Annual service - any way to cut costs?

What is essential is oil and filter changes for the engine and brakes and suspension checks for safety. It will cost you much more in the long run if you don't attend to those at the least. What about what used to be Lucas Autocentres, they seem to do a good deal on a service. Or find a local small garage/specialist they're often very competitive.

At the very minimum find somewhere local that will just do an oil + filter change. These can often be done at tyre/exhaust type places from 15UKP, but make sure the oil specification used is correct for your car. These places will often do a free brake/steering/suspension check, but will usually "find" lots of things that "need" doing!

To carry out basic servicing you do not need to be a mechanic. In fact, if you paid your 160UKP to a main dealer the likeliehood is that it would be done by an apprentice. In the longer term, why not see if any local colleges do car maintenance courses? If nothing else it may help you getting ripped off when using garages.

HTH

Chris

The message from "chas" contains these words:

Not the /ideal/ choice with two kids!

Oil and filter change.

Then ring the local further education centre and ask them about the car maintenance courses they will almost certainly offer. It'll make you as qaulified to service it as the spotty kid who does it for £160 at Ford's...

No, basically not. Oil and filter changes will see the engine good for a long distance but sooner or later you'll have a problem.

Check the handbook or talk to your dealership about what needs doing. What's the mileage?

Thanks for all the replies.

The car has just over 37,000 miles on it and it is 5 years old. My mileage since the last service is just over 7,000 so I don't do high mileage.

I agree with the poster who says it's not ideal for kids. Tell me about it. The boot is useless for holding practical stuff like pushchairs etc...

I reluctantly will be changing the car in the future but for the time being can't afford it.

With the amount of clutter the missus now drags round plus 2 babies and all their stuff - I'll be running alongside trying to keep up!

cheers

chas

There are plenty of good, family sized cars around for a couple of thousand.

The message from "chas" contains these words:

Flog it and buy a cheap estate. There's plenty about and you'll never regret it till the kids go to college and you'll end up as a taxi service.

Oil and filter. Leave it at that.

I tend to agree that you should just do the oil+filter. Any thing to do with breaks/tyres exhausts etc will be picked up by the MOT, I would also check the cam belt , get that changed at the specified interval. I drove 100K miles in my '87 Accord and never did anything other than regualr oil changes , and one air filter when i was feeling extravagant ! I had to fix the breaks and exhaust but these were obvious faults that would have failed the MOT test. I was thinking of getting a newer car, but I dont really like the idea of paying out for over priced servicing either ! What *exactly * are they going to do for =A3160 then ? Find out and see if you can do it your self !

Simon

Well I decided to just go for the MOT and save the service till after Xmas. I will however do the oil and filter change. Even I can do that!

During my economy drive (no pun intended) I find that Kwik-Fit are doing MOTs for £25 - as long as they are booked online and not by phone.

The problem is getting them to respond to make an appointment!

Ho hum.

chas

Maybe he just missed out a word. Maybe it should have read "Anything to do with me breaks."

:-)

Peter

ITS BRAKES. B R A K E S.

In news:dh9llp$9pl$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eeven.com, chas scribed for want of a better word:

Well I can not help you with the car, but maybe I can help with the twins Are you aware that you can get CTC (Child Tax Credit) from HMRC of around £1500 per year IF you earn less than £60k? (first year backdated threemonths or DOB of twins if later. Then £500 per year)

use the tax credits hyperlink Less than £20k could be £3k per year That would help your servicing costs :-)

You sure about that figure? They must have changed the way it works,=20 because when we first looked before our daughter was born, it was only a=20 couple of hundred quid at the ~50k mark (the cutoff point). There didn't=20 seem to be any more for the first year.

Pete.

--=20 NOTE! Email address is spamtrapped. Any email will be deleted Remove the news and underscore from my address to reply by mail

Thanks for that Domestos. (Domestos?)

I was not aware. We are still filling out all sorts of forms at the moment. I was hoping to delegate that to the missus but somehow I don't think that idea will go do very well at the moment.

Do twins EVER sleep at the same time I wonder....

chas

The message from "chas" contains these words:

Clean round the bend, I would assume.

The "flat" rate which applies over a wide band is about 545 quid/year. On top of that is up to 1625 quid per child, based on income. The extra money at birth is the Child Trust fund contribution, iirc.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, John Laird scribed for want of a better word:

The Child Trust Fund is additional and totally seperate from Child Tax Credit, as is Child Benefit

Earnings over £30k up to £58k will give you the basic £525 odd a year, however if the child is under one year old then the higher earners would still get the additional £525 baby element part of CTC

So earning £50k with a newborn child would net Per Year £1110 Child Tax Credit £250 Child Trust Fund (which has to be invested so not actual ready money) £910 Child Benefit for first child and £600 Child Benefit for each additional child

Now if he never worked and was on income support and donated zilch to the economy then he would get £4000 tax free income support and £5000 child tax credit

Or believe this or not A person with eight children three of which are disabled just clears£38745 Per Year so long as they are prepared to work sixteen hours a week

Now gone completly off topic apart from this should enable original poster to get his car servised