My Biennial Servicing Question

Bobby Dandruff

Junior Member
Messages
313
I know that there is a section on Servicing advice somewhere on this Forum but I can't find it (probably as my car only needs servicing once every two years...) so apologies for what is an often asked question:

As my car is used even less in these current times, and yet needs servicing, I am more acutely aware than ever of the astronomical costs involved so.......what is the advice here? Shop around my local indies? (I watched a Harry's Garage YouTube review of his 'fleet' recently which made me keenly aware of how service costs for Maseratis are seemingly way out of step with everything else. I'm prepared to travel to get the car serviced if I can save some money, as I have plenty of holiday time stored up, obviously.....)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

PS. I am based near Kingston Upon Thames but prepared to travel to a keenly priced indie. Within reason :)
 

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,511
Sportsitalia in Eastleigh (Forum owner) attractive hourly rate and great reputation.
Collection service available but that will add to costs, drop it off train home.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,756
Ref Harrys Garage, given that Jag dealers hourly rate is commensurate with a Maserati dealer, as is the price of the oil, one must assume the higher cost of the Maser service is because they do more - either in terms if spending more time checking more things, or simply changing more items.
I‘ll bet the only reason the Jag service is cheap is because it’s an oil + filter change only, and a quick tyre kick.

As for the OP, remember that some main dealers offer to match the quotes from reputable local indies - e.g. Meridien matching Emblem. Worth a though if you are keen to maintain a MD service history.
 

Motorsport3

Member
Messages
868
The jaguars that Harry mentioned are admittedly high end but very little used and quite new.
I would expect that a ten year old maserati or anything really other than a Toyota workhorse would benefit from broader attention than just an oil service.
 

philw696

Member
Messages
25,113
At the Dealerships you spend more time scanning the car than carrying out a basic service.
With the number of ECU modules on a car today there's always updates to do and they need keeping an eye on so you don't end up with a headache.
Boring as you can imagine for an old school tech like myself.
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
Our experience is expensive parts cause an expensive service.

Service, done properly is very time consuming.

Along with all the obvious stuff, as Phil states, interrogation of the multiple ecu’s on multiple canbus’s but the brake strip, clean, repaint takes a couple of hours.

So ok, it does take a long time but it’s still amazing the poor, rushed, missed items we see coming in on cars that have so called ‘been serviced’ by other outfits.