Dealer or independant servicing?????

[MJW]

Hi Guys,

I'm having a dilemma and hope the Jaguar community can help me out.....

My XF-S is up for a major service next month and my local Jaguar dealership have increased their service prices.  They can no longer offer the Fixed Price Servicing for 3+ year cars and the new price is £443, up from £329. 

I have managed to beat them down a bit on price but this increase caused me to look elsewhere and I have found some surprising savings if I go away from dealer servicing.

Halfords and Kwik-Fit for example offer "manufacturer service schedule" servicing for around £250-£280 but there is a nationwide firm called Servicing Stop who quoted me £107 for a full car service on my car reg/post code!!!!!  Servicing Stop offer the work out to their nationwide list of "approved" garages and a local garage then come and collect your car free of charge, carry out the work following the manufacturers schedule using OE parts (although not Jaguar parts), you then pay Servicing Stop and the local garage return the car.

Should I continue to stump up Jaguar prices or go elsewhere?  My concern about elsewhere is the quality of mechanic and mechanic staff driving my car.

Your thoughts very much appreciated!!

 

 

[Carole Simpson-Hadley]

Hello Mark

My partner and I delved quite deeply into this topic, assisted by  a thread here on the JOC Forum entitled "Recommended Independent Garages".

We have a '07 S and a '07 XK; Fixed price servicing was available at Jaguar main Dealer but, frankly, we found some issues difficult to pin down and found it annoying having to get past the "pretty people" in front of house.   Consequently, we delved into Independent Jaguar Garages and were pleasantly surprised, at least with our choices here in the Midlands.

Our view is that if you locate a Jaguar Specialist, you are going to have folk working on your Jaguar who are familiar with the model/s and, consequently, not be spending large amounts of time head scratching and making do.  We have found that our "Indies" are cheaper (sometimes considerably so) than main dealer, and can give a thorough rundown on what needs doing, what has been done etc.  In other words, they are specialists.

We would not entertain taking either of our Jaguars to a "generic" outfit, such as you have mentioned (manufacturer service schedule) and most certainly wouldn't sit comfortably with the other option which you mention.  £107 for a full service wouldn't, in our view, be far off the cost of the parts let alone the labour.   And what is the source of the parts, whose been flying around the countryside in your car etc etc.     We are quite sure that such generic places have their place, but for a 6 year old Jag.....maybe not!     (Just as an example, one generic outfit that we know off told an ex-colleague that the timing belt change on his diesel S-type was an engine out job, purely because that is the procedure with the LR Discovery that uses the same engine; in fact, although the timing belt change isn't a job for the faint-hearted, it ISN'T an engine out job!).

All this, of course, is just our opinion but we do bring to mind the old adage  "don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar'.

Whatever, happy growling and we hope you reach a conclusion with which you sit comfortably

[JOE-DOT-COM]

Hi

According to the Jaguar site they still do fixed price servicing and its still £329 https://www.jaguar.co.uk/owners/servicing-maintenance/fixed-price-servicing.html

So I would phone another dealer to see what they say

I always do my own work, as I don't trust dealer's and  Independent garages, unless you know one well and I like using genuine parts, as there usually better quality

best way  is see if you can find any recommended garages by friends or on forums

cheers

Joe

[MJW]

Thank you very much (Carole Simpson-Hadley) for your in depth response to my post!  I’m so glad I put my question out there to the community, as I hadn’t even thought of Jaguar Specialists!!!!  This is definitely the way I want to go, as I cannot stand the thought of some random guy popping the bonnet on my car and trying to work out where to begin!

 

I’ve had a quick Google search for my area of Cambridgeshire and have found one that looks promising; Nene Jag Specialists.

 

Thanks again!

 

Mark

[MJW]

Thanks Ron (R2e), I’m definitely looking to go down the independent specialist route thanks to the advice coming through this forum!!   I appreciate a service doesn’t necessarily need specialist knowledge but I would feel reassured knowing a Jaguar trained mechanic was working on my car. 

[MJW]

Thanks Joe (DOT-COM), You’re right, Marshalls Jaguar Peterborough still have the fixed price servicing on their website, but I’m told this is no longer funded by Jaguar, hence the dealerships can no longer offer it!!  I managed to beat them down from £443 to £350 which is quite a beating, but I will see what the Jaguar Specialist come back with before I see whether to take them up on the offer.

[Carole Simpson-Hadley]

You're welcome, Mark.    My partner knows somebody who has used Nene and he was entirely happy with them.    For ourselves, we use Elite & Performance Jaguar in Derby (40 odd miles away but well worth the trip).     Joe is correct reference parts sourcing; both the "indies" that we have used (the aforementioned Elite, and Northfield Jaguar in B'ham) use OE parts, and you can always state your preference.

As always, happy growling

[Lazlo Woodbine]

2 hours ago, JOE-DOT-COM said:

I always do my own work, as I don't trust dealer's and  Independent garages, unless you know one well and I like using genuine parts, as there usually better quality

+1   If you want a job doing properly etc..  I do all my own maintenance, partly for financial reasons, mostly because I have seen some shocking work by dealerships, independents and specialists. The front brakes on my S-type had last been worked on by a Jaguar dealer and one of the caliper carrier bolts had been cross threaded but wound in home anyway. When I came to replace a damper bush half a turn anti-clockwise with a ratchet on this bolt and it fell out.

If you really want to find the right person to leave your car with then you will have to meet them and suss them out face to face to be completely at ease. A yeah,yeah man will be easy to spot and I would rather trust someone who said that no, they hadn't worked on your exact model before but this is why they are perfectly capable than someone who knows exactly how to bodge them. 

I worked with appliances and a lady customer once asked if I was Bosch trained, I actually laughed which was probably inappropriate. But I then showed her how I had repaired the main logic board for her dishwasher which Bosch would have simply replaced at a cost that would have written the machine off. It still worked perfectly three years later when she traded it in with us for a bigger one.

[Old Peter]

Hi Mark, 

When my Rover 825 Sterling 1999 model] was up for its first full service at a Rover Main dealer in 2001 I noted the price being £325 + VAT, I decided to have a look around, and didn't have to look far, as when I was at Tesco a flyer was put on my car by a mobile mechanic just starting out in business, who had been trained by that same Rover Dealer.  I rang him up and he did the full service for £70. I have now used him for 16 years.  He has all the top diagnostic equipment, and did the cam belt change on my Rover for half the quoted price of a main dealer.  His is knowledgeable across a wide range of cars - he changed the engine on my daughter in law's Megane overnight and has serviced and repaired my wife's car, my son's cars, and my cars to my satisfaction.

He collects my car, takes it to his premises, organises the MOT when required  and returns it the same day.  My wallet has been  much healthier for many years!

Regards,

Peter. 

[Lazlo Woodbine]

I had a 1994 Rover 820 Vitesse with the 2.0 T16 turbo and Recaro interior. I loved that car..

[MJW]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. 

I am just waiting to hear back from Nene Jag in Peterborough, but all being well I will be taking it there to be serviced.  They look very good online!

Definitely going to stay with Jaguar dealer or hopefully Jaguar specialist if I can find one suitable and am just glad I never went through with the cheaper alternatives!!!

Thanks again

[MJW]

As if by magic, I have just received an email from Nene Jag!!

They have sent me a quote for the major (type B) service £375, which annoyingly is £25 more expensive than I managed to get the main dealer down to!!  I beat the main dealer down from £443 to £350!  Pretty good going if I do say so myself!! :)

My dilemma now therefore is....Jaguar Specialist at £375 or Jaguar main dealer at £350.  Either way the car will get the quality service it deserves. 

Other benefits of main dealer are free collect & deliver (30 miles each way) and of course they wash & vac the car (a little benefit, not a deal swinger).  Also Marshalls last year replaced 3 of my tyres free of charge as they were flagged as part of a faulty batch on their system.  Nowhere outside of the dealership would have done that I'm sure

Which would you choose and why??

[Old Peter]

If the quality if the same choose what you consider is the best deal.  The main dealer has the edge.

Peter.

[Carole Simpson-Hadley]

Well there's a quandry!   Our personal choice would be to go with the Indie based on the fact that the two indies that we have used give a very concise and thorough whats-what of the car, over and above doing the service, whereas main dealer can be a bit "tick boxy".

The free collection/delivery wouldn't sway us as we like to know whose been behind the wheel, so we deliver and collect.  Likewise the free valet, just in case somebody decides to use a sponge/leather/cloth which isn't quite up to scratch (no pun intended!).

The price difference is negligible.    We agree with Joe/Lazlo etc ref doing your own work, but it is often the case, certainly for us, that our days of crawling around underneath are past.    My partner once removed the 4.2 XK lump from his XJ6 (some 20+ years ago now), stripped it completely and successfully rebuilt, whilst I indulged in a complete rebuild of one of my Gilberns back in the day.

Whatever, happy growling will be the order of the day