A question for Bill Payer if I may?
I live roughly equidistant between the Mercedes dealers in Chester and the one in Stoke. So far ( 2.5 years and 85,000 miles ) I've used the Stoke people to service my car and in all fairness to them they have been faultless in their service. They collect and deliver the car from and to my home and their prices have always been reasonable by main dealer standards. Even tyres are at least competitive.
Just out of curiousity though, do you use the Chester dealers for maintaining your car and would you recommend them? Also, have you ever investigated using or indeed used an independent MB specialist in the area?
We're just wrestling with the old dilemma of whether to change the car when it's 3 years old, or to keep it a bit longer, given that it seems, so far anyway, to be a good one and in the latter event to decide how and where to keep it maintained.
Have to say, based on events to date, the Stoke people deserve first refusal but it never hurts to check the competition.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Tue 22 Apr 14 at 12:10
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So, my situation is that I live pretty near Chester and I’ve tended, for better or worse, to always stick with franchised dealers for servicing on all our cars. So MB Chester is the default choice for me.
With my MB, I used to have the now defunct Mercedes ServicePlus cover which covered all service and maintenance until the car was 6yrs old. As it happened, my mileage also dropped off considerably as that ended and my car, on variable servicing, will go 2yrs between services. Getting it serviced by MB means the Mobilo breakdown cover continues – as I use the car for long work trips I’d have to buy some sort of fairly comprehensive cover if I didn’t have that which would cancel out the saving of using an indie. The other thing is that although there are 4 MB indies on the Wirral, none of them are noted as stand-out, and I’ve compared prices for servicing at a couple of them and they’re not much cheaper than the dealer. I don’t know of any indies in your direction until you get to Stoke again.
As far as MB Chester itself is concerned, I would say they’re pretty good but the technician who usually works on my car is the son (but mid-30’s, so not a young lad) of old family friends of ours. So I think that’s a good thing. The other useful thing they do, as part of Inchcape, is they do the MOT for £35 and (with some exclusions / limits) guarantee that if it fails the next MOT they will cover much of the repair cost.
What has changed recently is they have a new service manager and he is much less keen to negotiate on pricing than the previous guy was and certainly on my last visit I didn’t get anything like the value I felt I’d had before. MB is getting all its dealers to use the MyService booking system and that generates eye-watering prices including doing things like adding (although it’s a bit hidden) £50 for a courtesy car or collection and delivery. I get the impression that the dealers are under some pressure to stick to the “rack” pricing now in order to make the ServiceCare plan look attractive. I think it's ServiceCare is not a bad deal, but it should be cheaper so that taking it becomes a no-brainer.
If I do still have my car when its next service, a major one, is due, then I’ll certainly be carefully looking around.
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£50 for a courtesy car.? I thought 'courtesy' meant 'free'?
Last time I had a Merc courtesy car it was £10 "for insurance" which is reasonable. Mrs BBs CLK is due a service soon - I'll keep an eye out for this one!
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>>I thought 'courtesy' meant 'free'?
Nah. The "courtesy" is that they are polite enough to hide it in the invoice without making it obvious and upsetting you.
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I usually ask for a collect and deliver. Given that it would involve two nigh on 40 mile round trips in two cars and two people spending more than two hours ( heavy traffic area ) to achieve it, I don't mind if they do charge something. To be fair to them, so far anyway, the servicing prices have been remarkably acceptable.
But no, nothing appears on the bill re the collect and deliver charge if there is one. The arrangement suits me well enough though.
Hopefully, well, ever hopefully of course, I can recover a bit more than that sort of cost in my own productivity in the time it would take to drop it off and to go and fetch it back again.
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Last time I was offered a courtesy car from a main dealer (VW) they wanted me to agree to a £1000 insurance excess. Mrs O'R picked me up instead.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Wed 23 Apr 14 at 18:17
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Our motor mile ( well, strictly speaking it's more like a half mile ) is about 6 miles away. Are you keeping up so far?
Anyway, whenever I've taken a car there I just chuck a bike in the back and ride home and to collect it. However, the MB dealers are both 20 miles away in opposite directions and I'd lose the will to live riding on Tarmac for that sort of distance. Be alright if there was a forest stage !
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Dropped by our local VW dealer where I've never been before, looking at a Golf, but that's another thread sometime.
I noticed they had a rack of courtesy bikes outside. Seemed like a reasonable idea, although I imagine one in ten customers never get back from town, meeting an unpleasant end under a juggernaut. Not sure I fancy it.
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I think I mentioned before that when 'her' Qashqai was in for a service they loaned her a new Micra. Much to our astonishment we both kind of liked it. Even to the point where 'she' was musing about buying one.
It has worn off now though. She's decided she isn't old enough yet.
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£50 for a loan car? I only paid £110 for a whole service!
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They clean your car too mind. Inside and out and the twiddly bits like the inside window glass and the wheels. What's that worth Stu? Tenner or more?
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 23 Apr 14 at 19:29
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>>They clean your car too mind. Inside and out and the twiddly bits like the inside window glass and the wheels. What's that worth Stu? Tenner or more?<<
When I was replaced by contract cleaners years ago they were charging £6 for a service clean to trade, prices havent risen much since then.
Id charge £20 to do that job but that includes going to someones home which is worth a fiver extra so id be charging maybe £15 a car at my prices, although Im not trying to be cheap these days, no point.
Last edited by: ^ on Wed 23 Apr 14 at 19:54
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I've not wax polished a car in donkey's years Stu, but I was half thinking of doing both of ours this Spring.
I've still got half a bottle of Auto Glym polish stuff in the garage ( used to use it on the Westfield ) but it's been open at least 15 years so may well have 'gone off' or something. The Merc came with a load of cans and bottles of gunk including something called 'paint seal cream' Ever heard of that? Any good? All manner of leather treatment stuff too but I have my own views on that !
Anyway, if I was going to polish the cars, what would I be best using. ( non metallic red Nissan and metallic black Merc ) ?
Not seeking any kind of detailers standard, just thought it wouldn't hurt to give them a buff up.
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>>The Merc came with a load of cans and bottles of gunk including something called 'paint seal cream' Ever heard of that? Any good? All manner of leather treatment stuff too but I have my own views on that ! <<
The paint sealers dont do any harm but I wouldnt spend money on them, if it is free, use it. I use Autoglym leather cream on customers cars, mainly because they like the brand name. On my own cars I use a skin moisturiser, a leather trimmer told me years ago that Johnsons products were the best and the actual car valeting stuff was expensive nonsense.
>>Anyway, if I was going to polish the cars, what would I be best using. ( non metallic red Nissan and metallic black Merc ) ?<<
www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/autosmart-mirror-image
I have used this for 16 years, never felt the need to change, goes on easy, comes off easy and it has a little bit of cut which is perfect for most cars I clean which dont see a polish that often. Also good for removing minor bodywork marks too, a great allrounder.
That Ebay price is a goodun too, bout 25% less than Autosmart agents sell it for.
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>> Anyway, if I was going to polish the cars, what would I be best using.
>> ( non metallic red Nissan and metallic black Merc ) ?
>>
>> Not seeking any kind of detailers standard, just thought it wouldn't hurt to give them
>> a buff up.
Polish half the bonnet of each and the difference will be pretty obvious. I use Autoglym Super Resin followed by a coat of their Extra Gloss. I like to see rain beading up on it, and yes I know thats sad !
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Yeah that's the stuff I have in the garage the Auto Glym super resin I mean. Really old bottle though. Not sure it would be any good now.
I have dim and distant memories of putting polish on cars only to end up with a swirly mess. Might have been a few decades ago now though come to think !
I like beading too. Nothing to be ashamed of ! Just that when the car is racking up hundreds of miles a week I get a bit sort of pragmatic about its appearance I guess. Might treat it to a bit of a pamper one fine day though.
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>> £50 for a loan car? I only paid £110 for a whole service!
>>
Had daughter's Mitsubishi Colt serviced at a franchised dealer the other day for £92. I even rang them to ask if they were sure that was right.
And that price included renewing the very comprehensive Mitsubishi Assistance Plan and a courtesy car - a Hyundai i10, which was fun in a stange kind of way.
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>> Last time I was offered a courtesy car from a main dealer (VW) they wanted
>> me to agree to a £1000 insurance excess. Mrs O'R picked me up instead.
£500 excess on the 208 I had today while Mrs B's Berlingo was having its towbar fitted. Dealer set it up as his insurance.
OTOH we're both insured with LV and our policy automatically covers any loan car provided my a motor trader while insured vehicle is in for service, repair etc.
No charge hidden or otherwise as I got a quote for job and then asked for a loan car.
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Just a quick question, how much are these Mercedes dealers? Just for a blog standard service, oil+filter and a couple of other filters?
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I've paid between £170 and £280 for the various services so far, it's had 5 visits up to now ( including the pick up and drop off ) being totally pathetic I know but I've no idea what they did to it while it was there. Come to think, one was a bit more but they changed the brake fluid on that one.
It's still on original pads and discs at 86,000 which maybe says a lot about how much time it spends on motorways.
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Well that seems alot but then I do DIY service mine for as much as I can. First time (and last time) I went to a main dealer I think it was £150, those numbers for a main dealer don't seem too bad especially for MB.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Wed 23 Apr 14 at 20:42
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I don't think it's too bad so far. I can remember paying I think a lot more than that on a 5 series BMW I had 20 years ago.
No doubt a future surprise awaits !
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Is it yours or a company car?
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Edit above - here's a thing, it costs more to have my wife's Qashqai serviced at a Nissan dealer than it costs to have my E Class serviced at an MB dealer.
Edit edit ! - company
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 23 Apr 14 at 20:49
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Well that's no drama if the company picks the bill up.
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>> Just a quick question, how much are these Mercedes dealers? Just for a blog standard
>> service, oil+filter and a couple of other filters?
>>
You say "and a couple of other filters" in a throw away manner, but adding a diesel fuel and air filter to an A service could double the cost!
I would hesitate give price indications now as they seem to vary dramatically according to the car model and age, the dealer, and how persistant the owner is in negotiating. MB really want everyone on ServiceCare which makes the price issue go away and they've just extended it to cover cars up to 10yrs old.
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Well I do admit to servicing my own so a full service is about £30. So a couple of hundred seems quite expensive to me, but if you do go to a main dealer from my limited experience rdf's prices seem reasonable in the land of glass palaces and free machine tea.
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>> Well I do admit to servicing my own so a full service is about £30.
>> So a couple of hundred seems quite expensive to me, but if you do go
>> to a main dealer from my limited experience rdf's prices seem reasonable in the land
>> of glass palaces and free machine tea.
>>
Even from a cheap source the oil would cost maybe £45 (typical C/E Class diesel takes 6.5L). MB dealer would charge £100 or so for it. Doesn't seem so common now, but when I first got my car it seemed to be almost standard practice to supply your own oil for service. I'd never heard of doing that before.
Big thing with keeping it dealer serviced is it keeps the Mobilo 30yr body warranty and pan-European breakdown assistance package intact. So it's not a straight-forward decision to move away from the dealer.
On older cars they'll do a "value" service for around £139 (that's the C Class price) but it doesn't renew the Mobilo cover so seems pointless to me - you might as well get a fast fit place to change the oil and do the basic checks. It irritates me that the basic scope of the value, A service and B service is very similar but the cost ranges from £139 for the Value to maybe £250 for the A and £350 for the B.
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£45 seems a bit steep, loads of companies meet the spec of all sorts of manufacturers. I'm sure it would be much cheaper than that. I got 5l for £12 delivered. Halfords with my trade card is pretty cheap too.
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>> £45 seems a bit steep, loads of companies meet the spec of all sorts of
>> manufacturers. I'm sure it would be much cheaper than that. I got 5l for £12
>> delivered. Halfords with my trade card is pretty cheap too.
>>
You can use anything in almost any viscosity in a Merc, they're not "oil sensitive", but most owners seem to stick with names they're comfortable with like Mobil 1 or Castrol Edge. Apparently Vauxhall dealers do very cheap MB229.5 approved oil for trade customers.
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I think mine was to some merc spec, not sure which one. Ive heard that about vx oil covers all sorts of specs, good stuff, halfords do the same thing. I think it is about £20 for 5l.
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MB Chichester don't explicitly charge for a courtesy car, though of course the cost is built in somewhere. But as Runfer has said, I've found the service costs to be pretty reasonable (so far...) Mind you, the same was true of Audi (Worthing) who I used for 4 years of servicing on our A3 and 5 on the A4. I did briefly consider a non franchised dealer after the A4 hit 4 years old, but a cursory look around didn't fill me with confidence locally and, so far as I could see, the saving wasn't enough to make it worth the risk in my opinion. But of course that'll vary by area I'm sure. In fact I'm so pleased with the cost and service at Worthing Audi that I had our 1994 Cabriolet serviced there last year - £359 (from memory) for a 'full' service including changing oil, filters, plugs etc etc. a gearbox oil change was another £99 or so. I was treated exactly the same as when I'd taken far newer cars in, down to collection, delivery and a 'valet' as well :-). It'll be going in again this year for an oil change service and MOT which seems to come free if you've had the car serviced there. I think that's a Caffyns thing though, not an Audi one as far as I can see because it's not supposed to apply to cars over 10 years old...
Neither Audis or the Merc have needed anything other than routine servicing so I'm quite happy. I certainly prefer it to the Condition Based Servicing that a BMW I owned had; after a couple of years it seemed like it needed attention very few thousand miles. Oil change, then inspection, pollen filter etc etc. they weren't all wrapped up in a time / mileage based service routine but all flagged seperatley as need attention. Very annoying, though I have to say at least the car was cleaned regularly ;-)
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>> £50 for a courtesy car.? I thought 'courtesy' meant 'free'?
>>
>> Last time I had a Merc courtesy car it was £10 "for insurance" which is
>> reasonable.
I've never paid (at least as a separate charge) for a courtesy car in my life. Normally the charge is an excess waiver which I can avoid as my insurance covers courtesy cars automatically.
What MB is doing with MyService is offering choices at different prices - so unless you compare the price for each choice it's not that obvious. www.mymercedesservice.co.uk/home
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I do admit to a slight hidden agenda here. I'm a director of the company and as such have quite a bit of latitude re the car arrangement. I could keep going with the one I have for a while, I could change it ( with the effect that would have on my profit centre ) or I could buy it personally ( or indeed buy another car ) and opt out of the company car in return for a commensurate allowance. To be honest whichever way you carve it it's fairly marginal.
I like the car and it still looks and drives like new so I'm not really bothered what happens to be honest. However, my original question was really by way of exploring the self financing effects and potential consequences.
Knowing me as I do, inertia will inevitably prevail on such matters !
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I did wonder after you said it was a company car if there was something else to it. A company director eh? Very oooh la la :) I hear maserati do some nice cars, I mean you're a company director after all ! Btw what's a profit centre?
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Just a bit of jargon ! Just means that the bit of the company I'm supposed to look after has to make more than it spends and the more it appears to make the better ! Doesn't mean you can't spend money, just means you need to time it right.
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>Just a bit of jargon !
Not doing bad Humph.
Up 26% in the last 6 months.
tinyurl.com/qzudtyd
;-)
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Bog right off Kevin !
;-)
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Ahh right thanks, how old is your merc ? I always thought merc was a bit old man, but the new c class, I saw one today, it actually looks quite sharp. How about a new e class?
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The one I have is a late 2011 E class estate 250 Cdi Sport auto. Very happy with it.
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New e class does look pretty good, I like the look, bit airport taxi run I suppose, but still a nice place to spend no doubt. Better than our fleet cars, kia ceed or an astra.
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Well as I've said many times, when you're peering at tail lights on a wet dark motorway, so long as your seat is comfortable and the heater works it doesn't really matter what you're in as long as it gets you home safe. The rest is just window dressing.
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True, ceed for me, astra seats (same as most vx) were really uncomfortable.
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Interesting you say that. I can ( and have many times ) drive a Ford across Europe and get out without a twinge. A couple of hundred miles in a Vauxhall has me in kinks. Loads of people say Volvos are the best. Not for me though. I must be a funny shape !
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>>Loads of people say Volvos are the best. Not for me though. I must be a funny shape !<<
I can vouch for that, Volvo 460 I had years ago had the most superb seats, heated too, the sort of car you could drive 400 miles without a twinge, missed it ever since.
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Arthur Daily was a company director.
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You casting nasturtiums?
;-)
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>> I do admit to a slight hidden agenda here. I'm a director of the company
>> and as such have quite a bit of latitude re the car arrangement.
So am I but I don't have any latitude over the car arrangement! We decided from the off that we'd pay ourselves an allowance and the max HMRC mileage rate.
The other area where we vary is mileage - you're doing the 30K+/yr that I used to do, but I'm now based at home and just have to make the odd trip down South but even they've been getting fewer over the last few years. Generally I don't use the MB for short trips so it sits unused for weeks sometimes.
I really ought to change my car as its age (10 this year) gets mentioned every time colleagues or business associates see it, but in reality it would probably be more cost effective to hire a car when I need it. Pretty well everyone else I know through work seems to have moved to 3yr PCP / PCH deals, but they can be bit of killer due to mileage if you do want to stick with the 3yr change cycle.
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Yeah that's the thing isn't it Bill? For example, today I had to do a fairly last minute 530 mile round trip to sort something urgent out with a major customer. Not fun, but the comfort of knowing that any problem with the car on such a trip wouldn't directly be mine is a consideration when that sort of thing can and does happen.
Ultimately, I could live with most permutations though.
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>> Not fun, but the comfort of knowing that any problem with the car on
>> such a trip wouldn't directly be mine is a consideration when that sort of thing
>> can and does happen.
>>
It certainly weighs (too) heavily on me - I choose hotels now by looking at the parking on Google Earth!
I looked after my company cars, but the peace-of-mind benefit is significant.
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SWMBO's X3 is booked in for a service next week. Free under warranty. The BMW dealership is 110 miles away from our house. The garage will dispatch a courtesy car and driver to us, who will take the X3 away, and return it the next day. At no additional charge!
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You'll be paying somewhere. You have to be.
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>> The BMW dealership is 110 miles away from our house. The garage will dispatch a courtesy car and driver to us, who will take the X3 away, and return it the next day. At no additional charge!
Don't think I would trust any garage to drive 220 miles (there and back) in my car. Especially some of the oiks they employ that do the delivering and collecting.
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Perhaps it's just because of our location on the south coast, home of the retired, but my experience has been that the collection / delivery drivers for MB, Audi and BMW are, how can I put it politely, from the more experienced end of the spectrum....
:-)
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>>from the more experienced end of the spectrum...
That does seem to be the case here too. Very smart and polite old boy turns up to collect the car. I imagine it's his retirement job.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Thu 24 Apr 14 at 22:13
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Question for Bill - Bill Payer
