UK Servicing options

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DanInManchester

New Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2018
Messages
6
Location
UK
Car
A45
I have a secondhand 2015 A45 and coming up to a B service with about 44K on the clock.
I am out of any warranty period and no finance etc on the car.

I know this is likely to be a hot topic with lots of personal views but I'm looking at what the options are for servicing from the £1000 ish dealer service to a Halfords £300 (no sniggering at the back) and the specialists in between. I live in the oxfordshire / warwickshire area.

A grand seems a lot to pay and about £400 of this on transmission oil change. Halfords (quiet at the back) claims to use the same parts and you can opt for a premium oil change includes a flush of the sludge and premium oil, but I have no idea about the parts they use in terms of spark plugs, filters, etc. or whether I'd even trust them (or any other high street garages) to change a bulb let alone anything else on an A45. .
What about the specialists in between?
Do folks just tend to swallow the inflated MB costs for peace of mind or go elsewhere?
 
Welcome to the forum Dan.

Once out of warranty I think you are right in exploring servicing outside of the main dealer.
I would however steer you away from Halfords.:wallbash:

An MB specialist is the way to go IMHO. You have two good ones either side of your location.
Star Motor Service in Caversham and MSL Performance in Birmingham. Both have specialist MB tooling and Star diagnosis to enable all servicing and repairs to be done correctly. Also your digital service book will be updated.
MSL in particular will interest you if you want more performance from your A45. They are highly regarded in the tuning of Mercedes AMG models in particular.

Star Motor Services

Homepage | MSL Performance | Custom ECU remaps | Tuning specialist
 
MSL would be a great choice or there’s Mercedes service plan, yours will be circa £420 per year so you’re welcome to do the maths starting a 3-year plan now, with fixed pricing (B-A-B) services
 
Shop around as some Mercedes main dealers may be keener to do a deal. Independent Mercedes specialists are worth a go too, but make sure that they’re quoting for the same additional items which are age or mileage dependent. MSL in Birmingham and Mercland in Nuneaton are both very well respected specialists.

For the transmission service, you could use a transmission specialist if there’s a good one in your area. Today I had the transmission in one if my cars serviced by a transmission specialist, and it cost almost half the price of Mercedes list price, and they did a little more too (drained torque converter, but you don’t have one).
 
Thanks. All very useful.

I had seen MSL previously when I looked at tuning. 550 BHP very tempting :D
I didn't realise they did regular servicing too.

"your digital service book will be updated."
What does this mean if in the future someone wanted to go back to MB?
I had a chat today with them and they said if anything was missing off the history it would need to be added before going on a plan.
In the future if I wanted to go on a plan I assume they would not accept MSL or similar.
 
they said if anything was missing off the history it would need to be added before going on a plan.

They mean they won't bring it up to par so if anything like changing spark plugs which is usually an extra in a service was opted out by the customer it won't be picked up within the plan until it's due again.

The previous owner of my car skipped changing the spark plugs and it wasn't due again until 40,000 miles or four years which ever comes first. It worked out quite well in my case because everything became due at once on my recent A service so my car ended up with a full filter and sparkplug change at the same time. As mentioned above it's common place to take out a plan so you get two big B services and one small A service (B,A,B).

"your digital service book will be updated."
What does this mean if in the future someone wanted to go back to MB?

It mean they will update the cars online records with Mercedes it seems normal not to have a service book anymore so records are kept online but only Mercedes specialists will be able to do this as far as i am aware.
 
Prospects of Solihull I've just used, excellent service and saved myself £200 of the dealer price. They use genuine Merc bits and to the specified schedules and do all the electronic stuff on line. Comforting to see your service next due point change on the Merc Me app while the car is being done. Collected and returned all to a high standard. With these now paperless electronic service records its become even more so appealing to get the specialists involved rather than the dealers as long as no warranty remains on the car.
 
Get a price to put it on a service plan, £1000 seems an awful lot for an A45 especially considering your location.

I was debating whether to do this for my 2012 E63 - by comparison that is £46 a month (£552 PA) - includes the stuff like spark plugs, ATF changes etc.

I’m not worried about seeing MB specialist stamps in a older cars service history (or the equivalent for a modern DSB) but for a newish AMG I would not be satisfied that Halfords would have provided the same quality of service.
 
Two more questions on the servicing:
* Did someone manage to agree on bringing the parts: oil, coolant to a MB main dealer (or to an independent) service to reduce the price here in the UK? (It is quite accepted in Europe, Germany, Austria etc)
* Is it only me who thinks a B service should include a FULL service? I was very much surprised to hear main MB dealers around me saying diagnostics (computer and other diagnostics - extra 98+) is not included, so as lubrication of moving parts (sunroof - extra 20, doors - they do not think to do it) so as fuel filter (extra 138). Could anyone recommend me a service which does the work end to end? (South West)
Thank you in advance,
 
Last edited:
Yes most dealers and independent garages will be happy to remove the cost of oil if you supply your own. Not sure about coolant but I imagine it would be the same (but will probably have to be original MB coolant?).

As to 'full service", I am not sure what you mean.... diagnostic of faults is not part of a service, unless you mean that as part of the service they should hook up a diagnostic computer anyway? Even so, that would be limited to reading the codes, but not following-up on any fault code found (reading fault codes is not the same as diagnosing a fault).

The pano roof lubrication is classified as an additional item, just like air and fuel filters change or ATF change etc and charged separately.
 
You could get the service carried-out at a fixed rate if you sign up for a Service Plan, in which case you needn't worry about the pano roof or air filter because they will be included.

Or you could get the service done at an independent specialist who will be cheaper.

Good indies typically charge around 60-70% of what MB dealers charge.

You lose the Mobilo cover and the anti-rust warranty, but not everyone cares about those.
 
IIRC the lubrication of pano roof is included in an A or B service anyway, looking at the online site (rather than extra) it’s not an additional item
 
My car is 4 years old and is going to a Mercedes specialist for its next service, they are charging less than half of what I was quoted from the main dealer.
 
Quick update I went with MSL in Birmingham which was significantly cheaper at £600 for full service including transmission.

Points I would note :
  • You don't get the convenience of a pick up from your home so it was pretty much a day out for me (put what value you will on that).
  • Customer service could have been a bit better as I was kept hanging around. I did ask about this and they were down a staff member at the moment so this is probably temporary.
  • MB would also clean it as part of the service which MSL didn't although for an extra £65 they would have, but they were late finishing and I had to shoot off. For whatever reason it seemed to take long than they anticipated.
  • The biggest let down was they didn't fix an issue with tyre pressures which I would expect MB would.
That said they were very friendly, knowledgeable and overall I was happy with the job an will hopefully return for a tune and detailing soon.
 
For that price you might as well do it with MB. Have they done any extra work besides the basics?

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For that price you might as well do it with MB. Have they done any extra work besides the basics?

I had a quote from my MB dealer is as follows:

ATF and filter change (7g+) - £416
B Service (C180) - £403

Prices may be different for the A45 though.

Also, I think the OP's car will need spark plugs change at that mileage, and possibly also air filter. It is not clear if these items were included in the service carried-out by MSL.

Break fluid change is probably only due this year i.e. 2019 assuming it was last done in 2017.

On a Service Care Plan, the cost would have been around £450 per service all-included, but there's a minimum purchase of two services (i.e. the OP might not want to keep the car for another year).
 
I had a quote from my MB dealer is as follows:

ATF and filter change (7g+) - £416
B Service (C180) - £403

Prices may be different for the A45 though.

Also, I think the OP's car will need spark plugs change at that mileage, and possibly also air filter. It is not clear if these items were included in the service carried-out by MSL.

Break fluid change is probably only due this year i.e. 2019 assuming it was last done in 2017.

On a Service Care Plan, the cost would have been around £450 per service all-included, but there's a minimum purchase of two services (i.e. the OP might not want to keep the car for another year).
Does the care plan include spark plugs, brake fluid etc?

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Does the care plan include spark plugs, brake fluid etc?

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Yes. Under Service Care Plan, the price is fixed, and it includes everything that happens to be due on that service.

For this reason, the Service Care Plan is particularity attractive when it covers the 'big' services that have a number of additional items included with them.

Typically, year 3 service will be just an A service with no additional items, so not worth doing it under Service Care Plan - because it will cost around £450 under the plan, but only £250 or so if done at the dealer not through a plan.

But year 4 and year 5 will have between them a A+B Service, break fluid change, ATF change, air filter change, and either spark plug change (petrol) or fuel filter change (Diesel).

So you will be paying a total of 2 x £450 = £900 for two services (year 4 and year 5) that would have otherwise cost around £1,500.

(I say 'typically' and 'around' because the costs and the schedule can change from one car model to another)

But the above applies to dealer service - a reputable specialist will do just as a good a job if not a better one, and prices will be more reasonable than dealer prices.

The trusted specialists who are also forum sponsors include Olly at PCS, Terry at WG, Jay at Mercland, and Acid at MSL.
 
Yes. Under Service Care Plan, the price is fixed, and it includes everything that happens to be due on that service.

For this reason, the Service Care Plan is particularity attractive when it covers the 'big' services that have a number of additional items included with them.

Typically, year 3 service will be just an A service with no additional items, so not worth doing it under Service Care Plan - because it will cost around £450 under the plan, but only £250 or so if done at the dealer not through a plan.

But year 4 and year 5 will have between them a A+B Service, break fluid change, ATF change, air filter change, and either spark plug change (petrol) or fuel filter change (Diesel).

So you will be paying a total of 2 x £450 = £900 for two services (year 4 and year 5) that would have otherwise cost around £1,500.

(I say 'typically' and 'around' because the costs and the schedule can change from one car model to another)

But the above applies to dealer service - a reputable specialist will do just as a good a job if not a better one, and prices will be more reasonable than dealer prices.

The trusted specialists who are also forum sponsors include Olly at PCS, Terry at WG, Jay at Mercland, and Acid at MSL.
I was quoted £87 a month for my car which annually costs more than the one offs. I guess it varies by model

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