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Car mileage vs maintenance costs (if NOT done yourself)

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ship69

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'08 i-DTEC EX man 5D
Hi

How much money are you spending on maintenance and how many miles has your car done?

Background

I am still trying to find the optimal age to buy a car that will
a) last a few years
B) give dirt cheap running costs AND
c) a reasonably comfortable/reliable car for long distance commuting. :)

Please do NOT tell me how much clever mechanical stuff you have done yourself (that probably took hours and hours) - that is for another time! - as I do not have time to do anything complicated myself.
Obviously it is partly about luck, but I am more interested in trying to work out at what age an old Honda Accord is likely to need to be replaced because it has become uneconomic to run (***uming that you outsource all the maintenance).

With thanks

J


P.S. I have been trying to buy an 8th Generation EX /EX GT for a couple of weeks now, but there dont seem to be many around.
(I am looking for an Auto gearbox with Cruise Control and parking sensors, ideally an estate)
 
depends if you're saying that everything gets done at a dealer or not

if you go to a dealer for a "service" then they will usually tell you that things like discs need replacing when in fact they'll pass an MOT at an independent garage. Also aircon problems, the dealers are notoriously expensive for aircon, where an independent would again be cheaper.

So, how much are you allowing to get done at a dealer, how much at an independent, how much by DIY.
 
I would do everything possible at a cheap local garage, using salvaged parts if necessary, but would do the actual formal servicing with a Honda dealer in order to keep the resale value of the car up.
 
ship69 said:
I would do everything possible at a cheap local garage, using salvaged parts if necessary, but would do the actual formal servicing with a Honda dealer in order to keep the resale value of the car up.
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tbh you'll still be paying too much just to get a yearly Honda stamp

oil change on a petrol = £100 ... £70 for the oil and filter + £10 for "oil disposal" +Vat

£400 for major service on a petrol = £100 to check Valve Clearances + £100 oil change + £200 for pollen filters and air filter and looking at it
 
Dealer service usually means an expensive job carried out by an apprentice overseen every so often by the workshop manager.

I prefer to use a qualified and experienced independent.

When I took my car to the Honda local dealer they confessed they don't know much about ATRs
 
In my experience Hondas *car* are great, but every single thing about Honda dealers makes me want to kill someone. They are patronising, pompous, unhelpful, you can never talk to the mechanic who actually did the work. And their prices of spare parts is frankly obscene.

The trouble is when I'm buying a car I want it serviced by Honda because I trust anyone else even less.

J
 
ship69 said:
The trouble is when I'm buying a car I want it serviced by Honda because I trust anyone else even less.
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An interesting viewpoint but better to think of Honda dealers like this.
A dealer is a fanchise to the Brand, and to run the franchise the dealer has to do what the Brand HQ tell them to do.
Some Brand HQ take little interest in "supervising" the dealers that franchise e.g. Renault
Honda HQ will, as far as possible, get involved if they think a franchise is spoiling the Brand image.
With that in mind, if you have a bit of proof that they did something wrong, or charged for something they didn't do, then you can trust Honda HQ to be on your side.
Other than that, I trust an independent I know that has had the same guys working there for 25 years, far more than any Honda dealer.
And I trust myself a tad more than the guys at the independent.
 
freddofrog said:
I trust an independent I know that has had the same guys working there for 25 years, far more than any Honda dealer.
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Fair enough but that's not quite the point I was making.
I mean if you find a very good independent then I'm sure they'd do a better job than a Honda dealer.
So yes, you are planning to run your car into the ground then your trusted local independent is probably a much better bet.
But if you are planning to sell your car, then the trouble is that you will probably keep a better value on the car by getting it serviced by a known brandname that the average buyer will recognise i.e. Honda.
 
I've got a 2003 7th Gen Type S with 137,000 miles on, and do about 24,000 a year. Other than general wear items, I've not really spent anything out of the ordinary to keeping it going.

Bought it in June 2012, and so far
- O/S/R Wheel Bearing - About £250 (Honda)
- 4 New Tyres £208 (Honda again - Big mistake!)
- Service about £200 (Honda)

To come!
- Discs & Pads all round - Not going to Honda for this, they want £500 for the log - Can get them all done for about £200/£250 from the Independant I generally use (G+F)
- Clutch - After 137,000 not suprised! - £800 from Honda apparantly - Will be going to my good friends at G+F!
- Brake pedal switch £70 fitted from Honda (or 30 for the part and I fit!) - Cruise had died as I've adjusted this to get rid of the VSA light, but never use the Cruise anyway so not too fussed!
 
Do people still honestly believe that a main dealer service history adds value to a car? As long as the correct service has been carried out at the correct intervals, then that is what counts.

My car had a mixture of servicing by the Honda main stealers and by VTEC Direct. I was much more pleased to discover I was buying a car that had been in the hands if VTEC direct rather to some apprentice at the main dealers.
 
FDSH has to be the biggest mistaken value on a used car, the attention done at the service really is pot luck, though with Honda it probably means that they really did use expensive oil :D

e.g. took my car for service a couple of years back and said that the auto-tailgate was not opening properly. Collected car and they said it was working, got it home and it wasn't, so thought "bow-locks forget it". Next year, car goes in for service and I didn't mention tailgate, collected car and tailgate was working, and I could see that the strip at the back had been off and not put back properly. Called the dealer and asked it they had done anything to the tailgate, and they said "no". Been servicing my car myself ever since.
 
Service at Honda:
Get a courtesy car for the day.
Get to look over their new cars in the dealership.
Get a cup of tea and a sit down, can watch TV or read a magazine.

Service at local garage:
Hand keys over, walk to work in the rain.
Get greasy dirty keys handed back to me, after walking from work in the rain.


Money isn't everything.
 
I guess there are good Honda dealers, and bad Honda dealers.
My parents have always had their Jazz serviced at Westgate Honda in Grimsby, and have had great service from them. Friendly, helpful, courteous, lend them a courtesy car, valet the car for them etc etc.
My Accord was bought at 137k miles, with FULL Honda history, and it feels like a new car, and I know everything that needed to be done has been done, and only Honda genuine parts have been used.
My brother bought an Accord with 120k on the clock, with non- Honda history. The timing chain went at 130k, a sign of bad maintenance ? maybe, but my car feels like new, his doesn't.
A good Honda dealer knows these cars, and knows what to look for, and they can probably do a major job at twice the price, but in half the time.
However if you have a good indie garage that you know and trust, and make sure they use Genuine Honda parts, and the right oil, I guess that may be just as good. I do all the servicing on mine, do it to the book, and only use Honda parts, but if it develops a fault I'd be straight to Honda for Diags, find out what is wrong, and then fix it myself (if I can)

On the subject of parts, shop around for Genuine Honda parts, you can get some decent prices. eg try Holdcroft Honda.
They also seem to be good on tyres. They quoted me £60 each fitted for Bridgestone Potenzas, not a bad price.

Back to your original question......A looked after and regularly serviced Honda, is a very reliable car. In last weeks auto express a survey by the leading Breakdown/Recovery firms showed, believe it or not, Audi's having a major engine failure rate of 1 in 43. Honda was 1 in 430.

Note: the above figures are from memory, but trust me I'm only a few out, I'll check and post the real figures later.
 
Nala Nesnej said:
A good Honda dealer knows these cars, and knows what to look for, and they can probably do a major job at twice the price, but in half the time.
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So at four times the rate of an independent!

And next time anyone has a courtesy car, just read the T&Cs before you sign. I refused to take one.
 
In a shade over 70k miles I have done the following - I have had the car from 6 months old so it had nothing done prior to my ownership.

Rear Brakes - pads and disks. done twice at approx 35K and 70k miles
Front Brakes - pads and disks. done once at ~50k miles

Tyres - I tend to get about 10k miles out of the fronts so I've just put the 6th new set on. Rears have been changed once at around 45k miles.

Wiper blades. approx 20k miles per set (I'm fussy!)

Car is serviced by dealer annually (I'm just below the 12.5kmiles/year so it had the 75k service at 68k miles. I've always had Honda Happiness pricing so you should be able to find how much this cost me quite easily.

The only other items the car has had done are both the VSa module (~at 3.5 Years old) and the exhaust manifold (in December '12 at 70kmiles/6 years old) - both done under extended warranty.

The car is currently awaiting diagnosis of an issue that is causing the engine light to come on - I suspect is is connected to the manifold change - so my money is on a lambda sensor.

I hope this information is useful

M
 
Shiny said:
And next time anyone has a courtesy car, just read the T&Cs before you sign. I refused to take one.
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I always read them. What's the problem you have with them?
 
Shiny said:
At my local main dealer, £1000 excess for a start!
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Same.
When I used to get the car serviced, I preferred their "collect" service. Better then taking the car oneself and then using a courtesy car. Got access to enough cars as it is.
 
so on top of a bill of a grand or more you could be paying back the same for a little knock on a bumper on a 'courtesy' car.

nice..
 
^ my maths works the same way as yours Alan ;)

(maybe shiny has been working in insurance too long :lol: )
 
Lol, i was working on the ***umption that the dealer will charge you for a 4 hour job but actually complete it half the time....so four times the hourly rate, with half of it lining pockets as pure profit......perhaps i'm a bit too cynical :lol:
 
HuskyMan said:
I've got an idea.... don't crash.
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Yeah, then some ***** crashes into the back of you and you still have to find £1k and wait months to recover it. No thank you. There is no mention of it only being payable in a fault accident.

Meanwhile the garage only have a £250 excess on their policy, so god knows what sort of mess it will be trying to get your £1k back.
 
I've honestly never worried about it. Maybe I'm odd.
 
I'd listen to Shiny. Anyone who works in insurance knows all about ripping people off lol.
 
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