Car is ready for me to take it in for the first oil change since purchasing. Asked the dealership what the maintenance check up would cost and they said $800. That seems absurd to me. Does anyone know if this price is correct? I would rather just take it somewhere other than a dealership but I dont know how Chrysler is about the warranty on these.

Any info would be appreciated

 

Check your maintenance log book that came with the car. It'll list everything that the dealer would do to your car. At 30k it's probably the service B. Involves oil change, oil filter, cabin filter, plus a few other check ups (probably extra stuff because it's an SRT). If you're pretty good with working on cars, you should be able to do almost all of it yourself for a lot less.

If not, $800 does sound absurd. I havn't had mine in for a service (have an NA though), but I've heard it should be more ~$300. (someone chime in whose taken theirs in).

 

Ya that a little cheaper than what i got it for. Mine was around 930 when i got my car back. I had it done last year down in FL. I guess they lube the chassis and all the good stuff. But to tell you the truth just about all the things they do you can do yourself. I was very uspest after i read what they did to my car. Remember that a oil change on our cars can run us 140. It a honset waste of money.

 

I just had mine in for a class B service (it was at 22,000 miles for mine) and it cost me less than $200. I want to say $169-something. Most of that is for the oil change, which is $150 because it's super-spiffy expensive synthetic oil.

$800 is WAY OUT OF LINE. Ask them to detail what they're going to do for that $800. Figure $150 for the oil change, that leaves about $650 of bend-over-and-hand-us-your-wallet.

 

Oil change is pretty easy once your comfortable with the car. Easy jack up one side and drain from bottom and fill from top. Oil and filter should run you about $60. I'd say change the belt as well. About $40-$80 depending where you buy it. If you still have a stock air intake change the filters or upgrade to the needswings intake with all the money you saved. They are not touching your brakes for that money either. Still check the rears just in case. You can always get in the phone book and look up the independent mercedes shops. Just tell them it's a 2003 SLK32 to get pricing. Should be pretty close.

 

I'd be dang pissed with an $800 bill for what is basically an oil change and maybe an hour's worth of tech time to inspect the vehicle (and that's if he's real slow). Add maybe $30-50 for a cabin air filter and it should not exceed $200-250. Frankly, since I rarely use the a/c or heat, I have no intention of changing the cabin air filter at 30k -- it should be based on use, not mileage. The only other thing they could be doing is a tire rotation (swap sides)...maybe...and that's less than $25. Definitely ask them to itemize and JUSTIFY the $800. At $125/hr, that's about 5 hours work plus synthetic oil and filter!!