Bought new Mazda last year. My first car. 1st service coming up. Capped at $320.
I'm quite confident that I can change my engine oil and rotate my tyres by myself.
My question is: If I do these myself, can I let the serviceman know so they don't need to do it? And more importantly, would it reduce the cost of the upcoming service?
Cheers
I catch your drift
The warranty requires the work be done by a "suitably trained and qualified person". You don't have to be a mechanic but can you prove you are "suitably trained and qualified"?
If you want to DIY then do it as an iterim service.
Alternatively, spend the time waxing the car and keeping it clean.
Which model is it? CX5?
Doing it yourself will affect your warranty.
$320 seems more like 'knee cap price' servicing..
Mazda 3. Yeah I know seems pretty hefty, that's why I wanted to see if I could do anything to make it only one knee cap :(
If it says "capped" does that mean it could cost less than that value? Or will they just charge me that capped rate regardless (obviously not including the other extras)?
That’s the minimum, then they’ll try up sell you other services haha
just be aware that you dont actually need to replace brakes pads, battery, wipers and all the other extras with them for the warranty.
Or have the injectors cleaned and wheels aligned.
If it's capped price servicing, not much you can do to change the price other than get it serviced by an alternative/non-dealer mechanic. But if you want to maintain the warranty, I suggest not doing any of the work yourself and if you pick a non-dealer mechanic, keeping receipts and getting the books stamped.
For an outside of capped price/warranty service;
Tell them "just the service, thanks and just report anything else." and either do the other stuff yourself or get another place to quote on things like brakes/tyres/etc.
Find out what oil they use and you can supply your own oil instead of paying $50/litre for theirs, same with parts. A genuine filter may be $38 through them, or $15 online.
Don't buy into their "extras" like rotating your fluffy dice, flushing your washer bottle, sharpen your wiper blades or replacing your blinker fluid. These are bullshit items you can usually do yourself at an absolute fraction of the price they will be suggesting. And they will push hard for you to take up their extras and they will sound desperate and urgent about them. This is their cream…
Remember;
"No thanks, just the service today… If you find anything, please just note it."
Sound advice cheers mate
Just use a local mechanic
Half the price of the stealership
Yeah do it yourself lol.
Take it to a mechanic shop and make sure the log book gets stamped. It should be cheaper.
I used to go to the dealership for free services that I negotiated as part of the purchase.
They were terrible and I suspected they didn't carry out half the service items. This was proven to me when I marked the cabin air filter and diesel filters before a service that required their replacement, and the same filters were still there when I picked it up, despite it being on the itemized list of things done.
I let the service manager know that I wouldn't be coming back and got a reputable mechanic to do the services from then on with service parts I provided. Holden head office weren't in the least bit interested in my complaint.
Now it's out of warranty I do the service myself with premium parts and oils - at least I give a stuff about the quality of job done.
My 4WD has never been serviced by the dealer. Never had a problem with warranty.
HJad rea main seal and sump gasket replaced, complete gear shift assembly replaced and a few forced DPF regens.
I always supply oil and all filters to my mechanic. I buy the oil from Supercheap on special at half the price my mechanic pays for it from Valvoline and he bus it in 205 litre drums.
Dealer service is a rip off..
But it has been serviced by a mechanic, not DIY.
Cost of oil, filter and sump plug washer to the dealer would me around $80.
rotate my tyres by myself
Drive your car and the tyres will rotate automatically! Job done.
Every second you spend thinking how to do this is time you could save by just paying for it to be done. Understanding how to maintain a combustion engine car will be a useless skill to have in 20 years time. Spend your free time learning how to code instead and leave the grease monkey work to the grease monkeys.
The code-monkey stuff you will learn will be just as obsolete in 20 5 years whereas the combustion engines will still be around …and pretty similar.
Mechanic gets $100/hour, programmer gets $40/hour…
And it's hard to off-shore mechanics
Not many mechanics on that 100/hr. There's a reason I work in an office rather than on the tools. Mechanics pay is among the worst of the technical trades.
A mechanic who can do or arrange for small business stuff, which is basically officework, could make $100 an hour. Especially if he knows how to train employees. But not every mechanic can be the boss.
@AustriaBargain: Show me that mechanic on $100/hr. That's $208k a year.
You are dreaming pet.
I'm a qualified mechanic and recognised by Enginneers Australia as a Mechanical Engineer due to the extra study I've done. When not in COVID mode I scope jobs, write tech specs, keep the CMMS up to date, answer lots of questions from the tech crew and do a boatload of WHS (which I Cert IV qualification in). I get $74.41/hr and I know I'm well paid.
A mate offered me a job 3 years back at his specialist VW workshop. That was $45/hr plus an old car plus fuel.
The only mechs I know that pull in $100/hr plus are diesel mechs on FIFO with the mines and they are underground
@brad1-8tsi: Mechanics don’t make that, it’s the going rate for a mechanic shop to charge isn’t it though?
@Euphemistic: Shop charge is anywhere from $80-$200 onwards but you are paying for rent, electricity, specialised tools, waste removal, the office person, the owner, taxes, the accountant, dead time (quoting, research, ordering parts), subscriptions to tech databases, etc, etc.
When I came out of my apprenticeship in 1982 I was on $8.25/hr and our shop rate was $30/hr and we charged either book rate or fixed rate for most jobs, so after I'd worked for 6 months and got proficient with the work, in a 44 hour week I'd bill 55-70 hours. We were on monthly/quarterly/yearly bonus and I would make another 30% on top of my base rate in bonus pay. We didn't get O/T though and did a fair few 9-10 hour days.
@brad1-8tsi: There will always be a difference between what mechanics and other businesses are paid and what they charge due to overheads. Some people don’t understand that.
as an ex-"grease monkey" I would guess you have never been one and don't really know how smart and capable most mechanics are.
A good mechanic is probably one of the best technical trouble shooters out there.
I would suggest watching South Main Auto on YT. Eric O is a lot smarter than me
@brad1-8tsi: I am a diagnostic technician. Basically a level above grease monkey/filter spinners. I'm the guy that works out what it is or why it's going wrong and pass that information onto the parts replacement guys. I have a lot more technical training than your average oil changer. But, even with all my technical know how, I'm still not on anything close to $100/h.
And as said above, internal combustion engines are going to be around for a long, long time… Coders will be replaced by A.I. long before ICE power will be replaced.
@pegaxs: One of my best mates that I met at my first job is still on the tools and spends 1 day per week diagnosing all the vehicles that the other stores in the franchise network can't fix. He is a lot smarter than me and better at diagnosis but his money is woeful (admittedly he is in NZ now). His body (shoulders in particular) is a bit stuffed as well from reaching upwards for 40+ years.
Personally, I think I'm a crap mechanic and had good skills in customer communication, following complicated instructions precisely and being observant and meticulous which is why I like going onsite, discussing what outcomes people want and finding what parts / equipment will do that job the best.
Only this morning I was reading yet another marketing blurb by BioEnergy Aus about tapping the methane in landfill at a more sophisticated level. Hopefully that means moving up from those China made chevy 350 clones that run like poo and onto something more efficient - maybe even gas turbines. Almost any good mech can fix a gas turbine or IC ;-)
As well as warranty considerations, some manufacturers offer free annual roadside assistance which is renewed every time you complete your capped price servicing.
I would check to see if that is the case with your vehicle as well.
Do you want to keep your warranty without any hassle?