Tony Jones Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 My local (non-franchised) garage has estimated "£180-£200" for my first 15K service, explaining the high cost by pointing out that, while under warranty, they have to use genuine Ford parts and fluids. Our of interest, I checked it out with the local Ford dealer, who gave me a firm quote of £155, including VAT and all normal replacements! Admittedly they're 12 miles away, but another tenner gets me a fully-insured courtesy car for the duration. So far, their customer service on minor warranty jobs has been excellent, so guess where I'll be going for my service later this month!! Since time immemorial it's been an article of faith that main dealers are rip-off merchants. Not any more apparently! Tony PS Can I plug them? Dovercourt, at South Woodham Ferrers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Tony We found the same thing when we had our Ford base serviced last year (1st service), the Ford main dealers were cheaper than other garages and checked for recall work at the same time. We didn't need to bother with a courtesy car but if we'd needed one we could've got one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Yes Mel, talking to local owners they mostly say go to Main Ford dealers for best prices. Last year I was in a well known battery shop looking for a battery for my Transit, and a customer asked what I was looking for, and he said buy direct from a Ford main dealer, much better price, so I did, and he was right. And last year I needed a set of power steering hoses and pipes, price at a local parts company who specialises in hoses and pipes, quite a bit dearer than Ford main dealer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronkle Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I understand that the prices are set by Ford on a regional basis. This mean't that the same job was cheaper for me just over the border into Wales. £92.17 (inc. vat) for the first service last September. Can't be bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9withdogs Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I take my VW to the local Skoda garage (yes, my other vehicle's a Skoda!) Very reasonable charges and I trust them, which is worth a lot more, in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbow-Chasers Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 It does often pay to check the dealer first - i dicovered it years ago with an old patrol. Lucas wanted £126+vat EACH for 6 injectors to be reconditioned, and it would take 5 weeks. Nissan main dealer had none in the country, but got them in in 2 weeks from japan - £36 each inclusive for brand new nissan injectors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Unfortunately our local Ford dealership (in Beverley) is no more so we've had to find another place to get our 'van serviced. After much ringing around, we're going to try a local motorhome dealers, they are quoting £160 + VAT, and when I tell you that it includes: - a full 2nd year base vehicle service - a full habitation service (including damp check) I'm sure you'll agree that this is good value! The only thing extra is the replacement of the brake fluid which has to be done every 2 years/30,000 miles in order to maintain the 3 year warranty, this costs another £37.80 + VAT. They are doing a special price of £75 + VAT at the moment for the habitation check alone if anyone is interested. It's going in on Saturday so I'll let you know after that how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Not a motorhome I know, but just gearing up for major service on suzi, total cost of oil (3 types 9litre total) £71.41p, that wasn't a pleasant surprize! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Well, it's gone in for it's base and habitation services today. Whilst there I enquired about the cost for having another 110 amp leisure battery installed - something we've been meaning to get for a while but never got round to. The battery is £70, parts £20, plus fitting £30 = £120 all in, I don't think that's a bad price as they will have to fit it in the lower skirt locker and fiddle around to get the leads to it, secure it etc. Hubby is happy to let them do it for that as I don't suppose he'd every get it done! Should have the van back early next week so I'll report then on how it all went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Mel B - 2009-01-31 8:17 PM Well, it's gone in for it's base and habitation services today. Whilst there I enquired about the cost for having another 110 amp leisure battery installed - something we've been meaning to get for a while but never got round to. The battery is £70, parts £20, plus fitting £30 = £120 all in, I don't think that's a bad price as they will have to fit it in the lower skirt locker and fiddle around to get the leads to it, secure it etc. Hubby is happy to let them do it for that as I don't suppose he'd every get it done! Should have the van back early next week so I'll report then on how it all went. Just replying to this post. Last November I telephoned VanBitz and asked approximately how much it would cost to have a 2nd battery fitted. They advised that it might be cheaper to just uprate our 110 to a 220 ah, the price of the larger battery would be about £200 and fitting would be £47 per hour, so couldn't give a figure until they had seen the van. The leisure battery is under the passenger seat and a larger battery would not fit so it would have to be re-located under the fixed bed. So far so good, we arranged to call on them whilst in the UK and have the work done. When we got there they quoted us in excess of £900 to do the job, as we thought this was excessive we didn't have the job done. I cannot see how moving the leisure battery less than 3 metres would cost in excess of £500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoHomer Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 We've been running a Transit based m/home, purchased new, for nearly 5 years (current mileage c22k) during which time all base vehicle servicing has been done by local Ford main Dealer Evans Halshaw in Preston. Excellent service including "extra mile" covered for us on more than one occasion. Very approachable and, obviously, knowledgable! Pricing has been similar to the levels mentioned in other posts; last year I approached a local independent garage (well known to us and also excellent) who quoted similar price for annual service. Bearing in mind the familiarity issue, which extends to access to full info on any recalls etc., I decided to stay with Evans H. and will probably do so this year. One point re brake fluid change - Evans H Head Office have sent me a few mailshots over the years highlighting this issue. Their Preston lot steered clear of the "carpet bombing" approach and adopted an interesting line specific to my vehicle; they tested the brake fluid for water content (the main ageing concern, I believe, as it is Hygroscopic) and pronounced it within tolerance and thus fluid renewal not required. This was after I had booked the vehicle in and authorised fluid replacement if they felt advisable. Fair treatment indeed. Having said this I intend having the fluid replaced this year anyway - 5 years service in an expensive vehicle weighing 3.5t is long enpough I reckon. For the record, the only non-routine work needed was easing a sticking window, one recall concerning the rear axle (I think) and a new ancilliary drive belt. Wood is being touched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH - Why can't things go smoothly for us!!! :-( Went to collect the van today, everthing done, climbed aboard ... noticed some water on the floor at the edge of the mat, lifted it up, some water underneath ... okay, could've been spilt from something ... no panic. :-S Checked electrics to make sure they were okay with the new battery being fitted all fine ... except the fridge freezer wouldn't work! It was working perfectly when it went in, we then turned on display panel and noticed that the water tank had 70% in it problem was that and it was at that point -1 outside! Checked under the seat to make sure the water tank did indeed have water in it and it wasn't just the display up the creek and found water definitely in it plus water sitting on top of the tank around the red removable lid and around the pump (1cm-2cm deep). How the heck had that got there???? 8o| Thankfully the boiler's cold weather protection valve had opened. Checked all taps which were all in the open position and found the one in the toilet compartment had an icicle hanging from it!!!! 8-) I suspect that the water on the tank has come from the pipes leading to the pump or the pump itself which is sited on top of the tank in a delve - all we can think is that it has sprayed out the water under pressure from the water in the tank being frozen. I think the water on the floor is what has seeped out from round the tank ... hopefully there is no lasting damage to the seat base ... The habitation part was carried out on 3 Feb so the water's been in there a long time and it's been well below freezing for a few days! *-) So, we now have to check: The pump - is seems to be trying to pump but whether it is water-tight we don't know. The piping - with them obviously having frozen water/ice in them (and still have as the water wasn't able to flow through at all) we can't check if they are split anywhere. The main tank - it was holding the water but until we fill it to the top we won't know for definite if it has had damaged caused above this level. The taps - as the icicle was coming out of the basin spout, with all the taps being in the open position, we hope that this means they are not damaged, otherwise that's 3 that may need replacing (sink, basin & shower). The boiler - hopefully okay with the valve opening up. The seat base/floor etc for any signs of permanent damage. We spoke to the wife of the owner and one of their technicians about it, not the one who had worked on our van as he wasn't there - neither were very pleased at all especially since it was totally avoidable. The upshot is that we've had to leave it with them so that they can get it into a heated workshop to slowly thaw out the van's pipes so that they don't split etc and cause any more damage, and also so they can sort out the problem with the fridge which now doesn't work! >:-( Just waiting to hear from the owner later on to see what's going to happen etc although when his wife was talking to him on the phone he was very angry and I think the chap that carried out the habitation work will have a lot of explaining to do, especially since he'd also done a habitation on another van which they were going to rush of and check too! Now it may well be that this is just a stupid mistake and that he got distracted and forgot to empty the tank but .... it's a bl**dy good job we weren't planning on using it soon! >:-( Question: is there anything else you think we should be checking with regard to the water/ice issue? I'll keep you all posted with developments. :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Phew ... bit sign of relief! Just been to get the van back. Spoke with the chap who did the work on it who was very apologetic. The water inside wasn't from split pipes etc, it was because he'd not checked that the red fresh water tank cap was fastened tight before filling it, as it was on and the bung was in the drain hole (which he could see from underneath the van) he'd assumed it was secure, so some water came out through the top of the tank. That solves that mystery. The heating is working fine (combi-boiler) and producing hot water, the pump is pumping, water pipes haven't got any leaks, taps okay (metal fortunately), water tank okay. The seat unit seems to be okay as there are vent type cut-outs about 1cm high and 10cm wide at the bottom so that's where the water trickled out from to get under the mats and therefore didn't sit within the seat unit base itself. As for the electrics, the fridge now works okay - the chap traced the fault to a bad connection to the electrical unit in the battery compartment, the unit had been moving around and in the process the connection had become slightly dislodged and fried, so he replaced it and made the unit more secure so it can't happen again. When we got there he was also giving it a good wash for us so it's looking nice and clean/shiny now too. Hubby is relieved to get the van back home safe and sound ... he was dreaming of split water pipes and flooding all night apparently!!! *-) Forgot to say, the cost of the habitation & damp check, installing a second battery, base vehicle service including replacing the brake fluid, parts & materials = £322 including VAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.