How much!!!

[bencolem]

My wife's C220cdi Sport is coming up to its 2nd birthday / 22,000 miles and its 2nd service (B service) shortly.

Mercedes Derby quoted £486 and Mercedes Stafford £531 - I understand the service is just oils, filters and brake fluid.

I'm genuinely shocked at the price - am I just out of touch?

I've got a quote from MB Centre Nottingham (who I use for my old CLK) of £300.

What would you recommend?

I'm planning on the wife keeping the car for a long time so I don't think residual values effects will come into it much and presume that it wouldn't effect the warranty (although I've read posts of MB honouring bodywork corrosion under warranty with a full main dealer history which I'd lose - but the W204 presumably has better rust protection than my C208!).

 

[RST1979]

You say it's a relatively new car -yet when you bought it did you not check service prices????????

Always winds me up when I see folk complaining on prices -"I have xx a car but won't pay xx and xx and xx" boo ho. Where should I go xx.

....you want my advice: do it yourself, find a cheaper garage, or if it's a half decent garage take it back as it's that new. A stamp in the book means nothing to me as I've sen plenty of fakes. Take it to where you tink gives good service!!!!!!!

 

[jobseeker]

I couldn't believe the £750 bill at MB Leeds last year for a B service on a 2006 C180K auto Sports Coupe. Nothing extra was done - just fluids, admittedly including auto transmission etc

 

[asinrutee]

My C Class coupe c220 cdi coming up for its 2nd service I have booked it into MB at Bristol quoted price is £315, their email as follows

The service we will be carrying out is a major service. The price of your service is £315 and this includes parts, labour and VAT. There may be additional items recommended by the manufacturer, these are age and mileage dependant such as air filter, spark plugs and fuel filter. Any applicable items will be discussed with you on the day of your booking with a Service Team Manager however if you wish to have a full quote before the vehicle comes in please let me know I will be happy to provide you with this information.

I thought that was reasonable

 

[Rory]

My C Class coupe c220 cdi coming up for its 2nd service I have booked it into MB at Bristol quoted price is £315, their email as follows

The service we will be carrying out is a major service. The price of your service is £315 and this includes parts, labour and VAT. There may be additional items recommended by the manufacturer, these are age and mileage dependant such as air filter, spark plugs and fuel filter. Any applicable items will be discussed with you on the day of your booking with a Service Team Manager however if you wish to have a full quote before the vehicle comes in please let me know I will be happy to provide you with this information.

I thought that was reasonable

They're the experts and should know exactly what work it needs (if it's 2yrs old and covered "normal" mileage then it needs a B service and a brake fluid change).

Mercedes ought to be prosecuted for calling a B service a "major service" It's an oil and filter change, pollen filter change, and some checks. Remarkably similar to an A service. The days of the B service being a "wheels off" service are long gone.

The prices are just bonkers. £150 for an A service (MB dealers will cheerfully do a value service for £139) and, let's go mad and give them some money to pay for cleaning the windows of the glass palace they occupy, £250 for a B service.


I think it's pretty clear what's going on - they're trying to scare the heck out of people to get them to buy ServiceCare contracts.

 

[geraldrobins]

I paid £350 for a 2 year, 20 000 mile B service and oil change. No courtesy car included. This was at MB Gloucester who are the same Sytner as in Bristol.
Same as they quoted. MB in Worcester quoted much more so it pays to shop around.

 

[geraldrobins]

I know servicing, as its called when it is mainly inspection, seems expensive but when you look at the overall costs of depreciation, fuel, tyres etc, its not a major item in the long run, unless you do low mileage. In my opinion of course.

 

[Rory]

I paid £350 for a 2 year, 20 000 mile B service and oil change. No courtesy car included. This was at MB Gloucester who are the same Sytner as in Bristol.
Same as they quoted. MB in Worcester quoted much more so it pays to shop around.

If you're going to cheerfully pay amounts like that then you might as well buy ServiceCare. You wouldn't have to bother shopping around either.

I know servicing, as its called when it is mainly inspection, seems expensive but when you look at the overall costs of depreciation, fuel, tyres etc, its not a major item in the long run, unless you do low mileage. In my opinion of course.

That's true. Indeed most things seem cheap if you think of them in terms of how many tanks of fuel they are.

I just think MB dealer servicing at "rack rate" prices is extremely poor value. I happily gave my dealer over £400 last time I took the car in, but they did quite a lot of work for that.

 

[geraldrobins]

Service care is ok but depends if you know how long you are going to keep your car.
I have the rates for services from my local dealer and theres not a lot in it.

 

[bluevenetian]

Just had my kona push bike serviced, needed pretty much everything replaced bar the frame after fairly heavy riding and neglect last year. It needed two new wheels and I went for bling chrome ones.....anyway total bill £486

 

[Endex]

Just had my kona push bike serviced, needed pretty much everything replaced bar the frame after fairly heavy riding and neglect last year. It needed two new wheels and I went for bling chrome ones.....anyway total bill £486

Makes M-B servicing sound cheap!

 

[Rory]

I've told this story before but my neighbour had his motor mower serviced and the bill was £50 less than the price of a new mower.

 

[Paddcomp]

I needed to talk to the service department anyway so asked for a print out of my ESS. This is for a car I purchased in Nov, so I asked for a quote on my next service which is B.
Transmission and brake fluid were done at the last service, so only £575.
I think I'll be seeing Total Mercedes in Kirkham for my servicing.

 

[IanA2]

See what a Countax ride-on Honda twin costs to service. Makes MB seem reasonable

 

[bones202]

Any main dealer work will always cost a fortune as the try and say its all background cost.

Had a mate that used to be a mechanic (8-9 years in the job,fully qualified, mot tester, etc) and was geting £7.87 an hour down in leeds. (Main dealer too) yet the dealership were charging £91 per hour labour +vat

Can you honestly tell me that background costs rack up to that much??

 

[markjay]

Any main dealer work will always cost a fortune as the try and say its all background cost.

Had a mate that used to be a mechanic (8-9 years in the job,fully qualified, mot tester, etc) and was geting £7.87 an hour down in leeds. (Main dealer too) yet the dealership were charging £91 per hour labour +vat

Can you honestly tell me that background costs rack up to that much??

Yes I can:

Staff idle time (when business is weak)
Training
Tools
MB STAR and subscription
Work gear (overalls/shoes)
Holidays
NI (Employers contribution)
Occasional sick pay
Staff benefits (pension fund contribution etc - if provided)
Recruitment costs (15% to 40% of annual salary)
Loan cars (if given free)
Telephone bills
Mobile phone bill
Electricity bill
Gas bill
Water bill
IT equipment (hardware, software licenses)
IT maintenance and support agreement
Maintenance contracts for air conditioning and boiler (if installed)
Maintenance agreement for garage equipment (lifts etc)
Various insurance policies
Bookkeeping and accountancy fees
Solicitor's fees (contracts and agreement)
Premises rent cost
Business rates
Loan repayment (if taken to start the business)
Admin staff (receptionists, service advisers, managers)
Cleaning
Refreshments
Commercial waste disposal
Recycling
Marketing and advertising
And... dividends to owners (most businesses are not run as charities)

The difference between £7.87 and £91 has to pay for all of the above, and leave enough profit to the owner to make it worth his while to keep the business open - otherwise he might as well shut it down and send everyone home.

In fact it is very easy to pay £7.87 per hour, charge £91, and still run a loss... you really need good management and dedicated staff to ensure profitability. Or, if your friend thinks it's that easy, he can always leave and start his own car servicing business? Many do, and do well, but it's hard work. It's no rose garden.

 

[John Jones Jr]

Yes I can:

Staff idle time (when business is weak)
Training
Tools
MB STAR and subscription
Work gear (overalls/shoes)
Holidays
NI (Employers contrinution)
Ocassional sick pay
Staff benefits (pension fund contribution etc - if provided)
Loan cars (if given free)
Telephone bills
Mobile phone bill
Electricity bill
Gas bill
Water bill
IT equipement (hardware, software licenses)
IT maintenance and support agreement
Maintenance contracts for air conditioning and boiler (if installed)
Maintenance agreement for garage equipment (lifts etc)
Various insurance policies
Bookkeeping and accountancy fees
Solicitor's fees (contracts and agreement)
Premises rent cost
Business rates
Loan repayment (if taken to start the business)
Admin staff (receptionists, service advisors, managers)
Cleaning
Refreshments
Commercial waste disposal
Recycling
Marketing and advertising
And... dividends to owners (most businesses are not run as charities)

In fact it is very easy to pay £7.87 per hour, charge £91, and still run a loss... you really need good management and dedicated staff to ensure profitability. Or, if your friend thinks it's that easy, he can always leave and start his own car servicing business? Many do, and do well, but it's hard work. It's no rose garden.

You'd think it's only main dealerships that has the above costs when in fact many other businesses have similar costs and don't have some of those costs split/shared between a Sales & Parts dept too. Please stop defending dealerships using the above as it's far from correct why there's a massive difference between hourly rate paid to employees and charged to customers.

 

[Auto-mobile]

I wouldn't say he is sticking up for dealerships, just merely answering a question.

 

[John Jones Jr]

I wouldn't say he is sticking up for dealerships, just merely answering a question.

Well, his answer is misleading.

 

[markjay]

Well, his answer is misleading.

My answer contains facts... the responses so far contained none, other than the instinctive, intuitive and inexplicable notion that my facts are wrong.

Can someone highlight which of the costs above a business does not incur?