Focus Servicing Costs

[TitanX Tony]

Just had my first year service carried out on my 2011Focus Titanium X 2.0 D, by a Ford main dealer. The cost for what is basically an oil change? £225 !!!!!!!!! No this is not a typing error, £225 !!!!!!!! How on earth can Ford justify this cost and more importantly for Ford, how can they retain their customers when they are subjected to this sort of rip-off charge. Rant over, but I may be going back to VW for my next car.

[lazzymonk]

Mine costs 185 for my 2005 1.6 and has to be done every year or 12000 miles to keep my used car warranty

[NorthSussex]

Use a good recommended independent garage next time , same service less cost. B)

[Pitmonster]

There are minor services and major services, and they alternate.

What mileage is your car?

Have you considered the Smart service plans?

They are not for everybody - so do your maths carefully before you decide - but may be worth considering.

[GSM]

service it yourself. It's easy peasy and just costs you the parts costs - which you can get cheap as chips from eBay or elsewhere.

You don't get the stamp for service history which brings down the value of your car slightly, but probably not by as much as you would spend getting the stamp even at a small independent.

[Brigante]

I had a service and MOT the other day for £157

[Brigante]

Like GSM says, learn how to service it yourself. I'm gonna be doing the same, I just hadn't had the time to myself lately so just paid to have it done.

[Pitmonster]

It's a 2011 car, it will have at least 1 year of warranty left (maybe up to 2 years, if bought in Dec 2011)

If you service it yourself, the remainder of that warranty will immediately be void.

The warranty will be honoured if you get it serviced at an independent garage, but only if genuine Ford parts are used (with receipts).

[GSM]

It's a 2011 car, it will have at least 1 year of warranty left (maybe up to 2 years, if bought in Dec 2011)

If you service it yourself, the remainder of that warranty will immediately be void.

The warranty will be honoured if you get it serviced at an independent garage, but only if genuine Ford parts are used (with receipts).

Fair enough. Still not entirely convinced its worth the cost though - I mean, if you serviced the car yourself it might cost you £60 instead of £255 (and probably more for the more involved services you'll have coming up). If you saved the difference over the course of the 3 years in a savings account, it would probably be more than enough to cover the vast majority of major faults that you might want to use the warranty for. And if you get lucky and never get any major faults, then you have plenty of cash in the bank after 3 years, which will probably cover your servicing of the vehicle for the remainder of your time as its owner!

But personally I've never bought a car in warranty (don't think I would! a 3 year old car just out of warranty with low miles is as good as a brand new car at 30% of the price!), so I suppose I can't really comment.

[Pitmonster]

"And if you get lucky and never get any major faults, then you have plenty of cash in the bank after 3 years"

This is the ultimate gamble, isn't it?

I can see the service manager at the dealership, doing his best Clint Eastwood impression, saying "Do you feel lucky, Punk?"

;-)

Imagine how much money I could save if I ever got that crystal ball working...

The other thing to consider is future value of the car.

When you come to sell the car, one with a full dealer service history should be worth more money than one with an independent garage service history. And in turn, that will be worth more than a car serviced by the owner themselves.

This is not a reflection on the quality of servicing - and I'm definitely not suggesting that you or anyone here would do a sub-standard job - it's just the reality of buying and selling a secondhand car. In most cases a dealer history can be in investment in the future value when you come to sell on - certainly a newish car like the OP's

[GSM]

"And if you get lucky and never get any major faults, then you have plenty of cash in the bank after 3 years"

This is the ultimate gamble, isn't it?

I can see the service manager at the dealership, doing his best Clint Eastwood impression, saying "Do you feel lucky, Punk?"

;-)

Imagine how much money I could save if I ever got that crystal ball working...

The other thing to consider is future value of the car.

When you come to sell the car, one with a full dealer service history should be worth more money than one with an independent garage service history. And in turn, that will be worth more than a car serviced by the owner themselves.

This is not a reflection on the quality of servicing - and I'm definitely not suggesting that you or anyone here would do a sub-standard job - it's just the reality of buying and selling a secondhand car. In most cases a dealer history can be in investment in the future value when you come to sell on - certainly a newish car like the OP's

I don't reckon it's that big a risk. The whole reason warranty exists is because car manufacturer's are convinced that the majority of their vehicles will not fail in the first 3 years, hence they can afford to offer 3 years free warranty in order to entice a higher number of customers with very little expense. If 1 in 100 cars needs warranty work within the first 3 years, and they can convince 10,000 extra customers to buy their car with their promises of 3 warranty, then they've just made a massive profit.

Most vehicles are bought and never need warranty work done in the first 3 years - that's a fact. So the odds are in your favour if you'd rather keep your money in your pocket and do your own servicing.

Money in your pocket, btw, doesn't lose value as quickly as it does when the money is in your car. Any 'investment' in the future value of your car is a poor investment, because car values go in one direction and one direction only.

I'll probably sell my car in 2/3 years during which it'll gain no service history. It might lose £1,500 in value as a result, but I'd spend well over £1,500 getting the car properly serviced over the course of 3 years. 3 years = 6 services = £250*6 = £1,500, and that's not including the cost of repairs and general maintenance, plus more involved servicing like timing belt changes and so on.

I've thought about it long and hard and come to the conclusion that warranty and resale value are not worth the servicing expenditure unless you know a guy who knows a guy who can get it done for you on the cheap. But if I knew a guy who knew a guy I'd probably still do it myself and give him a tenner for the stamp.

[Pitmonster]

All very fair points indeed, and the conclusion you've reached is clearly the right one for your own individual circumstances, after a lot of careful consideration.

I'm not so handy myself, and when buying a second hand car I would always be very wary of one that's been home-serviced - and that would be reflected in the price I would be prepared to pay for it. Therefore it's reasonable to assume that a potential buyer would feel the same about my car when I come to sell. I could be wrong, but that's my feelings.

It's probably a fine line though, and each car/owner/circumstances are different, and we would probably all reach a different conclusion.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, anyone considering a service plan should do their maths very carefully, and make sure it's right for you before making a decision.

[GSM]

All very fair points indeed, and the conclusion you've reached is clearly the right one for your own individual circumstances, after a lot of careful consideration.

I'm not so handy myself, and when buying a second hand car I would always be very wary of one that's been home-serviced - and that would be reflected in the price I would be prepared to pay for it. Therefore it's reasonable to assume that a potential buyer would feel the same about my car when I come to sell. I could be wrong, but that's my feelings.

It's probably a fine line though, and each car/owner/circumstances are different, and we would probably all reach a different conclusion.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, anyone considering a service plan should do their maths very carefully, and make sure it's right for you before making a decision.

You're right about circumstances.

Probably if I had an Audi A4 or a BMW 3/5 series or something, then I would go with servicing from the garage to retain value and keep the warranty going. Mainly because the parts costs for cars like that are through the roof and because they retain their value a lot better than a car like a Focus - Focuses are a dime a dozen. One of the most common and popular cars in the UK, so they don't hold their value very well for that reason anyway, and the parts costs are perfectly reasonable in comparison to BMW/Audi.

There'll definitely come a point in the future where I'll switch to getting it done at garages for convenience/warranty/value reasons. Probably when I'm on a lot more money than I am now and am driving something like one of those cars!

I actually took out some Warranty Direct cover earlier in the year at a very reasonable price, but once I found out in the small print that they required me to service it regularly at one of their approved garages I cancelled it immediately. What started out as a reasonable price became a total rip-off when servicing costs came into it. Oh, plus the fact that they won't cover most things for the first 9 months as they put it down to pre-existing faults...

I have had some faults since I had the car which woulda been nice to have the warranty for, I've done all those jobs myself and with help of my old man and have saved a pretty penny as a result.

[suedehead]

This isn't going to make the OP of this topic feel any better but I've just booked my 2011 Focus 2.0TDCI (140) for its first service at the end of this month and I have paid £128. It will be £180 for a major service next time.

This was a Ford Franchised Dealer too.

Suprising and disappointing that the pricing seems to be so hit and miss.

[TitanX Tony]

No, it doesn't make me feel any better and I've just chatted to another Focus owner who has just had his first service carried out and it was the same price as yours (£128). Like you, I am surprised and disappointed that Fords pricing does not seem to be standard. Just filled out my customer satisfaction survey on my service so you can imagine what I have said about it. It's my own fault I suppose, for not getting a quote for the service, but I believed it was a standard cost determined by Ford. I will be more careful next time in my choice of who I give the work to. And, even though my Focus is really good, I may be changing to another manufacturer for my next car because of this. Oh well, you live and learn.