ownership POLL!

[mattc]

Privately owned - bought unseen from eBay. Tempting fate I know but she runs beautifully.

Maintained by a forum favourite, Mr Ian B Walker, whom I happily drive 2 hours to to get the work done (not that she has needed much in fairness).

this car is a keeper and if it needs soemthing it will get it. Ongoing preventative maintenance programme to keep her tip top is still less than a years depreciation on a newer car.

 

[C43AMG]

Both privately owned.
But I pay Road Tax, Insurance, servicing, repairs and even the fuel through my company.

Alex.

Me to, both the C43 and the SClass. Both serviced by MB.

 

[Benzowner]

I opted for the second option, but I own the company as well so have the best of both worlds, nice little tax avoidance scheme as my accountants put it.

 

[maddog]

Opted for A, but do get a car allowance - I just don't associate it with my car. Should I have answered B?

Same here our car allowance buys and runs both mine and my wifes car the fact we get one is neither here nor there, we pay cash for our cars.

 

[daveuj]

Private C Class Sport Coup'e c180k Dec 2002 service in 2000 miles MB? I pay the bills

 

[MikeL]

Honda Servicing

Not trying to hijack the thread, just add some different perspective.

Angie's Civic (2006 1.8 petrol) we purchased Five full services, incl parts/labour (not just five years worth) for £500.00 - Does not include items that naturally wear such as break pads.

A diesel would have been £850.00

Mike

 

[carnut]

Bought new with own money. I have had it serviced by main dealer for 2 reasons:
1.Full MB service history for resale value
2.Ability for Main dealer to diagnose and upgrade as neccessary eg recent recalls
( could be questionable but of concern...would be interested in any substatiated comments on this)

 

[R2D2]

Bought new with own money. I have had it serviced by main dealer for 2 reasons:
1.Full MB service history for resale value

This might be relevent if you trade the car back to Mercedes within three years but when I sold my last C Class they just looked up "good condition" book figure and then sent it to auction without even looking at it. My MB history was worth nothing.

 

[jaymanek]

This might be relevent if you trade the car back to Mercedes within three years but when I sold my last C Class they just looked up "good condition" book figure and then sent it to auction without even looking at it. My MB history was worth nothing.

most dealers, even MB will look for MB/specialist history, if it doesnt have it, they will halve the "good" value normally!

 

[LeighW]

I own mine outright, and it's depreciating nicely thanks.

It had full MB history when I bought it (Oct 05), and I still use a main agent for servicing. I do know the service manager though, which softens the blow come service time.

I'm just waiting for the decision on my rust repair claim, so we'll soon see if it's been worth keeping the MB history up to date.

 

[PXW]

privately owned (and paid for - my better half objects to borrowing in any form if it can be avoided). Main dealer service history when I bought it (at just under 2 years old) and will be keeping it that way for a while yet. Probably looking to get another 5 years out of this car, by which time it will have about 110k on the clock and I might have built up enough posts to advertise it here

 

[BlackC55]

Bought new with own money. I have had it serviced by main dealer for 2 reasons:
1.Full MB service history for resale value
2.Ability for Main dealer to diagnose and upgrade as neccessary eg recent recalls
( could be questionable but of concern...would be interested in any substatiated comments on this)

If you need to find out re-calls just ask your indie to phone a dealer and find out. Have them done while at the indie ( I drive them to my nearest dealer to get them done)

Oh and I don't own a MB........anymore

 

[Ade B]

If you need to find out re-calls just ask your indie to phone a dealer and find out. Have them done while at the indie ( I drive them to my nearest dealer to get them done)

Oh and I don't own a MB........anymore

OT - So the CE has popped its clogs (or whatever suitable german footware would be appropriate)...


Ade

 

[del320]

...so now we know - 85% of Mercedes Benz motors on the roads are entirely privately owned and funded... mmm, yeah.

 

[PJH]

...so now we know - 85% of Mercedes Benz motors on the roads are entirely privately owned and funded... mmm, yeah.

Probably because most of them are quite old cars.

 

[hawk20]

my reason for this is to see how may owners actually spend their own hard earned on servicing at the dealerships.i'm agreeing with mark t that merc servicing is a con and most members who use the service dept have cars that are business/company owned or leased.
i'd like to see a poll though..

how do we do this

cheers all

Two cars privately owned. I really think the service issue needs to be put in perspective. Servicing is cheap and, at least on fairly new cars, there is a strong case for keeping full MBSH.


Here’s a view contrary to that which most express on forums. Might be worth considering.

Even on my S class (recently sold) the A service was only £235 inc vat and of that only about £100 inc vat is for labour costs. That is with over £100 worth of top quality low ash fully synthetic oil included, which meant that I got 15,000 miles plus between services.

In the 80’s I remember paying over £200 for a service, and then you needed one every 6,000 miles. Servicing IMO is now cheap when you allow for the large mileages between services.

The B service on my S class cost me £444 inc vat of which about £200 was labour.

First note that the cost of services is only £679 for 30,000 miles which is just over two-pence per mile (2.26 pence). This is the small change of motoring. The average motorist doing 12,000 miles per year can cover servicing for £340 per year. Put £7 a week into a jar and it is all paid for. Fuel is likely to be £1200 to £2000 depending on engine size and type and dwarfs servicing.

Depreciation will be several THOUSANDS per year for any new or nearly new car, unless kept a very long time. Servicing really is the small beer of motoring.

Go to an indie and you can halve the labour charge. Big deal. That is £60 per year saved, on average mileage. You save £50 on the A and £100 on the B service over 30,000 miles. A whole halfpenny per mile saved! Yes, that is all.

You can save on the oil at some indies. Yes but you can take your own oil to any Merc dealer and save too.

Other jobs like brakes, exhausts, plugs (if you have them), fluid changes and the like can all be done at an indie and you still keep Full MBSH.

Why bother? Here are four good reasons.

• MobiloLife includes a 30 year rust guarantee, which at least on older cars is worth having as numerous threads show Mercedes doing what it says on the tin for those with FullMBSH.
• Free breakdown cover in UK and Europe. For me and my wife the AA want £150 per year for full breakdown cover and up to £100 for cover on trips to Europe. That on its own swamps the £60 I could save by servicing at an ‘indie’.
• Goodwill: if something serious goes wrong outside the guarantee period Mercedes frequently/often/usually make a substantial contribution to the cost provided that the vehicle has Full MBSH. Numerous threads on UK forums and US forums testify to this. IMO it is useful insurance. Some major jobs can cost £2,000 or £3,000 - a gearbox failure even more. And having Full MBSH and ‘goodwill’ behind you can be very valuable. Not in all cases. But certainly in many.
• Last but definitely not least have a look at this thread listing recalls and service campaigns on the new S class. And remember that the new S is probably the most reliable Mercedes ever straight from the oven. These are often modifications, software updates and other improvements which dealers are told to do to your car FREE when you go in for a service.

http://forum.mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163014

If you don’t go in, you don’t get them. And according to What Car there are thousands of cars that do not even have the serious recalls done (people move, lose touch or just don’t bother).

5. I would never buy without Full MBSH and there are many others who feel the same. Lots of threads contain the advice ‘look for Full MBSH’. It makes a difference to some, and as such it can help your resale price. Not a huge amount extra maybe, but a bit of a bonus.

 

[mark.t]

greenflag £68.00 onward travel ...europe cover ...home start ....hotel cover ... great service been a member 2 years 23 mins to geat to a blow out on my caravan last year .....:bannana:

moblio life expensive ......

servicing £90.00

no rust :bannana:

why will a fmbsh make any differance to a car ...

 

[mercmanuk]

if the figures are true i'm very surprised,i tend to think all the company car owners are not voting,prefering to let people think the cars are personaly owned!.just my opinion.
but very surprised at results

 

[glojo]

if the figures are true i'm very surprised,i tend to think all the company car owners are not voting,prefering to let people think the cars are personaly owned!.just my opinion.
but very surprised at results

I think polls are always interesting but what if we take away cars over two years of age, the results might be the same, but we are polling folks that spend a lot of time on this forum and this might not be reflective of what is really happening out there?

FullEuropean Green Flag cover including the breakdown at home service plus hotel accomodation, plus of course like for like replacement car cover for £68 per year for both myself and my wife sounds an excellent bargain, I'll check it out.

Regards
John

 

[glojo]

I just entered my details for the full European plus cover at the Green Flag site along with the car and got this figure

Your annual breakdown premium £112.35

Someone somewhere is not being accurate with their comments