Unfortunately the local Ford garage that supplied my wife and my cars has closed and the nearest one now is 15 miles away. That means one of us has to make two 30 mile round trips drive to ferry the driver of the car being serviced back and forth. The garage does not offer a "while you wait" service.
There are good local garages which we could use for routine annual service/MOT. Is there any reason why we should use a Ford garage?
We are both elderly and our annual mileage is very low.

Have you got a Formula 1 Auto Centre near you?

I've always used them, they're very good.

Any good, trusted local independent will be able to sort you

There's no reason that an independent garage can't complete basic servicing and MOT's effectively.

Things like automatic gearbox fluid change (if required) and cambelt change (if required) are more specialist and would need to go to someone who knows what they're doing.  I wouldn't trust those to a random independent garage.

It will depend on the exact model and year of each car as to whether they will need cambelt or auto-box servicing on top of the basic service requirements.

Thanks. Re automatic gearbox fluid change and cambelt change, the Mondeo is 2015, the Fiesta 2017. Both very low mileage. Until now used Ford garages for service so assume if needed those items would have been done.
How do I check if needed/done?
You'll gather I only drive cars so pardon silly questions!

 

Which engine is in each car?  (Fuel type and engine size)

Hi Ian. If you are comfortable to use the Ford Dealer and they have moved 15 miles away then still use them. Book your services a few weeks in advance and ask for a courtesy car. You can tell them you'll drop your car off midday and return their car the next day.

As for auto gearbox oil changes. That depends on which model you have. Powershift requires either 5 years or 37.5k miles.

Cambelt again depends on car engine. For example my 1.5 ecoboost 4 cylinder requirement is 10 years or 125k miles. 

On 10/5/2023 at 1:18 PM, Fafnir said:

Thanks. Re automatic gearbox fluid change and cambelt change, the Mondeo is 2015, the Fiesta 2017. Both very low mileage. Until now used Ford garages for service so assume if needed those items would have been done.
How do I check if needed/done?

By looking at your invoices. How much were you charged, what work was listed.

A service isn't going to cover big extra work items like a cambelt change without them getting your agreement and charging you a chunk of extra money for it.

If you book a service the primary bit of work they will perform is to change the engine oil and oil filter. What extras they throw in like safety checks (which probably entirely overlap with what's already checked for an MOT), or changing brake fluid, or changing engine air filter, or changing cabin compartment air filter, etc, can vary from company to company and what service level you pay for if they offer multiple options. For instance if you look at the following page from 'national tyres and autocare' - https://www.national.co.uk/servicing/mot-and-service-packages - and scroll down you'll find a table that lists what they do for each of their packages, the three options used to be called something like 'basic', 'standard' and 'full' when I last used them, but they seem to have revised this to 'interim', 'full' and 'major' with respective 6, 12 and 24 month indicators to try to help people pick. You'll notice that there's an entry in the table for 'Check for timing belt replacement interval & report if due according to mileage/age', with a tick for all three of their service levels, meaning that they promise under all three package levels to check the age and mileage of your vehicle against the manufacturer's service schedule to see if you're due for a cambelt (aka timing belt) change, but they're not offering to actually do the work of replacing it as part of the service, it's something you'd have to pay extra for, and they can't just do it and charge you without asking, they'll have to ask you if you're happy to let them do it (if they're willing) and will give you a quote for doing it. If they've done it then you should see an entry for it on your invoice.

And wow they seem to have bumped their prices up a lot, I swear the cheapest option used to be something like £70 a few years ago. 😲

Blimey Lyndon that was some scary post you made. I'm not being offensive but just giving my opinion. 

Ian, the OP, is a careful owner of cars and doesn't need bombarding with needless stuff. I think Ian and I are of similar age, ok he maybe a few years older, and is looking for simple advice which I hope he's getting. 

19 hours ago, tazzman600 said:

Blimey Lyndon that was some scary post you made. I'm not being offensive but just giving my opinion. 

Ian, the OP, is a careful owner of cars and doesn't need bombarding with needless stuff. I think Ian and I are of similar age, ok he maybe a few years older, and is looking for simple advice which I hope he's getting. 

No offence taken, but I don't understand why you would think that Vlad. Tom mentioned cambelt changes and automatic gearbox fluid changes as being specialist jobs; in reply Ian (OP) said that he's always just assumed that things like this would've all be covered under the annual services that he has been putting his vehicles through, and asked how he could tell if such things were needed or had been done. Your reply just gave an indication of how often such items may need doing, which doesn't fully answer his question. I've tried to help give Ian a better understanding of what is and isn't covered in the price of a standard service to address his misunderstanding, and in answer to the second part of the question - how to tell if any of this kind of additional stuff has been done in the services he's had before - I've suggested that he could find out by looking at the invoices from his past services. I don't see how that's scary or needless.

My bad Lyndon. Yes I understand what you have stated. 

I've tried to help Ian also by quoting my own personal experience with a titanium x sport ecoboost mondeo I had (such a ruddy excellent car, best in class by FAR). 

Thank you all for your comments - basic and complex! My apologies for not responding earlier - body (mine) servicing required!
You have answered my question and given my car's age, mileage, and unfortunately my age, I don't think the expensive services will be an issue.