Service Issues: How do you service your Car?

[Baxlin]

Used to do most of my own spannering, to the extent of building my kit car, but TBH, although now in my 70s and arguably having more time, I’d rather someone else do it.

[canis]

Oh man, isn't this a telling statistic!!

We can clearly see here - by far most servicing occurs at home. That's got to be a market which can be tapped.

I heard on the radio the other day that Land Rover are closing their solihull works for a while, simply because they're not selling enough product. Driving home yesterday with my son, I pointed to the Land Rover Series 3 in front of us and said "I bet they coiuld sell those if they still made 'em."

If Volvo think they can survive by chansing the same target market as the BMW/VW owners, they're in for a slow and steady decline and inevitable death. We've already seen how they've become Fordified, presumably this steals away Ford's own customers, now there's a piece of genius.

On the other hand, I bet if a 240 was marketted today, it would sell like hot cakes to people who want a reliable, serviceable, family vehicle. So what if it don't got no angel eyes - that's for posers. Family guys don't have time to pose, too busy being taxi service. What they want is reliability and a ready source of spare parts.

Or what? All these people will just fall in line and just start using dealerships for their servicing, falling prey to all their cuning devices and ploys to screw out of them every last penny. I don't think so. Families cannot afford to let that happen, and are just far too savvy.

Volvo, if you don't make it - people will buy it from someone who will.

[TonyB65]

I understand why people trained as mechanics or with a lot of mechanical experience service their own cars, though it can't be easy with they way modern cars are built these days. I have neither the knowledge, time or premises to do any of it. Fortunately I live near to an excellent Volvo specialist who give a very good service, so I just pay them to do it, and their prices are fair in my opinion.
I do read a lot of posts on here where people spend endless time tinkering with their Volvos in order to rectifying ongoing issues and sometime wonder whether they would be better off if they just found a decent specialist and paid to get it sorted. My car is also the only way I have of getting to work so it has to be reliable (one of the reasons I chose a Volvo - so far so good) so I just leave it to the experts to maintain it and accept the cost.

[Peter86]

Here a good one why people service there own cars.
Recently needed pads and disks all round on my 2011 V70.
Volvo was something like £800, with my parts discount it came down to about £600 or there abouts. Parts themselves were about £450 with discount.
Went to motor factors and with the online 45% off I got a full set of brembo disks and pads for £256. Bought a draper epb tool on offer for £80 (don't have vida and will help with other cars in the family). I'm still saving a lot of money not going a dealer.

If a dealer was only slightly more I would seriously consider going just to save time and effort doing it myself and so I can go have a play round in the showroom for a couple of hours why my cars being sorted.
I might also add I have had some dealings with warranty work on my V70 and volvo were superb about it, would never knock them about that side of things. Customer service at my local branch is 1st class!

[canis]

I think there's been a shift in perception. Where a boy in the 1940s would be given a meccano set and mechanical understanding of how pulleys/levers/gears/wheels/etc was just normal, now it's seen as something which people do only after training. It's not magic, it's just a machine.

Today we tend to presume incompetance. Despite better and more thorough general education than ever before, it is presumed anybody at any time knows nothing, is incapable of anything, likely to ruin anything they touch - until some governing body somewhere says otherwise.

How many times are you told by a professional something which you know just simply is not true?

[hicky70]

Originally Posted by canis

How many times are you told by a professional something which you know just simply is not true?

V often!

[Petey80]

I service and do as much as I can at home due to dealership/garage costs.

I also do things myself so I can learn things about the car and have the satisfaction of fixing/doing something that most people would take to a garage for.

Oil, filters etc. anyone can do really. They're not difficult at all. If people had a bit more confidence and willingness to do it themselves I bet they'd be surprised how easy it can be.

Luckily my dad was very hands on with his cars, so I picked up quite a lot from him.

The only time my car goes to the garage is if I don't have the knowledge or tools for the job, for example recently a wheel bearing or caliper change.

[Damoh89]

Twice a year at home by myself or at friends garage on the ramp if need to do more things

99% of things il do at home or friends lifet with his help on Volvo as it’s daily any major issues it goes to garage say clutch or something

On my corsa vxr as it’s funday car do it all myself

[passenger]

All alone. On parking lot or I rent autolift 12€ per hour

[Damoh89]

Originally Posted by passenger

All alone. On parking lot or I rent autolift 12€ per hour

That’s cool renting out a space with lift,used to have that here was like 50€ hour then the company vanished