The Truth About Expensive Scheduled Servicing

When it comes to scheduled servicing, don’t let car dealers take you on the wrong kind of ride by believing your new car’s warranty will be voided if you don’t service your car at their dealership.

Warranty and cars are a confusing thing with a lot of car dealers regularly cashing in on this confusion by suggesting your car’s warranty could be voided should you not service your car at their dealership.

In reality, this is simply not true.

Not only is it illegal for car dealers to lie about servicing and warranty to their customers, but customers are legally entitled to select where they get their service from without fear of voiding their warranty.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in fact states that willing services are carried out by authorised mechanics and according to manufacturer’s specification, your car’s warranty will remain valid.

Because car dealers usually only make marginal profits on the actual sale of a vehicle, they are encouraged to lure customers back to the dealership in the form of expensive servicing. This is usually done on site by dealers at the close of a sale when a customer’s guard is down and wallet out.

But once away from the dealerships there are many other common tricks that exacerbate this myth of warranty and required dealership servicing. Whether it’s the usually false suggestion that genuine, dealership exclusive parts are needed or logbooks that encourage dealership scheduled services, many new car owners are led to believe the dealership is their only place for a safe scheduled service.

Once tricked, dealership services are on the whole more expensive than services done elsewhere with even the lure of capped price servicing failing to make the trip back to a dealership an affordable one. A 2014 motor industry report conducted by research form Deloitte in fact found that almost 30% of car dealer’s profit comes from servicing.

So now you know how and why a car dealer tricks you into expensive scheduled servicing, it’s crucial you know how to maintain your car’s warranty as you detour away from over-priced dealership servicing.

Despite the mystery surrounding warranty, maintaining your car’s warranty when it comes to scheduled servicing is quite straight forward and can be achieved by following these four simple steps:

• Find a service centre that has been licensed
• Ensure your car is serviced in line with the schedule and specifications
• Ask that quality parts are used in the service
• Get your mechanic to fill out your logbook at the end of it all

With your warranty now in no risk of being voided, you can do some additional research to find the cheapest, most convenient place to service your vehicle which in all likelihood will not be a dealership...

So next time you buy a car, don’t let a dealer tarnish your new car smell with fishy lies about servicing and warranty, do your research and you could save plenty of money on your scheduled services without any warranty worry.

Author Bio:

Harry Sarkissian has been a mechanic for over 22 years. He owns and operates Reliance Auto Centre in Chatswood and has serviced well over 10,000 cars, making him somewhat of an expert.