Your fleet running reports

[Zonda_]

Scirocco has not moved in nearly 7 weeks, cast comes off on Tuesday just in time as I've landed a new job.

[McSwede]

Rich was being sarcastic based on how I'd phrased the last part of my post.

Rear discs would probably be about £300 fitted by the time you factor in pads, shims, wear sensors (if needed) and labour. Fronts are £600 I think.

Consumables and regular services on 911s are cheap... until something more substantial breaks.

Ta.

[Matty]

Evora is currently with teh Specialist (the amiable Mr Craig Moncrieff).

He fitted a new TPMS (that I sourced) as the original left rear was dropping connection when temperatures dropped.

Whoch TPMS did you fit?

After I replaced one of mine it was never the same. The whole system would briefly shit itself randomly when driving over 70mph before coming back on.

I just disliked it as a whole. It seemed like a massive money sink for very little benefit.

[mik]

I got a metal-stem one of these mofos.

Hopefully it won’t do the same

[Jobbo]

Scirocco has not moved in nearly 7 weeks, vast comes off on Tuesday just in time as I've landed a new job.

Scirocco? Is this the first mention of that? And the cast, for that matter.

[Zonda_]

Scirocco has not moved in nearly 7 weeks, vast comes off on Tuesday just in time as I've landed a new job.

Scirocco? Is this the first mention of that? And the cast, for that matter.

No and no, both been mentioned in this thread. Didn’t get round to taking any pics before the cast went on (thumb joint removed due to arthritis)

This should take you to the advert for the car, I’ve yet to see another one in the same colour.

https://youtu.be/Ogk1W0UlM94

[Jobbo]

I like the interior. Is the silver an unusual finish? Hard to tell under the lighting on that video.

[JonMad]

Very tidy that. Is the interior what gives it the 'Exclusive' badge on the door? Nice walk around video.

Thumb - ouch!

[Zonda_]

I like the interior. Is the silver an unusual finish? Hard to tell under the lighting on that video.

When you see it in the metal it’s not silver, much more a mother of pearl effect. If you look on YouTube you can see his advert for the same car from 8 years ago when he sold it to his mate. It’s nice when dealers stories check out.

John, I looked but couldn’t find any reference to an Exclusive spec but they are definitely VW badges.

The white leather really lifts the cabin too!

[Mito Man]

At what price point do you stop giving a crap about maintaining service history on a car? Ie having the book stamped by an actual mechanic rather than doing the oil changes yourself...
Mito is worth £3000 after a quick look online, 6 series maybe £4000 - don’t think there’s any point continuing really.

[Carlos]

At what price point do you stop giving a crap about maintaining service history on a car? Ie having the book stamped by an actual mechanic rather than doing the oil changes yourself...
Mito is worth £3000 after a quick look online, 6 series maybe £4000 - don’t think there’s any point continuing really.

I used to keep the receipts and a log of maintenance on my old motors if i had carried out work and it was never an issue when moving the car on.

[JonMad]

At what price point do you stop giving a crap about maintaining service history on a car? Ie having the book stamped by an actual mechanic rather than doing the oil changes yourself...
Mito is worth £3000 after a quick look online, 6 series maybe £4000 - don’t think there’s any point continuing really.

There'll be lots of different answers to this, maybe depending on if you are comfortable doing the work yourself. If there are receipts for oil and stuff then I'm fine with someone having done it themselves. Saying that, I've just spent twice that on a car that's had all its servicing at the garage I bought it from (where the previous owner bought it from and her previous 3 cars come to that, and her next one), so now I'm thinking 'at what point do you get it serviced locally rather than keep up the dealer service history'. I may keep it a while with them as they've been helpful (whilst taking my money), but my local garage is good too.

I don't think there's a set price point, it just depends on the seller.

[Mito Man]

Currently both cars are serviced once every 2 years as per their schedule, if I did it myself I could do it annually but not sure if that’s a waste of time tbh!
Mito needs a new belt/water pump which I will let the local mechanic do as I don’t wish to tackle that considering the bork factor.

[Jobbo]

At what price point do you stop giving a crap about maintaining service history on a car? Ie having the book stamped by an actual mechanic rather than doing the oil changes yourself...
Mito is worth £3000 after a quick look online, 6 series maybe £4000 - don’t think there’s any point continuing really.

It's not just about value; there's an age-related reason not to use main dealers which is that they tend just to work on relatively new cars under warranty, so the technicians perhaps won't see many 10yr old models which don't have such detailed diagnostics etc.

I made a decision not to use Merc main dealers for my CLS simply because I will put lots of miles on it fairly quickly, I'll change the oil regularly somewhere convenient for me and within two or three years I'll have depreciated it to zero in my own mind anyway, meaning a FMBSH is irrelevant to value. However, I do recall there being some things worth taking your older BMW to the main dealer for; replacing cam cover gaskets on the V8s, for instance; the book time is pretty short so the cost isn't high (and they only charge you the book time, not the actual time), and if they break anything while doing it (such as brittle ancillaries which need to be unbolted) they have to fix it them as part of the job. Get that done at an indy and you could be paying to replace all the bits which break in the process...

[V8Granite]

I’ve said this on loads of threads but an oil change is not a service, it’s an oil change. I’m not saying all garages/ main dealers do a full service but I’d want more than oil receipts.

Aslong as all the consumables expected for the mileage done are there I’m not too fussed.

Our friends have a Megane diesel estate that looks like a spider haven under the bonnet when it wouldn’t start. Turns out the battery posts were corroded and it couldn’t take a charge. Mad as this is part of a service imo.

I certainly don’t think the extra price of a main dealer/ normal garage is worthwhile if you are happy to do the work yourself, you won’t see the money back for a few stamps.

Dave!

[Jobbo]

Have you looked at what a 'service' includes for your M-class, Dave? Oil change and visual inspection of a few things. They're a joke, especially considering the price main dealers charge.

[Delphi]

My 13 plate V60 still gets main dealer treatment, mainly because I CBA to find an indie locally and Volvo extend the road side assistance that came with the car new if I have it serviced there which is probably worth the difference in annual cost between main dealer and indy.

Most of the work on the 928 I'll do myself apart from jobs where I've not got the time, space or equipment, in which case I'd take it to Strasse. I'd obviously have to be totally insane to take the 928 to my local OPC (even though there's one down the road). One of the guys on a 928 owners group on Facebook took his 928 to his OPC for a rough running issue. They had it for two days then said there was nothing they could do with it as they couldn't plug it into their computer!

[Mito Man]

It's not just about value; there's an age-related reason not to use main dealers which is that they tend just to work on relatively new cars under warranty, so the technicians perhaps won't see many 10yr old models which don't have such detailed diagnostics etc.

I made a decision not to use Merc main dealers for my CLS simply because I will put lots of miles on it fairly quickly, I'll change the oil regularly somewhere convenient for me and within two or three years I'll have depreciated it to zero in my own mind anyway, meaning a FMBSH is irrelevant to value. However, I do recall there being some things worth taking your older BMW to the main dealer for; replacing cam cover gaskets on the V8s, for instance; the book time is pretty short so the cost isn't high (and they only charge you the book time, not the actual time), and if they break anything while doing it (such as brittle ancillaries which need to be unbolted) they have to fix it them as part of the job. Get that done at an indy and you could be paying to replace all the bits which break in the process...

I only used the BMW dealer once last year because they had a special offer on for servicing which made it as cheap as the independent and they could do it that week so it was convenient.

BMW prices on some parts are pretty reasonable as you say, and their discount on older cars does make it worthwhile unlike Alfa or Land Rover which seem to have a minimum charge of £600 making them entirely unfeasible

[V8Granite]

Have you looked at what a 'service' includes for your M-class, Dave? Oil change and visual inspection of a few things. They're a joke, especially considering the price main dealers charge.

I do the listed items (mainly inspections when it’s the oil service) but things like clean out sunroof drains, lubricate check straps, check cranking voltage etc etc are all items which are important. I remember a long time back being told that autos fail on handbrake efficiency very regularly as no-one uses them. I’m sure on the W124 they were down for greasing periodically.

For example we had a low cranking voltage, despite the battery checking absolutely fine. At the end of a start it dropped below 9v and that gave some spurious faults on the screen.

Like I said though, I’m certainly not naive enough to think main dealers do much of this at all.

Then you have people who do nothing but add the odd air freshener and the cars run faultlessly

Dave!

[V8Granite]

Have you looked at what a 'service' includes for your M-class, Dave? Oil change and visual inspection of a few things. They're a joke, especially considering the price main dealers charge.

To mention price, definitely it’s crazy. I think we paid £380 for essentially an oil change. They added £80 for a cabin filter as the glovebox has to come out etc etc. When I changed it myself, you could go through the engine bay in 5 minutes. Which they had done as they had broken the tabs off on the cover, I got them to replace that though. It’s what made me stop getting the Mercedes warranty which despite being great cover, wasn’t worth the increased service costs.

When I changed all 16 plugs at 120k I found that only 8 had ever been changed and that was when I bought the car at 60k as it was part of the service done before collection

Plus your comments on dealers seeing very few cars over 10 years old is right but finding a genuinely good marque specialist is incredibly hard.

Dave!