Car services and MOT

[MarcoPoloCX]

How much do people pay for services and MOT on a small car?
The dealership has a care plan that's 22 quid a month and that includes free roadside recovery.

But then if my car fails a MOT a dealership normally charges a lot more than a local garage.

Surely it depends on how many miles you are doing? If it requires just an annual service then we've paid between £115 and £215 depending on the type of service. MOT shouldn't cost you more than £35

Standard price for an MOT is £50, although some garages may charge less. Personally I’m always a little wary of garages that do them a lot cheaper, as they need to make their money back in some way.

My husband is a mechanic and most of the trustworthy and reliable MOT centres in our area charge £40 or £50. There’s someone who charges £25 but they are absolute rip off merchants.

A service? How long is a piece of string?

It depends what type of car it is and what type of service you need (minor? Major?), and who’s doing it?

Personally I would steer clear of these “offers” from dealerships...... especially if it’s Arnold Clark! But that’s just my opinion.

Do your research and find a local mechanic who you can trust.

Check you don’t already have roadside assistance included with your car insurance or bank account.

Let’s say £40 for an MOT and £110 for a small car service (I’m assuming the dealership won’t include a major service in that package) with an independent garage.

You will be able to add roadside assistance to your car insurance for a couple of quid a month.

Depends where you are based.

My area most independent garages charge £35. There are government guidelines on how much they can charge, the maximum is £50.

If the car fails then there is a statutory 10 working days to have the work done (wherever you like) without incurring a further charge. After that VOSA insist on another payment.

My local garage does a lot of MOT's for the dealerships in the area. O don't know what the customer pays for these.

A service for a small car ranges from £80 to £180 in my local garage. Depends on what you want doing and the price of the type of oil for you car.

If it is easier for you to spread the payments monthly then take up the offer or direct debit that money into an account you can set up purely for car expenses. Up to you really.

Word of mouth is usually the best way to find a good garage.

Road side assistance comes free with some bank accounts.

What does the service do? If they just check stuff, and you aren't too precious to open a bonnet ( unlike some on here) then it is a waste of money.

Rescue, recovery and homestart £50 a year from start rescue. Mot £25 . service when something goes wrong, checks you can do yourself.

I do a car plan on my mercedes at 32 per month. Covers all services and a health check once a year. I get mot done in a local garage for 50

DH service’s our cars himself. 90% of stuff is pretty easy to do at home. Next weekend he will be doing the break pads on my car. He just ordered the parts on amazon for £29. The garage was going to charge £300.

My husband is doing my discs and pads soon but to the person asking what does a service do? If you don't have one at least annually (depending on car), you run the risk of invalidating the warranty and if something major was to go wrong, you wouldn't be covered. Not too much of a problem if the car is out of warranty already but not worth the risk for the price of a service.

Please be very careful with dealership services - a service should be all filters, oil and fluids. They should also strip and clean the brakes, most dealerships do oil and filter and a visual check of everything else which can lead to problems later down the line.

Use an independent garage and ask for an estimate first, remember to ask their labour charge. An MOT should be around £30/£40 - don't be put off by lower charges because it's often not the way the garage makes money. You can have your MOT repairs done anywhere, the past poster who advised that the garage have to retest for free isn't correct there. The garage can charge a full MOT for a retest if the work is done elsewhere but most would charge half price.

Get a few estimates, the dealerships will often be over vigilant on the wear that they observe so even with a monthly plan they can end up encouraging you to change parts that aren't really needed. With an independent garage you can speak to the mechanic yourself, they're not all rip off merchants. Their labour charge will most likely be lower too as are the parts.

A service should be up to about £250+vat but can be as little as £120 for a small car.

special advising that a service is done when something goes wrong is very bad advice.

A service should be to check and change all filters if required, spark plugs if needed, strip and clean brakes and top up fluid levels.

Green Flag £5.40 a month. Cover at home & roadside.

M.O.T - local council £45. (Public can use it obvs)

Service £100 a year. Specialise in French cars - (Mines a Renault) Garage has a scrap yard attached, keeps parts cheap.

So mine is £205 a year. Breakdown, service & parts.

M.O.T work cost me £1 last year, as I needed a bulb. Car is over 10 years old.

I stand corrected. Here are the government guidelines to free re-tests within 10 working days. My garage does them for free.

www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/retests

“What does the service do? If they just check stuff, and you aren't too precious to open a bonnet ( unlike some on here) then it is a waste of money.”

Nonsense.
For one thing try and sell a car without a service history and it will be worth a lot less.

Those of who don't spend ££££ on cars don't care. We check ourselves.

Evidence please for saying ' nonsense'. Have you read service schedules? Check this, check that. Change oil at a high price. Change can belts - costs extra so doesn't get done.

Evidence? The huge difference in price if you ever sell a car without a service history.
Also to maintain the warranty as a poster explained above.

If it’s an old / low value car, then fair enough, but if it’s a modern car the it would be sheer stupidity not to maintain the service history.

19lottie82

DH Changes the oil, filters, belts etc when needed in the service schedule for a fraction of the price. All receipts are kept. We have always sold cars at or above market value.

Kursk, sorry but doing it yourself and keeping the receipts is not the same as having a full service history with a car.
You need stamps from a garage otherwise the value of the car will drop considerably.

If you traded your car in or sold it privately, it wouldn’t count as having any service history at all.

As I stated earlier your home servicing may be acceptable for an older / low value car, based on the OP, I’m guessing her car isn’t old, so there is no way I’d advise her to even think about this.

May I suggest finding a garage via the Good Garage Scheme online. We have just found one who quoted us £150 less for a job than a dealership. We did also get other quotes from local garages which were similar with this garage but we decided on one backed by the good garage scheme.

19lottie82

Interesting but not our experience when we have sold a car we ave sold it as having a full service history and the new owner has been happy. We have never lost any money

Kursk...... I find that very bizarre. My husband is a mechanic and my family are in the motor trade. I couldn’t tell you a single dealer or garage who would accept this is a service history.

How old have the cars been that you have been selling?

19lottie82

The cars we sold were between 5 and 9 years old. They included fiestas, BMW Z3, Lexus GS300, and a Astra. All sold privately not to a dealer. We have never used a dealership as we find we can buy more for our money privately.

Kursk - Fair enough but there is no way I would pay the same for a 5 year old car (or 9 year old) with a DIY service record than a professional one. I think you would have found you would have got more if they would have been serviced by a garage with the service book stamped.