Car service price, is this expensive?

sunnyday1234

Hi Guys

Brought my car to a small garage yesterday for a standard service. The bill was 158 and the labour was 80 euro excl vat!!

Previously when i lived in a different town, i had a superb mechanic and the labour was never more than 40 excl vat (20 per hour for 2 hours)

All he did was change oil and filters etc / tighten handbrake and give it the once over. This is very high for labour ,right ?

Hal1

It doesn't strike me as unreasonably high for a service. Did you not get a quote before they done the work?

_Brian

€158 for a service sounds ok if its a good job.. TBH €20 an hour sounds low, where is the allowance for overheads and rates etc...

colm_mcm

was the bill €158 plus Labour?

martinr5232

I wouldnt do a nixer at home for twenty euro an hour that lad musnt value his time very much.

Fourty euro is cheap most independants would be charging fifty an hour and two hours would be standard for a full service once its done right.

Caliden

40 euro an hour sounds like the norm.

CiniO

40 an hours sound all right, but 2 hours to change oil, oil filter and air filter and tighten hand brake seems way excessive to me.
Unless he's done much more than that.

eezipc

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

The Backwards Man

eezipc wrote: »

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

Do they still try this craic on?

CiniO

eezipc wrote: »

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

Depends on a car as well.
I service my car myself, but just service parts (oil + filters) cost me €165.

eezipc

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Do they still try this craic on?

Yes, for the craic I should ring up for a service quote for a different car. Just to see are they pulling the piss.

_Brian

Caliden wrote: »

40 euro an hour sounds like the norm.

Wouldnt it have to be...
Light, heat, rates, building charge, insurance, tools, sundries.. Jesus take all that out of €20/hour and the guy doesn't value his time at all..

sunnyday1234

ok fair enough guys - thanks . sounds like its the norm so. He didnt do any more than the usual oil / filter etc cos he filled up the service book etc. He washed the car, probably charged me an hour for that :-)

sunnyday1234

colm_mcm wrote: »

was the bill €158 plus Labour?

no . 158 in total

colm_mcm

That's not bad to be fair. Depends on the quality of oil used.

colm_mcm

CiniO wrote: »

Depends on a car as well.
I service my car myself, but just service parts (oil + filters) cost me €165.

That's air filter, oil filter, fuel filter and 0w30 or something fancy?

Truckermal

eezipc wrote: »

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

Mine is the same plus without a stamped service history they will devalue your car when it's trade in time, I could service it at home for 60 quid plus I must do a 70 mile round trip to the dealer as well.

McGrath5

eezipc wrote: »

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

You spend thousands on a new car, yet feel bitter over shelling out a few quid for a service - typical Irish motorist attitude.

colm_mcm

You wouldn't get that anywhere else in the world.

CiniO

colm_mcm wrote: »

That's air filter, oil filter, fuel filter and 0w30 or something fancy?

Yeap.
Oil filter, fuel filter, air filter and pollen filter (all original honda) and 0w30 castrol edge 6 litres.

bazz26

Without knowing what car make/model and engine along with the brand of oil and parts used then the figures being mentioned are not really of much help.

For example, €158 for an independent garage using high grade oil + OEM filters and charging €40 labour per hour for an average car is far from a rip off. Whereas if a guy working out of his shed at the back of his house is putting generic grade oil + non OEM filters and then €158 might have some ground to complain.

From the information given OP I think you were spoiled getting only charged €20 in labour per hour previously, sounds like it was done as a nickser or the guy doesn't eat much.

mullingar

Nixer rates are €20-€30/hr, no vat, no receipt Independents are €60-80 Inc vat and it covers all overheads, main dealers are just robbery imo

bmwguy

Ah come on lads 158 quid to service your car, probably annually and you are begrudging paying that?

Thats a great price to keep your car fit and well most cars are just annually serviced.

The Backwards Man

eezipc wrote: »

Yes, for the craic I should ring up for a service quote for a different car. Just to see are they pulling the piss.

A dealer can't void a manufacturer warranty because it was serviced elsewhere. EU law.

bucketybuck

eezipc wrote: »

I bought a new car last year in Galway. As part of the warranty, i have to service the car at the dealer every 20,000km. It costs €190. Total rip-off but I feel like I don't have a choice. Otherwise my warranty is void.

You do have a choice, as long as the work is properly carried out by a registered/certified garage your warranty cannot be voided.

To claim warranty repairs you need to display that your car has been maintained properly. For obvious reasons you can't just claim you did it yourself, and you can't claim that some guy did it in his back yard somewhere because there is no way to prove that he knew a damn thing about cars. But producing service invoices from a certified and reputable independent mechanic? As long as the garage has used the correct parts and oils then thats a perfectly acceptable demonstration you maintained your car properly.

If the dealer told you unequivocally that not using them for services would void your warranty then they are liars. If you had a full service history from a good, registered independent garage and they denied a warranty claim based on service history, then take them to court and watch them squirm.

Phil.x

Honda clonskeagh charge €100+vat per hour labour.

corks finest

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

Hi Guys

Brought my car to a small garage yesterday for a standard service. The bill was 158 and the labour was 80 euro excl vat!!

Previously when i lived in a different town, i had a superb mechanic and the labour was never more than 40 excl vat (20 per hour for 2 hours)

All he did was change oil and filters etc / tighten handbrake and give it the once over. This is very high for labour ,right ?

Why didn't you do it yourself?, I mean I can,and I'm no great car guy

sheff the ref

You must be drinking a lot of oil. I regularly serviced an old Peugeot 406 estate up to 5 years ago and id say the oil and filters came to €30-40

CiniO wrote: »

Depends on a car as well.
I service my car myself, but just service parts (oil + filters) cost me €165.

sheff the ref

The Backwards Man wrote: »

A dealer can't void a manufacturer warranty because it was serviced elsewhere. EU law.

No but a car serviced at a dealer will hold more sway at trade in time

corks finest

sheff the ref wrote: »

No but a car serviced at a dealer will hold more sway at trade in time

Can do,mostly if your selling private though

CiniO

sheff the ref wrote: »

You must be drinking a lot of oil. I regularly serviced an old Peugeot 406 estate up to 5 years ago and id say the oil and filters came to €30-40

That was exactly my point.
I used yo service old Fiat bravo. I was able to source castrol GTX 10w40 5litres for 20quid. That oil was good enough and 5 litres made it for 2 services as car only needed 2.5 litres.

Adding oil and air filter for tenner I was able to service that car for 20quid.

While other car which requires 6 litres of best oil and more expensive filters coats 8 times that amount to service.

So asking if x amount is too much for service without actually saying what standard of service parts are used and what car is that is completely pointless

*Kol*

Audi do fixed price servicing. I paid €390 yesterday for an A4 TDi service.

Car99

*Kol* wrote: »

Audi do fixed price servicing. I paid €390 yesterday for an A4 TDi service.

€390 for Major service: Air filter clean or replace , fuel filter replace and a test drive is all they do different to an interim service which is €189 for a car under 2 litre.
€200 for air filter and diesel filter replacement seems expensive.

https://www.audi.co.uk/owners-area/servicing-maintenance-mot/fixed-price-services/major-service-interim-service-table.html

*Kol*

Car99 wrote: »

Expensive oil change .

Unfortunately it is.

*Kol*

Car99 wrote: »

€390 for Major service: Air filter clean or replace , fuel filter replace and a test drive is all they do different to an interim service which is €189 for a car under 2 litre.
€200 for air filter and diesel filter replacement seems expensive.

https://www.audi.co.uk/owners-area/servicing-maintenance-mot/fixed-price-services/major-service-interim-service-table.html

If you do a major service the interim service does not apply. Interim is every year, majors are done every 2 years.

check_six

sheff the ref wrote: »

You must be drinking a lot of oil. I regularly serviced an old Peugeot 406 estate up to 5 years ago and id say the oil and filters came to €30-40

Is that the cost for replacing all the oil, or just topping it up? Seems very good value if it's the former. The fully synthetic oils that modern cars use is where things get expensive per litre.

grogi

check_six wrote: »

Is that the cost for replacing all the oil, or just topping it up? Seems very good value if it's the former. The fully synthetic oils that modern cars use is where things get expensive per litre.

4l of synthetic (well - not PAO, but HC based) is around €30-€40.

colm_mcm

I usually get 4l Total 5w30 for €26 or so off micksgarage, oil filter is something stupid like €1.60 in halfords with trade card.

Her Yaris is even cheaper with semi synth non branded shyte, last few times I used the Total for convenience sake.

feardeas

Just going to jump in here and ask similar question. Third time to get my car serviced in the garage today. Previous were minor and were €120. Then today the brake pads had to be replaced front and rear. That came to €108 incl. vat. The rest came to €222. This was
Labour €90
the rest was oil filter [€12], sump washer [1.20], air filter[€16], fuel filter[€31] and oil [€50 alone]. Those figures with the exception are ex VAT.

This was in a non dealer garage in a midlands town. Would it be a normal or on the expensive side. The car is a 131 1.6 diesel opel astra.

As might be guessed i haven't the first clue about cars. Cheers

colm_mcm

That's not bad to be fair, a few extra bits on there.

Nonoperational

mullingar wrote: »

Nixer rates are €20-€30/hr, no vat, no receipt Independents are €60-80 Inc vat and it covers all overheads, main dealers are just robbery imo

You say that, but many main dealers do oil and filter services for less than the OP paid.

Main dealer fixed price servicing has it's uses.

sheff the ref

I must have records somewhere of the exact cost but I was replacing Oil Filter, Air Filter and changing the Oil. Car used to take a gallon of Oil. Car would have been 2001 model which I scrapped in 2011.

Got a new car in 2011 and again in 2016 so leave the servicing to the experts when the cars are relatively new

check_six wrote: »

Is that the cost for replacing all the oil, or just topping it up? Seems very good value if it's the former. The fully synthetic oils that modern cars use is where things get expensive per litre.

Esel

Lidl have a very good 5W-40 fully synthetic oil at the moment for €5 per litre.

API SN, meets the specs of lots of manufacturers (listed on the bottle).

Phil.x

I just got my 1.8 petrol civic serviced on Friday.
€140 for oil + filter + checks and service book stamped.

9935452

sheff the ref wrote: »

You must be drinking a lot of oil. I regularly serviced an old Peugeot 406 estate up to 5 years ago and id say the oil and filters came to €30-40

To be fair older cars take a lower grade oil than newer cars so cheaper.
For the golf when i had it 50/55 euros bought 4 gallons of 10w40 which did 4/5 services so 10/12 euro in oil (3.5l in car) fiver for the genuine filter. 15 for an air filter. 25 for a fuel filter
.
For the A4, 5 litres of oil is 30. oil fillter is 10, air filter is 20 fuel filter is 30, cabin filter is 30 ish .
For the op , how many filters were changed, what oil was used?

I can change the oil in the car in 15/20 minutes but not do any other checks on the car.
Start taking wheels off to check brake discs/pads, get under the carand check brake lines / bushings etc will start eating up time.
The mechanic might have said since he hadnt seen the cae before he would give it a good check over