Hey everyone,can anyone recomend me a independent garage for me to take my crossfire to for servicing etc.I live in nottingham but dont mind a little treck if a garage comes recomended .
cheers folks

 

The single spanner service is just an oil and oil filter change - if you cant or dont want to do it your self, you may as well run it into Halfords so long as they use the correct Mobil 0-40 oil, which on its own costs around £60.00 + about £8.00 for the filter. Any more cost on top of this is their profit!
Double spanner service is same + some checks to do!
Im just in Newark - any probs or you need a hand let me know!

 

Well, got mine done by my trusted source, who gave me a pretty high quote over the phone. They came in at around £200 on the day - the saving coming from the work taking less time to do than the guide (I am guessing that’s a Mercedes manuals) they had told them.

I am wondering if the guide tells them how much to bill for each part of the job - in effect laying down the profit margin. I bet the Chrysler Mercedes outfit sticks to that like glue.

Some may say that what I ended up paying was far more than it would be if I had done it myself, but I’d rather pay to have the job done properly. There were a lot of checks done - I got a long breakdown of what was done, and the car felt somewhat perkier on the way home. Given the time of year, I’m pretty glad it had a good looking over too.

Needs new rear tyres next month - but I know the money saving tricks on that one now.

 

The time taken over car servicing is something that we, the customer, is largly kept in the dark about. But when I had my single spanner service done about a year ago at Lister Chrysler Lincoln (£240.00) I did see the fitters job card together with my paperwork as I paid the bill. The time allowed to complete the service is 50 minutes.
I mentioned this to my son who is a Service Manager at an Audi/VW dealership. He told me 50 mins is also common for most Audi and VW models, and this includes time to clean up, dispose of waste, prep the bay for the next job, and do the paperwork. This allows 1 car per hour to pass through the bay. A big service can be 80 mins, most warranty jobs also have allocated time against them which controls the labor costs claimed by the dealers from the manufacturers.
Move the metal - make the money!

 

do tell - I'm about to start the search... camskill and Blackcircles are first places to look and I'm toying with the idea of going up to a 275

 

www.mytyres.com are also very good. All these sites do a price guarrantee and you can source a fitter from their web site. Tyre choice is endless, and will depend on what you want to do with the car and like anything you can pay for the name or go for sensible price and performance. Most makes include 275x35x19 but ensure loading and rating specs are met.