Don't get me started!!!
I'm now retired but by profession I was a chartered mechanical engineer - I did my early training and work at Rolls-Royce in the 1960's but then moved to a major energy utility where, among other things, I was Chief Design Engineer on mechanical plant before moving into senior management. In my 45 years as a driver I've covered more than a million miles and I've mainly run Volvos over the past thirty years.
In my earlier years I quickly learnt not to trust any garage - even the main dealers - and I could tell any number of horror stories about work being charged for but not done - or not done competently. And we've all had experience of passing our cars in for some work to be done and getting them back in a worse state! One of the worst examples for me was in 1994 when I picked up my company car (a Vauxhall Calibra) from having new pads/discs fitted by a Vauxhall main dealer, to find a hose clamp still on one of the front flexible brake hoses! It didn't half pull to one side, yet they let me drive off in it!! I can't repeat what I said to their service manager - and I got some nice compensation!!
So, I've always done as much of my car servicing as I can myself - then I know it's been done properly. As I've become older, though, some heavier jobs have become more difficult so I use either the main dealer or my local indie, depending upon how 'technical' it is. But even then, I usually end up half-stripping the job down to satisfy myself that it's been done right!
And, like Chris C, I have my own service schedule - one that far exceeds what the manufacturer recommends. I apply the same maintenance principles to my car as industrial or commercial concerns do to their mechanical plant. Car manufacturers cut their service recommendations right to the limit - they have very sophisticated maintenance 'models' and they pitch their service recommendations to give their cars a reasonably reliable life of around 100,000 miles. They don't want them to last much more than that because they want us to buy a new car every two or three years. Also, by having 'lean' servicing schedules their cars are cheaper to run - so they sell more. Yet, with 'appropriate' design and servicing there is no reason why a modern car shouldn't be able to do 500,000 miles. So, I do engine oil/filter changes every 5,000 miles (using fully synthetic oil), I change the coolant every two years and I change the ATF every 30,000 miles (the latter two aren't even in the official Volvo service schedule).
Sorry to ramble on - but car maintenance schedules and the incompetence of many so-called 'professional' garages is one of my pet subjects!
Stan.
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