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Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - TheGentlemanThug

I put my 2011 Civic 1.8 through a service and MOT on Saturday to the tune of £510 courtesy of my local Honda dealer. I must say, I was surprised, given that the car didn't seem to have anything obviously wrong.

At any rate, this got me thinking; should I continue taking it to Honda or should I take it to a local garage which has a good reputation but isn't a Honda or Japanese specialist? Unfortunately, despite my searching, I can't find an independent specialist anywhere near me.

What do we think?

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - gordonbennet

Its a basically simple well made good quality car, i wouldn't think twice about using a good indy, an easy DIY too if you fancy having a go yourself, chances of it needing any software updates or remedial work are minimal, but might be worth checking on the govt website and Honda Civic forums to see if there are any recalls in your chassic number range.

Worth checking when it needs the tappets adjusting, i believe this is basically the same as the 2.0 as used in previous gen cars (but happy to be wrong on this), which had adjustable tappets, again it's simple enough once you look up the sequence for which valves should be fully open for a corresponding tappet to be on the back of the cam for gap checking, i did my daughter's 2.0 S type in a couple of hours tops (couple needed monor adjustment) and slipped a new set of spark plugs in at the same time, again simple enough for a competent indy.

As an aside i would hope for that cost they at least serviced the brakes properly ie strip clean lube up, because that is not part of Honda standard service regime and IMHO it blinking well should be, because they can suffer with rear calipers seizing up over time.

Edited by gordonbennet on 25/06/2018 at 13:25

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Falkirk Bairn

my almost 6 yr old CRV has 5 x Honda service stamps - deaest service was £184 - nill repairs needed other than a new battery during the "Beast from the East" cols spell.

What did they do to get to £510? fit new tyres all round?

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - barney100

We've been discussing this earlier, I was quoted £360 or so for a service on my SLK. Running down what I got amounted to change oil and filter followed by lots of check this..check that. Think we should all look carefully at exactly what we get for a service. Local Indie did mine for half the price and I got an air filter thrown in.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - TheGentlemanThug

The service and MOT was £195 all in. In order to pass the MOT, the car also needed a new OSF tyre and two drop links for the front anti-roll bar.

Checking the parts online with Cox Motor Group, that would come to about £380, so that's £130 for labour. Naturally, Honda would add their cut to the parts as they supplied them.

Edited by Bicycle_Repair_Man on 25/06/2018 at 16:18

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - SLO76
Like for like I don’t think you’d save enough to offset the extra value drop from no longer having a full dealer history. What would you have saved in labour, £50-£60? A full dealer history adds hundreds if not more depending on make, model, age and mileage.
Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Scirocco

I honestly don't believe a full dealer as opposed to indy history makes a difference to this kind of car and at that age - certainly at trade in time most dealers aren't bothered - I've usually taken wads of dealer receipts and they don't look at all

Edited by Scirocco on 26/06/2018 at 15:43

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - John F

The service and MOT was £195 all in. In order to pass the MOT, the car also needed a new OSF tyre and two drop links for the front anti-roll bar.

In the original post you said......

I put my 2011 Civic 1.8 through a service and MOT on Saturday to the tune of £510 courtesy of my local Honda dealer. I must say, I was surprised, given that the car didn't seem to have anything obviously wrong

......and if it needed two drop links at such a young age it can't be that well built. Our 17yr old Focus has needed no suspension repairs at all. I wonder if they were sufficiently worn to need replacing or whether you were conned.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Engineer Andy

Not necessarily John - both my Dad's current and previous Fiestas (both very low milage) have had to have suspension work at or before that age; my Mazda3 has had some done as well, though when it was a little older - not because of poor design, but because we both live in areas with lots of speed humps, including the hated 'cushion' type. Not uncommon these days, especially if pothole damage is factored in as well.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - TheGentlemanThug

I live in Lincolnshire and have to use back roads quite frequently. They're not great for suspension at the best of times, let alone after the winter we had. The village where I live is littered with those small speed humps as well.

Specifically, the rubber bushes in the drop links had worn down and Honda advised they couldn't be replaced. I guess the rather firm suspension doesn't help either.

Edited by Bicycle_Repair_Man on 27/06/2018 at 15:09

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - gordonbennet

I live in Lincolnshire and have to use back roads quite frequently. They're not great for suspension at the best of times, let alone after the winter we had. The village where I live is littered with those small speed humps as well.

I have every sympathy for your car and for your back, the state of LIncs roads is a national disgrace and boy is there some competition for that, we really are becoming a third world country, we'll all be buying ex UN Toyota Landcruisers to have any hope of making the supermarket in one piece soon.

Now and again i have to deliver to a pet food factory about 15 miles NNE of Boston, once you leave the main road the surface becomes idea for destruction testing of military spec vehicles, then the thousands of miles of other roads with damaged edges likely to drag you into a bottomless dyke, on the way back from Holbeach via Holbeach Drove until recently there was a short series of humps that unless taken at less than 35mph would empty every single cubby in the cab as it bounced violently off its bump stops.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - TheGentlemanThug

the thousands of miles of other roads with damaged edges likely to drag you into a bottomless dyke

This is without doubt the worst thing about Lincolnshire roads. It's especially nerve-racking when drivers treat the back roads like a race track.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Engineer Andy

This was the main reason I bought a Mazda3 and not a Honda Jazz/Civic 3dr in late 2005/early 2006. All the Honda dealers in my area (including, ironically the multi-franchise Hona and Mazda dealer I get mine serviced at now) were very expensive on servicing (at the time). Sometime you can get lucky, especially if they have decent competition from other Japense/Korean makes and indies locally. When I looked back then the difference was about 25-30% per service.

I also would never choose to have a car serviced an MOTed at a garage that offered reduced price MOTs, as they are just a gimmic to drum up business in my view. I think the most I've ever paid for the 'big' 6th year service on my Mazda3 (including full price MOT) is about £450, but normally the services and MOTs come to about £200 - £350, depending on the service cycle year/mileage. This could be the case for yours for its 'big' service - if not that's a huge rip-off in my view.

I'd check around for other Honda dealerships near your home/place of work to see if they can undercut that for the same level of service. Check the reviews first for any alternative before committing to anything. Up to you whether you want to try an indie - if you can get decent advice about who is good and not, they can save you a fortune on some makes of car well outside of the warranty period.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Oli rag

I think that £195 for a service and mot is reasonable. You might save a few bob by going to an independent, but i reckon the "full honda history" service log will pay for itself when you come to sell.

Not sure whether the price for the tyre and drop links is also reasonable, but you could always have these bits done elsewhere if not.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - John F

I think that £195 for a service and mot is reasonable.

Well I don't, because most of the so-called 'service' is merely checks that the MoT covers, and those it doesn't you could do yourself. Understandable if you want a stamped service book for selling on your heavily depreciated 5yr old car, but for those of us that buy at this age and keep till they almost die there is little extra value in a stamped-up service book. Dealers who accept 10+yr old trade-ins don't even fully inspect the car, let alone the service history.

Goodness knows how much I'd have spent if I'd had our 17yr old Focus 'serviced' every year - let alone my Audis over the past 25yrs.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhe - Alby Back
Interesting you say that John, I'm normally a bit of a stickler for on time main dealer servicing on my cars. But, many years ago, I was down on funds but needed a large estate car for work. A friend who owned a business, had a then 18 month old Mk1 Mondeo 1.8 diesel estate on his fleet. It had been used from new by one of his sales reps who had run it up to 86,000 miles in only a year and a half.

The guy left the company and to my friend's dismay he subsequently discovered that the car had never been serviced, and indeed never in fact had any work including brakes which were well overdue. The only bills they could trace were for tyres.

Now, he knew I was needing a car and offered it to me at a massively discounted price, way less than he could have got for it as a trade in as a bit of a favour to me.

I took a chance on it, bought it, got it serviced and so on immediately, and it went on to serve me very well for another two years and a further 80,000 miles. Never a sports car, and those engines were an aquired taste, but it never let me down. I did keep it serviced etc while I had it, but it didn't seem to have suffered any damage through its early neglect.

When I traded it in, now with nearly 170,000 on it a main Ford dealer ( I'd liked it so much I bought one of the first of the then newer shape with the 2.0 TDCi engine ) they didn't even ask about the service history and gave me very nearly what I'd paid for it two years earlier!

There, perhaps not surprisingly, followed a series of Mondeos all of which proved to be very robust and did me very well at the time.

I started reading car forums about then, and was in turn dismayed to learn that cars which hadn't had regular oil changes would certainly explode and that TDCi clutches were made of cheese and would definitely need regular replacement.


Fortunately, neither of these things ever happened to me, and several hundred thousand miles were uneventfully achieved in a selection of those cars with nothing more than normal maintenance.

Thank goodness, because back then, I'd have been very much in a creek/paddle sort of situation if they had.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - TheGentlemanThug

I'm not planning to get rid of the car any time soon, but nonetheless, I like the idea of it being serviced by the people who made it, especailly as it ages.

Think I'll stick to Honda for servicing and use the local garage for small remedial work.

Thanks all.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere - catsdad
Its worth checking out Honda menu pricing and ensure that is the max you pay. They also have special service deals for older cars. Also ensure you are the dealers mailshot list. I got my 2012 Civic Mot'd and serviced this year for £99 by the main dealer on a mailshot offer.
They even honoured the free years breakdown cover that some dealers offer. And I get free Mots as part of having bought the car from them.
Not all their servicing is a bargain however. I saved about £50 by fitting air and pollen filters myself using genuine parts from Cox. It was a few easy minutes work.
So far, five years main dealer service and breakdown cover and four Mots have cost me about £750. That includes brake fluid changes and valve setting.
I shudder when I hear what others pay.

Edited by catsdad on 26/06/2018 at 12:05

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Scirocco

For the age of the car I'd be looking for a decent indy, unless Honda now throw in any benefits such as breakdown cover that tips things back in their favour. I'm very wary when a dealer says you need all this extra work doing to pass an MOT, best to take your car to an MOT company that have no interest in repairing your car

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Bilboman

Most local authorities (councils) in Britain maintain their own test centres where dustcarts, buses etc. are tested but they are also open to the general public. These centres don't offer repairs, only the MoT; they offer discounted (partial) re-tests within 10 days butsince the new rules came in in May, a car can no longer be driven away if it fails an MoT on a "dangerous" fault. In other words, probably worth a punt unless the car is an absolute shed. More information available on a well known consumer information website which I'm not sure I'm allowed to quote here.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Nomag

Surely it depends on how much you trust your dealer vs your local indy.

While our cars are in warranty, it's dealer servicing all the way, but I don't trust them, their "technicians" are largely young apprentices and I hate all the silly videos they send attempting to show brake pad or disc wear without even removing the wheels. I use them because I fear they will try and wriggle out of any warranty claims if I haven't kept the dealer history up.

For everything else I go to my indy, whom I totally trust and works out of an old wooden garage which has been in his family for years. The dealers always object when I say I'll take the cars elsewhere for brakes, MOT etc. but can never compete on price. Many a time they've told me new discs and pads were needed I've taken it to the local man who tells me they are good for many thousand more miles!

Seriously, how much extra does a full dealer history add to the value of a seven year old Honda? Vs the saving with a good indy. Why not ask your friends/neighbours for recommendations, I'm sure somebody will know of a trustworthy local mechanic.

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - Manatee

The top and bottom of it is that dealers can't make money out of selling new cars so the less alert service customers are going to be charged a lot.

When I ring up to book a service, I don't say "I want to book a service" but "how much is a first service on an MX-5" or whatever. I usually get some sort of alleged discount and it pegs the price, at least until they find something else!

Servicing & MOT - Dealer or Elsewhere? - John F

The dealers ......................... Many a time they've told me new discs and pads were needed I've taken it to the local man who tells me they are good for many thousand more miles!

Typical.

Seriously, how much extra does a full dealer history add to the value of a seven year old Honda?

Probably diddly squat.