Hi all,

I just had a recent service. The guy seemed great but I'd just like to double check the cost as reasonable. This is my first service for this car since buying it one year ago (500C 2013 twinair model).

Cost: $900
Location: Sydney (near city)

-Service and safety check
-Breaks, steering and suspension check
-Tryes, lights and fluid levels check
-Remove and replace engine oil, oil filter, air filter, front brake pads and front disc rotors
-Test drive
-Materials: Engine oil, oil filter, air filter, front brake pads, front disc rotors and sundries/levy

Labour: 340
Materials: 869
He rounded it to 900 for me.

Unfortunately, he couldn't solve my intermittent engine light issue.

Let me know what you think.

Thank you!

Translation for those in the UK:

A shade over £500 for oil, oil filter & air filter change, plus front disc & pad replacement and a general look round.

Not quite a full service; there's no mention of plugs or cabin filter.

I do my own (and this reminds me why), so I'm perhaps not the best person to comment, but I'd have thought that would be about right for franchised dealer money here.

Parts here about au $ 200 can't say as I too diy (can't afford not to) seems a bit high?
Mind you passed the BMW garage, oil change "only" au $ 300 (conversion )

msmmans1 said:

Hi all,

I just had a recent service. The guy seemed great but I'd just like to double check the cost as reasonable. This is my first service for this car since buying it one year ago (500C 2013 twinair model).

Cost: $900
Location: Sydney (near city)

-Service and safety check
-Breaks, steering and suspension check
-Tryes, lights and fluid levels check
-Remove and replace engine oil, oil filter, air filter, front brake pads and front disc rotors
-Test drive
-Materials: Engine oil, oil filter, air filter, front brake pads, front disc rotors and sundries/levy

Labour: 340
Materials: 869
He rounded it to 900 for me.

Unfortunately, he couldn't solve my intermittent engine light issue.

Let me know what you think.

Thank you!

Click to expand...

Was that a scheduled service? My car is identical and I had it serviced by FIAT before the warranty lapsed in July 2016. It had less than 20,000km up but, without consultation, they did the '30,000km' scheduled service which included all the above except brake pads and rotors. They did replace the spark plugs, which I thought was totally unnecessary. I only took it to them as I had a couple of warranty issues - just cosmetic stuff like deteriorating badge and peeling chrome.

All up it was just shy of $1000, and that didn't include wiper blades!

Needless to say I won't be taking it back if I can avoid it. My independent mechanic normally does my annual servicing.

At first I wondered why discs and pads were being done on a one-year-old car - then I read again and realised the car is 2013. Still seems a bit early to need new discs but perhaps there’s some salt air from the sea around.

It’s also worth considering that discs would cost more in Australia than in the UK due to the smaller quantities stocked and the need to freight them all the way from Europe - might seem like a minor point but helps to explain why the parts bill is fairly high. The labour seems practically free. I’d say $900 was a reasonable total price

-Alex

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Was that a scheduled service? My car is identical and I had it serviced by FIAT before the warranty lapsed in July 2016. It had less than 20,000km up but, without consultation, they did the '30,000km' scheduled service which included all the above except brake pads and rotors. They did replace the spark plugs, which I thought was totally unnecessary. I only took it to them as I had a couple of warranty issues - just cosmetic stuff like deteriorating badge and peeling chrome.

All up it was just shy of $1000, and that didn't include wiper blades!

Needless to say I won't be taking it back if I can avoid it. My independent mechanic normally does my annual servicing.

Click to expand...

Personally I'd refuse to pay for the extra work say you never authorised the additional work

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Was that a scheduled service? My car is identical and I had it serviced by FIAT before the warranty lapsed in July 2016. It had less than 20,000km up but, without consultation, they did the '30,000km' scheduled service which included all the above except brake pads and rotors. They did replace the spark plugs, which I thought was totally unnecessary. I only took it to them as I had a couple of warranty issues - just cosmetic stuff like deteriorating badge and peeling chrome.

All up it was just shy of $1000, and that didn't include wiper blades!

Needless to say I won't be taking it back if I can avoid it. My independent mechanic normally does my annual servicing.

Click to expand...

I was writing while you were I agree with you, your service sounds steep in comparison - after all, there’s only two spark plugs, that shouldn’t have cost much, $100 tops! Sounds like the dealers were trying to claw back time having sorted out the warranty stuff... I’m sure that goes on sometimes when the customer gets something for free and the dealers take it unto themselves to ‘make them pay’, wrong though that idea is...

-Alex

Getting an oil service on our year old 500 Lounge at £125.00 inc. No plugs etc included . But I think Fiat serving has gone down in price since I used a franchised dealer four years ago ? At that sort of cost not worth going anywhere else. I will do the cabin filter in a years time and the plugs in three years time.

Now I'm no auto mechanic but I'm sorry but that's a touch steep on the parts. The labour at $340 I'll assume that's 4 hours at $85. Back to the parts after a bit of Google and experience (happen to own a 13 twinair) the 3.4l/4.0l of Selenia oil lets say $125 aud, oil filter lets say a generous $30, air filter $35 maybe $40 and front discs and rotors $230 = Total parts $425 + labour $340 = $765. All prices quoted can obviously be got cheaper, err on the side of caution.

alexGS said:

At first I wondered why discs and pads were being done on a one-year-old car - then I read again and realised the car is 2013. Still seems a bit early to need new discs but perhaps there’s some salt air from the sea around.

It’s also worth considering that discs would cost more in Australia than in the UK due to the smaller quantities stocked and the need to freight them all the way from Europe - might seem like a minor point but helps to explain why the parts bill is fairly high. The labour seems practically free. I’d say $900 was a reasonable total price

-Alex

Click to expand...

Hi Alex, I thought so too. I went to him as he had 5 stars on google maps with about 30-40 reviews, and 100m from my house!

I was totally prepared to pay about that as I knew parts are exxy in Aus.

In terms of brakes, well the car has mostly been in Sydney which is constant stop starting. And of course, not far from the sea. I guess that all contributes.

Thanks every one!

foambullets said:

Now I'm no auto mechanic but I'm sorry but that's a touch steep on the parts. The labour at $340 I'll assume that's 4 hours at $85. Back to the parts after a bit of Google and experience (happen to own a 13 twinair) the 3.4l/4.0l of Selenia oil lets say $125 aud, oil filter lets say a generous $30, air filter $35 maybe $40 and front discs and rotors $230 = Total parts $425 + labour $340 = $765. All prices quoted can obviously be got cheaper, err on the side of caution.

Click to expand...

I have a breakdown of the parts. I will check and post when I get home.

I know that the discs and rotors were the most expensive. He gave me an option to change the rotors or not. Without changing them it would've been about $200 cheaper.

alexGS said:

I was writing while you were I agree with you, your service sounds steep in comparison - after all, there’s only two spark plugs, that shouldn’t have cost much, $100 tops! Sounds like the dealers were trying to claw back time having sorted out the warranty stuff... I’m sure that goes on sometimes when the customer gets something for free and the dealers take it unto themselves to ‘make them pay’, wrong though that idea is...

-Alex

Click to expand...

Yes Alex I'm sure they do - I used to work in the warranty department of a major Japanese importer here and I know how much a dealer can lose.

However, in this case I think they just padded out the invoice - see the copy below. Their system is also totally inflexible, the next schedule in the book is a 30,000km, and that's what they performed, without question, even though the car had less than 20,000km on the clock. They didn't ask me if I wanted to change the plugs, just did it. The only thing they did ask, by phone later in the day, was whether I wanted the wiper blades changed. Knowing the poor quality of OEM blades from this forum I intended to fit Bosch units and have done so. They sounded a little bit snarky when they hung up and their comment re 'cleaning' the blades is amusing.

As you can see the labour list is padded out (labour to apply a service sticker?) and I don't believe half those things were done. For example; when they "Checked lights and interior equipment" why didn't they pick up that the driver's side fog light was blown? Did they "Lubricate door locks..." etc? I doubt it. What is a "Fuel levy" - at $15 it sounds like a complete rip-off to me! One thing they did do was reset my odometer to kilometres, announcing to me, as if to a complete moron, that mine was "incorrectly" set to miles - well of course it was, I so set it!

Others more knowledgeable than I might find other anomalies.

This all makes msmmans1's service sound reasonable, or at least not too far OTT.

msmmans1 said:

I have a breakdown of the parts. I will check and post when I get home.

Click to expand...

Hi,

it should have had spark plugs.. there are only 2 .. but they work HARD so need changing pretty regularly..

UK pricing put those 2 plugs at the same level as a conventional "set of 4" ,

if they are on the list.. that would make it a sensible cost service

.. if not you've not done so well.:chin:

Charlie = Punto TA