Premium car servicing

masterboy123

I had a discussion with my friend and need input from you all please.

my friend owned a benz C class (2011) and told me the maintenance cost of it was around 1000 euros per year in addition to annual service. Therfore he switched to Hyundai i40 (2013) last year and so far zero spent on it. He argued that premium cars like Benz, BMW, Audi are not just expensive to buy but their servicing/maintenance is real high too even if it's few years old model. On other hand cars like Honda, Hyundai & Toyota etc are almost maintenance free or cheap repair is available.
But I believe if you buy a brand new premium car then it should be hassle free for at least 5 years.

What do you guys think on this matter?

colm_mcm

has he actually serviced it yet?

Eric Cartman

masterboy123 wrote: »

I had a discussion with my friend and need input from you all please.

my friend owned a benz C class (2011) and told me the maintenance cost of it was around 1000 euros per year in addition to annual service. Therfore he switched to Hyundai i40 (2013) last year and so far zero spent on it. He argued that premium cars like Benz, BMW, Audi are not just expensive to buy but their servicing/maintenance is real high too even if it's few years old model. On other hand cars like Honda, Hyundai & Toyota etc are almost maintenance free or cheap repair is available.
But I believe if you buy a brand new premium car then it should be hassle free for at least 5 years.

What do you guys think on this matter?

ohh lord, this sounds like somebody who thinks an old toyota doesn't even need an oil change.

all cars cost money to service, in most cases they should be serviced at least once every 12 months regardless of make / model.

any car in warranty would be paying expensive main dealer prices.

any car out of warranty there are good specialists for premium brands.

bigger engines in luxury cars take more oil, diesels cost more to keep.

if you had a 5 year old toyota avensis 2 litre and a 5 year old bmw 3 series 2 litre diesel and brought them both to good indy's or specialists for a full service, if there was even 25 quid in the difference id be surprised.

masterboy123

I see, so service cost isn't much different among premium cars and mid budget cars.

Eric Cartman wrote: »

ohh lord, this sounds like somebody who thinks an old toyota doesn't even need an oil change.

all cars cost money to service, in most cases they should be serviced at least once every 12 months regardless of make / model.

any car in warranty would be paying expensive main dealer prices.

any car out of warranty there are good specialists for premium brands.

bigger engines in luxury cars take more oil, diesels cost more to keep.

if you had a 5 year old toyota avensis 2 litre and a 5 year old bmw 3 series 2 litre diesel and brought them both to good indy's or specialists for a full service, if there was even 25 quid in the difference id be surprised.

Eric Cartman

masterboy123 wrote: »

I see, so service cost isn't much different among premium cars and mid budget cars.

basically yeah, at a main dealer perhaps , but in some cases not really. some components like electrical parts or some specific engine bits can be more expensive but in general all the standard tyres / brakes / exhaust / battery / belts / oil / filters / wipers / wishbones / bushings / shocks etc.. are of a similar price.

Gumbo

masterboy123 wrote: »

I had a discussion with my friend and need input from you all please.

my friend owned a benz C class (2011) and told me the maintenance cost of it was around 1000 euros per year in addition to annual service. Therfore he switched to Hyundai i40 (2013) last year and so far zero spent on it. He argued that premium cars like Benz, BMW, Audi are not just expensive to buy but their servicing/maintenance is real high too even if it's few years old model. On other hand cars like Honda, Hyundai & Toyota etc are almost maintenance free or cheap repair is available.
But I believe if you buy a brand new premium car then it should be hassle free for at least 5 years.

What do you guys think on this matter?

Your friend was telling porkies.

masterboy123

Porkies, lol. I will tel him that

kceire wrote: »

Your friend was telling porkies.

Stheno

masterboy123 wrote: »

Porkies, lol. I will tel him that

He was, from experience of owning everything from Alfas, fiats, Vw, Citroen, and Mercs, the cost to service the cars depended very much on the brand.

Citroen and Alfa were most expensive iirc Fiat and Merc the least, with Vw in the middle.

Eric Cartman

masterboy123 wrote: »

Porkies, lol. I will tel him that

it sounds to me like he either believed everything the salesman told him :pac: or he's trying to lie to himself about moving from a merc to a hyundai and being ok with it.

Gumbo

Stheno wrote: »

He was, from experience of owning everything from Alfas, fiats, Vw, Citroen, and Mercs, the cost to service the cars depended very much on the brand.

Citroen and Alfa were most expensive iirc Fiat and Merc the least, with Vw in the middle.

Bear in mind, his mate said the 1000e was on top of servicing costs
I've had skodas that have cost me more than my current ML!

masterboy123

Well he is trying to get me i40 as well but I have been planning to get a benz. I got scared after hearing that benz maintenance will cost me an arm so I have been looking at other cars today.

Eric Cartman wrote: »

it sounds to me like he either believed everything the salesman told him :pac: or he's trying to lie to himself about moving from a merc to a hyundai and being ok with it.

Stheno

kceire wrote: »

Bear in mind, his mate said the 1000e was on top of servicing costs
I've had skodas that have cost me more than my current ML!

What was the 1000e for? Extra fuel consumption/insurance?

masterboy123

As per our chat he told me dealer charged 400e for a clicking sound coming from dashboard. 200e for diagnostics as service light was on due to brake light lose connection and so on. In short he told me even for minor problem be ready to pay hundreds for benz repair/maintenance.

Stheno wrote: »

What was the 1000e for? Extra fuel consumption/insurance?

Stheno

masterboy123 wrote: »

As per our chat he told me dealer charged 400e for a clicking sound coming from dashboard. 200e for diagnostics as service light was on due to brake light lose connection and so on. In short he told me even for minor problem be ready to pay hundreds for benz repair/maintenance.

Not my experience with my OHs car and our indy mechanic, maybe he was talking about main dealer prices?

There's a clicking sound when my OH starts his car from the dashboard at the moment, we are fairly sure it's a fault with the heating system, so we'll be down to our mechanic this week for it.

Can't see it costing more than a couple of hours labour and a replacement part, and we've a Merc salvage guy we go to for that.

We'd the loose brake light connection too, bought a new light kit and got our mechanic to replace it, cost about €200 in all.

I paid hundreds more to keep my alfas on the road, same with the OHs citroen tbh. The Mercs he has had (two) have been pretty infallible in terms of maintenance.

I've a Honda now, and it's probably the cheapest car in terms of maintenance as it's not had any problems, but I'd have no problem owning a Merc in terms of keeping it on the road cost wise.

Sounds like your mate is talking out his ass.

Gumbo

masterboy123 wrote: »

As per our chat he told me dealer charged 400e for a clicking sound coming from dashboard. 200e for diagnostics as service light was on due to brake light lose connection and so on. In short he told me even for minor problem be ready to pay hundreds for benz repair/maintenance.

Ask Hyundai how much they charge for a diagnostic session.
BMW in Finglas used to be €165.

If was under warranty, it would be free.
As with all,cars out of warranty, go to a specialist, my Merc specialist has the full Merc Star diagnostic machine and can do everything a main dealer can for a lot less.

coolbeans

masterboy123 wrote: »

As per our chat he told me dealer charged 400e for a clicking sound coming from dashboard. 200e for diagnostics as service light was on due to brake light lose connection and so on. In short he told me even for minor problem be ready to pay hundreds for benz repair/maintenance.

The dealer was probably softening him up for the hard ride he was gonna give him. €200 for diagnostics seems like there's a lot of fat built into that quote.

masterboy123

Yes he always visited the main dealer for any problem. Maybe that's why it has been an expensive ride.

The diagnostic for my car costed 30e at the local car repair. But again my car is a budget car ☺

Stheno wrote: »

Not my experience with my OHs car and our indy mechanic, maybe he was talking about main dealer prices?

There's a clicking sound when my OH starts his car from the dashboard at the moment, we are fairly sure it's a fault with the heating system, so we'll be down to our mechanic this week for it.

Can't see it costing more than a couple of hours labour and a replacement part, and we've a Merc salvage guy we go to for that.

We'd the loose brake light connection too, bought a new light kit and got our mechanic to replace it, cost about €200 in all.

I paid hundreds more to keep my alfas on the road, same with the OHs citroen tbh. The Mercs he has had (two) have been pretty infallible in terms of maintenance.

I've a Honda now, and it's probably the cheapest car in terms of maintenance as it's not had any problems, but I'd have no problem owning a Merc in terms of keeping it on the road cost wise.

Sounds like your mate is talking out his ass.

MarkN

He thinks a C-Class is a premium car?!

Del2005

MarkN wrote: »

He thinks a C-Class is a premium car?!

It's got a Mercedes badge!

Special Circumstances

MarkN wrote: »

He thinks a C-Class is a premium car?!

Shur a Passat CC with leather is "prestige" lad. :pac:

jimgoose

masterboy123 wrote: »

As per our chat he told me dealer charged 400e for a clicking sound coming from dashboard. 200e for diagnostics as service light was on due to brake light lose connection and so on. In short he told me even for minor problem be ready to pay hundreds for benz repair/maintenance.

I was quoted for €1,000 worth of parts to sort out an emissions problem on a 1999 1.4 Xsara with 100,000-odd miles on it by a main dealer. The actual issue as it turned out was, to cut a rather long rambling tale short, oily gunk in the throttle-body caused by the filthy PCV setup in those TU3JPs.

The point is, gauging the cost of owning/running a particular car model by main dealer prices like that is somewhat akin to including a few burglaries in your annual tax-return, "just-in-case".

jimgoose

MarkN wrote: »

He thinks a C-Class is a premium car?!

In all fairity to MB there now there now, the C is a much tastier proposition these days than it was.

masterboy123

Thanks everyone for the input.

So in short it looks like maintenance cost of a benz is similar to a budget car. Do you all agree?

Special Circumstances

masterboy123 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the input.

So in short it looks like maintenance cost of a benz is similar to a budget car. Do you all agree?

I think a more accurate summary is
"annual service + 1k per annum" versus "sfa" is not a valid or accurate comparison of maintenance costs of c-class v i40.

jimgoose

masterboy123 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the input.

So in short it looks like maintenance cost of a benz is similar to a budget car. Do you all agree?

To be perfectly honest I don't see how there could be a huge difference in servicing and maintenance costs between so-called budget cars like Hyundais and Kias versus more expensive marques like Mercedes and Jag. They're all seriously into TCO these days.

Nonoperational

Special Circumstances wrote: »

Shur a Passat CC with leather is "prestige" lad. :pac:

MarkN wrote: »

He thinks a C-Class is a premium car?!

Sigh.

MarkN

jimgoose wrote: »

In all fairity to MB there now there now, the C is a much tastier proposition these days than it was.

True that.

masterboy123

What's sfa please?

Special Circumstances wrote: »

I think a more accurate summary is
"annual service + 1k per annum" versus "sfa" is not a valid or accurate comparison of maintenance costs of c-class v i40.

masterboy123

TCO for Mercedes or Jag would be definitely higher. Am I right?

jimgoose wrote: »

To be perfectly honest I don't see how there could be a huge difference in servicing and maintenance costs between so-called budget cars like Hyundais and Kias versus more expensive marques like Mercedes and Jag. They're all seriously into TCO these days.

jimgoose

masterboy123 wrote: »

TCO for Mercedes or Jag would be definitely higher. Am I right?

Hmm. I expect so, but probably not by as much as you'd think. Those Korean warranties are formidable, mind you.

Special Circumstances

masterboy123 wrote: »

What's sfa please?

Sweet FA
Sweet F**k All.
Nothing.
Zero.
Nada.
Alternatively, the alleged cost of running a Hyundai i40 outside of tax, fuel and insurance.