Friday 5 September 2014

Getting the car serviced

With a relatively new car, I'm still taking it to the dealer to be serviced.   But my patience is wearing thin.
For one thing, the dealer is some distance away and in a locality not well served by public transport. which gives rise to the issue of what do I do while the car is being serviced?  There is a railway station but it's a long walk which I would have to do there and back if I came home.    And there's nothing of interest in the area (except a few other car dealerships)!

I'm still at the stage where the services are more-or-less routine, and on the most recent occasion, I was informed that if I brought the car in at a designated time, I could wait for it as it would only take an hour.   I arrived a few minutes early, but even so, the car wasn't handed back to me until 30 minutes after the promised time.

Even if I have the car serviced closer to home, there are issues.     At this stage in the car's life, servicing consists mainly of a change of engine oil and oil filter plus a few visual checks.

I understand that, when I take it to the dealer,  I'm paying for the dealer's "expertise", and that he has significant overheads.   But closer to home,  there's the well-established guy with all the credentials - who is nearly as expensive as the dealer.  Then there's the guy down a side-street, who is cheaper....but based on past experience, I have some misgivings about his work.  Or there's K-mart, where the prices are somewhere in between.  But taking your car to K-mart?

Such are the issues associated with cars!

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