Now ya see, my Ranger is covered under warranty by Daventry, Banbury or Northampton Ford dealer but is by Grimsby Ford dealer all because it was serviced by a non Ford dealer. Thats even more mad!