My new to me 2012 TA is coming up to the end of it's second year and has just done 6,500 miles.

The year one service was a "low mileage" one done by the dealer (Ancaster- Welling) and it appears that lot's of things were "checked" and it got new oil, a new oil filter and a new pollen filter.

I've been taking our other car (06 LWB Mitsubishi Shogun) to a local independent garage and they seem to do a decent job .. but maybe I ought to get a Fiat dealer to do this next service on the TA while the car is still in warranty. There seems to be a big service centre in Battersea which isn't too far away (I'm in Kingston upon Thames) but I haven't asked them for an estimate.

This car won't do more than about 2-3K miles/yr but it'll get oil/filters/etc every 12 months ..

So should I take it to a Fiat centre or my generic independent shop? Fiat Batersea or some other place not too far away?

Thanks in advance ..

I'd give it one more service at an Approved dealer so there's no aggravation with the Warranty if you need it. Then when it's 3 years old you can use the dealer you're happy with.

As long as they do all the jobs they have to, you could still have some kind of leverage with Fiat if something does go wrong just outside the warranty period (because of the such low miles).

On the other hand, the Fiat Dealer might do a good job and you might decide to take it back there.


Ralf S.

Try Motor Village in Croydon. I believe they are Fiat owned and not a franchise. People moan about main dealer prices but there are occasions when it pays off. If you have a problem then it is far easier persuading a manufacturer to do something about it than if it is the first time they have seen the car since they sold it. Having said that, if you bought the car from an independent dealer and the first service was outside of the official Fiat network that bridge may have already been burned. In which case you have little to lose by shopping around the independent garages - preferably a specialist rather than local spanner monkeys. Hope that helps but would be keen to find out what you decide and if you find somewhere nearby as it would also be close to me.

Personally, I'd just take it for another low mileage service with the inclusion of the brake fluid change to keep Fiat happy on the warranty. I'd get it done at a Fiat franchise purely for the inclusion of checking for warranty/recall work and diagnostic hook up, but as is said time and time again, make sure you shop around the dealerships. Some seem to have their own ideas regarding how much they charge.

Nothing wrong at all with using an independent by the way and that is your choice if you choose to. If anything, they will possibly be cheaper. I went to an independent on our last POP out of protest more than anything else because of price. He did for £169 what every franchise I spoke to, wanted in excess of £250 for.

myothercarisabike said:

......There seems to be a big service centre in Battersea which isn't too far away (I'm in Kingston upon Thames) but I haven't asked them for an estimate.

...So should I take it to a Fiat centre or my generic independent shop? Fiat Batersea or some other place not too far away?

Thanks in advance ..

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Just going back to price again and whether you want to use a franchise, I think if you're willing to try outside of the M25 corridor, maybe further north, Northampton, or Cambridge, you may find the prices a bit more friendlier. Worth a try if you're willing to travel and you don't mind waiting around while they do the service. Not for everyone I know, but I've done exactly this on several occasions to dealerships a couple of hours from where I live and subsequently enjoyed towns I'd never been to before. Just make a day out of it.

Taking the car away for an afternoon is a good suggestion .. maybe let our 17 yo daughter drive it somewhere for a cheap service as a learning exercise on her provisional license .. nothing here in the "Big Smoke" is cheap .. Thanks

Interested to hear about insuring your daughter on the car. I have a daughter turning 17 next year and want to insure her on my TA 105 Convertible S. How does that compare to your spec and how much of a hit was it on adding her to your insurance. I know I have made it hard for myself ticking all the insurance unfriendly boxes so it might just be cheaper to buy her her own car. What do you think?

Insurance for young drivers is an expensive nightmare. Marmalade will do monthly cover for a young driver with a provisional license for I think about £85 per .. that's not so bad on a pay as you go basis...

But after they pass the test and get a full license the you're looking at about a £2k premium to add the young driver to the policy .. this can be reduced by using a "drive like a girl" black box to record driving speed, braking, etc but you're still looking at an additional £1,300 to add the young driver ...

Now £1,300 is a only a little over £100 a month but the kicker is that you can't buy this cover on a monthly basis .. it's a year or nothing ... oh well you can cancel half way through but you won't get a proportional refund, you'll get a month of that premium back if you cancel half way through (I'm guessing here but Directline won't give you a quote for that so ... )

Anyway our daughter might pass her test in Jan .. she needs to concentrate on her A levels til June then she wants to go inter-railing or something and have a summer holiday abroad and then go off to Uni in Sept ... we don't need 12 months of cover so she's going to just have to wait for insurance .. £1,300 for occasional cover over 6 months is insane ..

HTHs

Seems you get caned any way. I have until next summer to come to terms with it or find another solution. Don't fancy a black box as presumably that would mean that I would have to drive like a girl. Like that is ever going to happen!!!!!

I'm taking a slight offence over all this 'drive like a girl' talk!

Don't take offence. It is the name of an insurance company and is in reference to good drivers who never use their accelerator or brakes. Apparently!

myothercarisabike said:

Taking the car away for an afternoon is a good suggestion .. maybe let our 17 yo daughter drive it somewhere for a cheap service as a learning exercise on her provisional license .. nothing here in the "Big Smoke" is cheap .. Thanks

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Sorry not worth driving senseless miles for a cheap service, if something goes wrong after the service you have to then take it to your local dealer and try to explain. I bought my TA from Motor Village in croydon. Get a quote from another fiat garage and if you are happy with the price ask MV to match it, less hassle and still take your daughter out for quality time together

btw : while you wait services may leave you waiting for hours as these chappies go on lunch, be prepared to walk 15 minutes to Ikea in croydon and have lunch there, better still bring another car with you and get out of Croydon as soon as you can.

Our daughters are insured on our 4x4, the fiat 500 insurance was just too high.

I would stick with a local Fiat dealer and build a relationship by service manager name, a few pounds here or there won't make a difference in the end but treating each other like VIPs makes all the difference.

edit : what bike are you riding, mine is a blackbird.

I've been ringing around various dealers and independents today and have had a range of quotes .. still waiting to hear from Hartwell which is up nr Oxford .. think Motor Village is out .. Wilson's seems the best authorised quote .. but frankly I got the best feeling from talking to Mario at Firela ..

Wilsons Epsom - Fiat Authorised
£237 incl VAT
Change oil
change oil filter
change brake fluid
other stuff

Firela - Clapham - Not Authorised but Fiat/Alpha "specialist"
£210 incl VAT
Change oil
change oil filter
change brake fluid
check stuff

Motor Village - Battersea - Fiat Authorised
Clip fitting under warranty required - Free of Charge
£440 incl VAT
"18K service"
Change oil
change oil filter
change air filter
change spark plugs
test brake fluid but do not change (£89 separately) needs to be done as part of "36K service"
aircon / cabin / pollen filter - 1 filter, many names .. no charge of coolant
includes adding some stuff to the engine.
visual inspection
car wash


My main bike is a Rawland rSogn .. maybe my username should be

myothercarisapushbike

myothercarisabike said:

I've been ringing around various dealers and independents today and have had a range of quotes .. still waiting to hear from Hartwell which is up nr Oxford .. think Motor Village is out .. Wilson's seems the best authorised quote .. but frankly I got the best feeling from talking to Mario at Firela ..

Wilsons Epsom - Fiat Authorised
£237 incl VAT
Change oil
change oil filter
change brake fluid
other stuff

Firela - Clapham - Not Authorised but Fiat/Alpha "specialist"
£210 incl VAT
Change oil
change oil filter
change brake fluid
check stuff

Motor Village - Battersea - Fiat Authorised
Clip fitting under warranty required - Free of Charge
£440 incl VAT
"18K service"
Change oil
change oil filter
change air filter
change spark plugs
test brake fluid but do not change (£89 separately) needs to be done as part of "36K service"
aircon / cabin / pollen filter - 1 filter, many names .. no charge of coolant
includes adding some stuff to the engine.
visual inspection
car wash


My main bike is a Rawland rSogn .. maybe my username should be

myothercarisapushbike

Click to expand...

Lol...love Motor Village's separate £89 quote for brake fluid. What absolute tw**s!

The interesting thing is the lack of consistency between the various shops .. I'd have thought there would be a pretty standard set of items to be carried out .. Motor Village seemed to thing spark plugs should be changed which accounts for some of that high price .. but no brake fluid change ..

After 6,500 miles the 18K service doesn't make much sense to me .. do spark plugs really need changing every 24 months irrespective of mileage?

I always change the oil and filter in my cars every year as a minimum but with such low mileage I'm not buying the official line without some justification. I'd happily change the oil myself but it appears there's some engine management setting that has to be modified as part of that process and I don't want to go there.

What really winds me up is having a receptionist read off a list of items covered by a service with no understanding of what these items are or whether they're appropriate for my specific low mileage requirement .. but I guess some (many?) people just don't care ..

arorat said:

Sorry not worth driving senseless miles for a cheap service, if something goes wrong after the service you have to then take it to your local dealer and try to explain. I bought my TA from Motor Village in croydon. Get a quote from another fiat garage and if you are happy with the price ask MV to match it, less hassle and still take your daughter out for quality time together

btw : while you wait services may leave you waiting for hours as these chappies go on lunch, be prepared to walk 15 minutes to Ikea in croydon and have lunch there, better still bring another car with you and get out of Croydon as soon as you can.

I would stick with a local Fiat dealer and build a relationship by service manager name, a few pounds here or there won't make a difference in the end but treating each other like VIPs makes all the difference.

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Oh gosh arorat, at the risk of sounding like I don't respect your opinion, and I assure you, I really do! but I absolutely promise I've never suffered the experience of being left hanging around all day for an intermediate service for intance. The most I've waited, is 2.5 hours and in that time I was provided with proper coffee, not the stuff out of the machine they had in the reception lol! Plus there's generally free wifi access available these days at many dealerships, so the time can fly by!

It's all very well 'building a relationship' with your local franchise dealer, but if they aren't competitive or even prepared to price match another franchise, and I've had that experience more than once, I just wouldn't bother with them full stop. Sadly, it can be more than just a few quid in difference in prices, so in some instances, it can definitely be worth travelling a few miles. I guess though, if you live in the city, you put up with the premium for doing so, but I'd still go for a day out myself because I know the savings can be worth it.

I accept that most people will go local out of sheer convenience, I'm just one of those that likes to spread my wings a bit.

frupi said:

Oh gosh arorat, at the risk of sounding like I don't respect your opinion, and I assure you, I really do! but I absolutely promise I've never suffered the experience of being left hanging around all day for an intermediate service for intance. The most I've waited, is 2.5 hours and in that time I was provided with proper coffee, not the stuff out of the machine they had in the reception lol! Plus there's generally free wifi access available these days at many dealerships, so the time can fly by!

It's all very well 'building a relationship' with your local franchise dealer, but if they aren't competitive or even prepared to price match another franchise, and I've had that experience more than once, I just wouldn't bother with them full stop. Sadly, it can be more than just a few quid in difference in prices, so in some instances, it can definitely be worth travelling a few miles. I guess though, if you live in the city, you put up with the premium for doing so, but I'd still go for a day out myself because I know the savings can be worth it.

I accept that most people will go local out of sheer convenience, I'm just one of those that likes to spread my wings a bit.

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Fair enough Frupi, each to their own and what suits best. My last service at motor village was complimentary and yes waited about 2.5 hrs, with a walk to the lovely Ikea.

myothercarisabike said:

I've been ringing around various dealers and independents today and have had a range of quotes .. still waiting to hear from Hartwell which is up nr Oxford .. think Motor Village is out .. Wilson's seems the best authorised quote .. but frankly I got the best feeling from talking to Mario at Firela ..


My main bike is a Rawland rSogn .. maybe my username should be

myothercarisapushbike

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That was a silly price from MV Battersea. See if MV Croydon will match Firela - Clapham.

not heard of Rawland rSogn but sounds good

Super Uwe said:

Lol...love Motor Village's separate £89 quote for brake fluid. What absolute tw**s!

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Agreed, I have other words, but I'm going to refrain from using them.

The independent who did our old POP charged us £25 inc VAT to do a brake fluid change. He actually pointed out that it didn't need changing as he'd tested it prior to changing it and it was perfectly within limits, despite Fiat's insistance on the 2 year change interval for 'warranty' purposes. I make no apology for agreeing with a technician with 30 years experience of the brand.

At the end of the day, it is a money earner for some garages. Yes, brake fluid is hygroscopic, but unless you're driving around with the brake fluid cap loose or off, or persistently rally driving, for many it is good for longer than a couple of years and I'll stick with GM's recommendations for my own car which is four years.

For those that want to test their own brake fluid, some garages use nothing more than one of these or similar:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laser-487...iagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item1c4356c2d3

Personal experience means I would rather drive to the moon for a service than go to Wilsons. They are a multi franchise dealer and I have had very bad experiences there. When I asked if they would match the new car price I had been offered by MV the salesman laughed out loud and said that it wasn't possible! I have bought cars from them and had cars serviced there and had one too many bad experiences to ever go back! work not having been done and stupidly long wait for parts etc. When I bought a Citroen 2 years ago I drove to Kings Lynn to a dealer there. The service was a galaxy apart from Wilsons!