Dealer Or Independent Service?

[Hjalle]

Hi, I just have a quick question about where to service my Fiesta, and the resale value down the road

It has been serviced since new at my local Ford dealership but I find the staff and customer service there horrendous and am not keen on taking my car back (I'm a strong believer in good customer service and not returning if Im not happy) for its next service. I was thinking about taking it to a Ford accredited independent mechanic instead

Will this impact the resale/ ease of sale when I go to sell the car later?

[DanGersFord]

As long as it's a reputable garage it won't impact value at all along as you keep it regularly serviced. Personally I take mine to a ford dealership but that's simply because it's just round the corner from me and they give great service etc

[Stoney871]

As long as a garage uses Ford service parts I see no problems.

[stevegtuk]

depends how much money you have got so spend of servicing, main dealers are likely to be double an independant garage. as above, as long as they use ford parts and put a stamp on your book, its not going to matter who services it.

I doubt the resale value will be any different whether its dealer or independant.

If there was someone who wanted to buy your car but was picky about who serviced it, the amount you would drop in price would be far less than the amount you saved in labour costs by going independant

[georgen]

If we are talking about the fiesta in your avatar, the resale value on a 2006 being dealer serviced and non dealer serviced will make no difference. people seem to get hung up on dealers, but in truth there only as good as the people they employ to carry out the work, so as already said if you took it to a non dealer and they have a good reputation and a long serving business, I would rather pay them less money to get a better service both for me and my car.

[Hjalle]

Cheers for the help, being my first car and first service I didn't know what the difference really was, but from the sounds of things I can save some $$ and skip the Ford dealership and still be in a good position when it comes to reliability of workmanship and resale.

[Kentish Man]

I have just paid my main dealer £215 for a two year old minor service. Realy it is no more than a oil change. Parts oil and filter were £21.98, £157.19 was the labour cost the rest was the V.A.T. You do get a free years Roadside assistance through the AA and if you have a necter card you get 2 points for every pound spent. Next year it will be due a main service costing £315, they offered me to have this years service for £175 if I signed up to their service plan, £293.68 paid over 8 months which would of saved overall £66.32 . I did not want to tie my money up so I said no. For cars over 3 years old and out of waranty they do cheeper services of £99 and £150 so why do they have to charge the high prices for the newer cars, it's a rip off.