Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Not Elan but.....
Howdy Pardners....
When I was in the Uk, around 3 weeks ago, I took both my daughters and my Elise for a 12 month service, no major works carried out except the usual Oil and Filter plus the obligatory windshield washer liquid.., and the usual checks, road test etc.... At a cost of around ?250 quid each.

I have just taken my 2013 V8 Mustang for its first 12 month service... a full "Lube" (oil and Filter) plus full inspection... $48 or around ?30.... Oh and they checked my battery and a couple of other bits too...

Rip Off UK.... Vote ... ermmm not sure who to vote for......

By the way I am not knocking the Lotus Dealers they are/were and have always ben outstanding especially Paul, Paul etc.... always had top top top service (i'm in the North West, not hard to work that out)... but the UK costs....

s'long till the next time I mosey on down with a post

Mark

Mark

EDIT......Quote... "I took both my daughters and my Elise for a 12 month service, "

What was involved in servicing your daughters,?250 sounds a little steep???

John

Typical Retail prices including vat charged by specialists
Synthetic oil ?12 litre x 4.5
Plugs ?8 each x4
Filter ?9
Screen wash ?150? that should read labour ?75 hour x2

If you think ?250 is steep ( which it is ) try taking your BMW Mini to my local dealer for a 24000 mile service...... ?700 please sir, which is why my Mini was serviced by a specialist this year for a more reasonable ?220. BMW mini in Tunbridge Wells have an eye watering ?180 per hour labour charge and at least a 200% markup on consumables and parts.

I would like to know the business model for your local Ford agent, what are their overheads, does Ford subsidise the servicing costs for the first 3 years, what would a non franchised garage charge you for the service? My Mini had 5 years servicing thrown in with the new price.

Business Overheads may be completely different where you are, small businesses in the UK are overloaded with taxation and red tape.

Being the tight a**e that I am, I always fill the screenwash bottle to the top before taking the car in, then wait for the big bust up when they try to charge you for it.
Unfortunately, since I have done this, no garage has tried to charge me for it pity
I think they're getting wise though now and putting lots of things together as 'consumables' so unless you want to be made to look a complete tight a**e you have to pay up without question.

Are you sure that the $48 includes labour? Oil and filter would cost that, unless they are using Mazola and a pair of tights! Often servicing a new car at the main dealer has labour free-of-charge for the first couple of years.

When I worked in the US it cost me a lot more to get my Jag serviced over there than the same model cost over here. And restoration costs are much the same, if not higher.

Not sure there's too much difference, really.

Mark

Ha I finally worked out the meaning of the first posting.....oh what a difference an apostrophe makes!

I think audi take the award for the most exorbitant (over) servicing, based on receipts I've received with s/h cars I've bought. $200+ for a "diagnostic", which basically means plugging a laptop into the diagnostic outlet under the dash and pressing a button to bring up error codes. And that's BEFORE any of the resultant faults are dealt with! I bought a diagnostic tool on eBay for $20 and now I do my own.

Hi,
Sorry for the grammatical error, and also for posting in the wrong forum too.....

To be precise
Ford Oil filter was $4.99.
Motorcraft Oil (Ford Brand I think) $30.80,
The remaining $7.97 is labour.
ToTal $43.76.

I can't be exact but I'm sure the labour content alone was ?170 for each Elise...

Done really really well at Tommie Vaughn Ford, Houston. Top quality, top service... OH and i FORGOT TO MENTION free shuttle service to take me home and pick me up again!!!

Out of interest I have a Cooper S too, and it was only ever serviced at the dealer to keep the warranty, after that my local garage did/does it. I (or my better half) was charged around ?650 to chase an electrical fault which turned out to be a faulty battery (instruments vibrated on startup after standing overnight) and yes they replaced good stuff in the process which I paid for!!!

cheers
MArk

Spyder fan wrote:Typical Retail prices including vat charged by specialists
Synthetic oil ?12 litre x 4.5
Plugs ?8 each x4
Filter ?9
Screen wash ?150? that should read labour ?75 hour x2

If you think ?250 is steep ( which it is ) try taking your BMW Mini to my local dealer for a 24000 mile service...... ?700 please sir, which is why my Mini was serviced by a specialist this year for a more reasonable ?220. BMW mini in Tunbridge Wells have an eye watering ?180 per hour labour charge and at least a 200% markup on consumables and parts.

I would like to know the business model for your local Ford agent, what are their overheads, does Ford subsidise the servicing costs for the first 3 years, what would a non franchised garage charge you for the service? My Mini had 5 years servicing thrown in with the new price.

Business Overheads may be completely different where you are, small businesses in the UK are overloaded with taxation and red tape.

I know where you're coming from here, I went to my local Ford dealership for a price of service for my Focus RS2 they wanted ?450. Ended up at Pumaspeed in Wakefield who are RS specialists and definately know more about my car than the local dealer who may, if lucky see one or two a year. There price ?185!!!
Ian