Service at dealer vs mechanics

My 2003 Jazz has now 135k on it, never been to a Honda dealer except the very 1st 1k "free" service...... been taking it to my local mechanic who really does nothing with the car except change a few parts and stamps my books....

I buy the parts, he installs the goods and charges like $15 for a simple oil change and say $50 for a couple hours of work such as a major'ish service........

The dealer on the other hand is going to charge say $650+ for a major service? which is almost $300 more than my local mechanic even after I have bought my parts...... oil & petrol filters, oils, air element etc.

Haven't had a major problem, except maybe the CVT tranny which slightly jerked at start but now resolved with the newly released specific CVT oils......


Then again, a Jazz is a Jazz and IMO not as technical or computerised as dad's Mercedez E class. They require special attention and my father takes his car religiously to the Merc workshop ...... then when I see the invoices, i'm shocked that some can be as much as 10% the cost of a new Jazz!!!

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Originally Posted by aaronng

I dislike Ultratune. I don't trust them to do anything involved like a valve timing check or fuel filter change.

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the ultratune boss that is on the commercials doesnt even get his own car serviced with ultratune :wave:

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Originally Posted by marky53

Yes he does the inspections, he gives the car a test drive.... Most people dont need a mechanic to let them know their tyres are low, their brakes are going soon, their clutch is wearing out and that you are low on radiator coolant....

I am very skeptical about dealers and their 'inspections' as they are mainly a young apprentice with a clipboard looking at signs of wear and tear which are 'usually' noticeable, and seeing mine/gf's cars are low on k's we are confident that we wont need to worry for a while.... seeing this guy's car is only at 80k, save a dealer service for the 100k

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i think you are forgetting that car enthusiasts are the MINORITY of car owners. for most people they are a mode of transport, not a way of life or religion lol

i work in a dealer and i see how clueless most people are on a daily basis.
even the people that think they know what they are on about usually have no idea

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Originally Posted by shadou

Actually yes most people do need a mechanic to tell them what's wrong and what is low, you'd be quiet pleasantly surprised that not everyone in this world is so mechanically minded.

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word

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Originally Posted by ACE888

My 2003 Jazz has now 135k on it, never been to a Honda dealer except the very 1st 1k "free" service...... been taking it to my local mechanic who really does nothing with the car except change a few parts and stamps my books....

I buy the parts, he installs the goods and charges like $15 for a simple oil change and say $50 for a couple hours of work such as a major'ish service........

The dealer on the other hand is going to charge say $650+ for a major service? which is almost $300 more than my local mechanic even after I have bought my parts...... oil & petrol filters, oils, air element etc.

Haven't had a major problem, except maybe the CVT tranny which slightly jerked at start but now resolved with the newly released specific CVT oils......


Then again, a Jazz is a Jazz and IMO not as technical or computerised as dad's Mercedez E class. They require special attention and my father takes his car religiously to the Merc workshop ...... then when I see the invoices, i'm shocked that some can be as much as 10% the cost of a new Jazz!!!

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For your $350, does the mech do a valve clearance check as well?

that Honda stamps add a piece of mind when someone will be buying your car. meaning no dodgy service as in general.

Im coming up to 40,000km's soon and would like to give the valve clearance check a go myself. I've done it plenty of times on different cars/motorbikes but never on a vtec engine. Has anyone here done it themselves? Is it the same as other engines? Does anyone have a link or info. on the valve clearance tolerances? Cheers.

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Originally Posted by aaronng

For your $350, does the mech do a valve clearance check as well?

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No he does not do the valve clearance checks.

I have mentioned it to him and says the Jazz engine's are fantastic and should not have any problems.

Why that trust in him? He owns a Jazz himself.

Why that trust in my Jazz? It still drives like new, still as responsive as new even with 135K kms.

Yes you can put the car under a computer analysis and prove that there is a slight decrease in power but that's another story.

heres my 2cents,
Honda servicing your car is not neccesarily a bad thing, because it does add (as som1 said) peice of mind when selling your car. Also , they do specialise on honda, so theoretically you are paying for expertise.
However, I wouldnt take my car to a honda workshop. Reason being, If i have a problem (which i can't fix) , I take it to a SPECIALISED honda mechanic who is very well known as 1 of the best mechanics for Honda's in Syd. Im sure at least half the ppl in syd who are on this forum at least know of Rob at Hannys, and I have seen about 30posts where ppl are complimenting hannys and reccomending them.

I am not saying hannys is the ONLY decent mechanic i am saying he is a trusted mechanic by alot of people on ozhonda, and therefore its a pretty safe bet they will do a good job.

Now, I will never take my car to ultratune, kmart tyre and auto, and big commercial mechanic, or any pitstop mechanic who thinks they can work around a honda. Reason being, if there is a specialised honda mechanic who only works on hondas, compared to your friends cousins mechanic who works on kia's and fords I would choose the honda mechanic.
Also, places like Hannys are not expensive. They are actually cheaper. They use only honda fluids (or honda equivelent) and are generally pretty cheap.

So if your asking for a mechanic ,LISTEN to the people off this forum, obviously they drive hondas and have trusted mechanics, and if they all reccomend a certain place then go there.

and for a post earlier on, YES most ppl have no idea how a car works. Im still at school, and ppl who get their P's and ring me up and say, oh my interior lights arnt working or, oh this and that dont work, they don't even know how to change a bloudly blade fuse on their amplifiers or in their fuse box.
There are alot of stupid people when it comes to cars, simple as that. Alot of people say they have a problem, and don't research the problem or figure out what it is.
I am a person who always has to know why something doesn't work . A simple "oh the ..... doesnt work" isn't good enough unless I know why. thats just me, im sure alot of car enthusiest are the same.
anyhow, just thought i'd give input.

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Originally Posted by ACE888

No he does not do the valve clearance checks.

I have mentioned it to him and says the Jazz engine's are fantastic and should not have any problems.

Why that trust in him? He owns a Jazz himself.

Why that trust in my Jazz? It still drives like new, still as responsive as new even with 135K kms.

Yes you can put the car under a computer analysis and prove that there is a slight decrease in power but that's another story.

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So you can't compare since the dealer is asking $500-600 for a major service, while your mech is charging you $350 for a minor service. I pay $240 at the dealer for a minor service. Add the cost of the airfilter, that makes it about $290-300. So the dealer is cheaper than your mechanic. The only time the dealer service goes above $500 is when a valve clearance is done or they change your brake pads/rotors or the dealer is trying to rip you off (if none of the previous two are done).

I work for a big name european car dealership and even though there are many apprentices every inch of their work is quality checked until they can prove that they are competent in carrying out certain jobs. Then, and only then will they be allowed to do it on their own - still after each service etc their work is checked over before sending the car out to the customer.

Apprentices only get jobs that they are competent in carrying out - otherwise it goes to a qualified tech. Regardless to what some people think, most diagnosis jobs go to the techs first!

General basic servicing and brakes etc go to apprentices. You'd be surprised with what they won't trust them with (by themselves) as an apprentice. I was told from day 1 to report on everything! Even if the customer doesn't want it done - you've noted it down and they've been made aware of it!

Well, at least at my dealership anyway! I'm not sure about others as i've never worked at any other dealership.

We get cars in all the time with service history (books stamped) from other workshops. Sometimes they're fine, but the majority of times things are missed and/or not even reported on. Things that the customer wouldn't necessarily know was wrong or operating incorrectly - usually it's a case of the other workshops not knowing certain system operations etc. But then again that's probably more relevant to my case, being that the european cars are getting more reliant on technical electical systems.

All I know is that no one would know you car better than the manufacturer dealer as they have all of the information resources at their disposal and lots of experience with the car make, that other workshops don't.

They may (and usually do) charge more than smaller shops, but you should rest assured that your car is being taken care of.

Flame suit = ON!

Ive heard some very bad stories of the honda mechanic workshop at warrick farm (near me).
Regarding brake pads and how they fkd it up.
It will prob vary between workshops.

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Originally Posted by ACE888

No he does not do the valve clearance checks.

I have mentioned it to him and says the Jazz engine's are fantastic and should not have any problems.

Why that trust in him? He owns a Jazz himself.

Why that trust in my Jazz? It still drives like new, still as responsive as new even with 135K kms.

Yes you can put the car under a computer analysis and prove that there is a slight decrease in power but that's another story.

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So you're saying that you haven't had your valve clearances checked in 135K kms? Not that I'm doubting that they would be out by much anyway ( my engines as smooth/quiet as new with near 40K kms.)

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Originally Posted by FAT VTI

Ive heard some very bad stories of the honda mechanic workshop at warrick farm (near me).
Regarding brake pads and how they fkd it up.
It will prob vary between workshops.

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Mistakes happen. You shouldn't judge a workshop from just one incident - if this was the case every workshop would have a bad name.