Although I have done few KMs in the last year (due to lockdown) my car will be due its annual service quite soon. I notice that Ford are offering full and economy service options, the latter is almost suggested for older cars. Other than the economy option  not including Roadside Assistance, are there any other areas where it is worse? I would like to avoid the situation where the economy service actually means I shorten the lifespan of the car and/or end up paying more in repairs as faults are not spotted early enough.

Roadside assistance for me is not critical as I have it with a separate auto club. That said the Ford one is actually better in some respects.

Personally i would take your car to a good local garage rather than ford as ford technicians have a habit of breaking things while working on the cars, and also just doing a crap job then charging you through the teath for it

2 hours ago, Neb_engineer said:

Personally i would take your car to a good local garage rather than ford as ford technicians have a habit of breaking things while working on the cars, and also just doing a crap job then charging you through the teath for it

I've used Ford dealers for servicing and not had any issues - You should have a major service every 3 years.

The cheaper option is called Essential Service in the UK (used to be called Value Service). I had my wife's Ka serviced under that regime for several years with no problems. Afaik they use Motorcraft branded parts rather than Ford branded.

Now my wife has a non-Ford we've had that serviced by our local village garage once it was out of warranty and found them very good also.

I guess it may come down to your experiences with your Ford dealer. My local dealership is a family owned single outlet, not a chain, and very much like using the local garage anyway. I've always found them very good and not prone to bumping up prices unlike some of the dealer chains I've experienced.

I would never skimp on servicing and always have it done by a main Ford dealer.   Had very few problems.

so i guess the one of ford dealerships near barnet is the one with all the absolutley awful technicians especially as my car has technicallly only had two owners and three registered keepers, the two owners (the ford deallership where is spent the first year of its life as a demo car for the dealer, and my grandma where it was driven 200miles before i got it and was "serviced" by the ford dealership that had previously owned it until i got the car)

If you have a local independent garage like I have used for 20 odd years they are brilliant small but you get 1to1 contact fast booking in times and want to keep up reputation by good service

You can ask them to use Ford parts if required, lve found they actually do more on a service and actually investigate any concerns you have instead of picking up the car, and finding it's still doing what you asked them to or the usual it's normal for the car

 

My sons ST had a rattle for awhile in mornings in to Ford a few times no issue found.

Took it to my local independent and investigated it to find it was an engine mount that had gone, swapped it out solved the issue.

2 minutes ago, HRF1T2020 said:

If you have a local independent garage like I have used for 20 odd years they are brilliant small but you get 1to1 contact fast booking in times and want to keep up reputation by good service

You can ask them to use Ford parts if required, lve found they actually do more on a service and actually investigate any concerns you have instead of picking up the car, and finding it's still doing what you asked them to or the usual it's normal for the car

 

My sons ST had a rattle for awhile in mornings in to Ford a few times no issue found.

Took it to my local independent and investigated it to find it was an engine mount that had gone, swapped it out solved the issue.

for anyone on here wondering, this is exactly what i mean about taking your car to ford for 'repairs'

Hello

I use an independent mechanic that my family have used for the last 20 years and he is excellent. My car has had 2 full services and 1 oil and filter change in the last 3 years and for all of them I have only been charged £210 in total. If I had taken it to my local main dealer it would have been 4 times that minimum!!!!!

I think if you can find an independent mechanic who you can trust and is highly recommended by people you can't go wrong or be ripped off.

Hope this helps

4 minutes ago, statts said:

Hello

I use an independent mechanic that my family have used for the last 20 years and he is excellent. My car has had 2 full services and 1 oil and filter change in the last 3 years and for all of them I have only been charged £210 in total. If I had taken it to my local main dealer it would have been 4 times that minimum!!!!!

I think if you can find an independent mechanic who you can trust and is highly recommended by people you can't go wrong or be ripped off.

Hope this helps

do you mean that the oil and filter change happened on both services or 1, because ford say the oil and filter should be replaced every 12,500 miles or 12 months whichever comes first

also haynes actually recommends the oil change on fiestas is actually done at every 6000 miles or 6 months whichever comes first

12 minutes ago, Neb_engineer said:

do you mean that the oil and filter change happened on both services or 1, because ford say the oil and filter should be replaced every 12,500 miles or 12 months whichever comes first

No I mean I had an oil and filter change on every service but on the major services I had oil, oil filter, air filter etc changed.