expensive service at 40,000 miles ?

AFAIK, the Yaris has a cam chain across the whole model range of that year, so no belt worries.

The last car I owned that had replaceable brake linings was in 1954; apart from regular brake fluid changes, servicing will only include brake examination, not any sort of replacement. Brake wear can't really be assessed on a mileage basis.

According to Autodata, the only additional service item at 40K miles is coolant replacement, which won't add much to the cost.

If your friend is buying from a dealer, why not get the service included as part of the deal?

If buying privately, the fact a service is due should enable some leeway with the price. Go armed with a dealer quote for the service cost!

Chris

In message , john leigh writes

Oddly enough, my wife has a 2006 Yaris that has just had its 40,000 service. We had it done at a local non-Toyota garage and it cost £172.

There are no belts/chains to be replaced at this mileage, just the usual oil, filters and plugs.

I have to smile at that. My son worked for six months as a trainee car sales executive. He left because he was not prepared to put up with the dishonesty that is inherent in the business, and wanted no part of it. He worked for one of the main national dealerships (which still exists) and they got up to all sorts of things.

If a customer asked for a full service to be included in the deal - the salesman would agree immediately - but it was never done. If the customer came back to complain (a rare event - because most customers wouldn't know whether a service had been carried out or not) - then the salesman would apologise profusely and claim that it was a misunderstanding with the workshop, and if the car was brought back in then the service would be done. In fact, once again, it wouldn't. The oil would be changed - and the oil filter wiped down to look like new, but it was not changed, and nothing else would be done. It's a disgrace.

This is why I have always done my own servicing. I don't trust garages further than I can spit.

In general terms, I agree.

I spent most of my working life in a large factory, not connected in any way with the motor trade. A lot of the mechanical guys there had started out as mechanics. Most of them had changed career for exactly the same reason as your son.

However, when I ran new(er) Fords, I used a main dealer. (Gowrings, of Wokingham.) At first, I marked everything. All the filters, plugs, anything that was scheduled to be changed. They never let me down once, so I've always recommended them.

Chris

Just he usual .. air filter, oil filter, oil, spark plugs/glow plugs, pollen filter ? .. check of brake pads and discs. FLuid etc.

Name and shame kev :)

Lookers.

In message , Ret. writes

I had a bit of a gripe with a well-know Ford Main Dealer when I bought my current Mondeo at 11,000 miles/ 9 months old.

The claim is Ford Direct Prepared, but when I checked the oil I found it looked 11,000 miles old, so I went back and queried the value of buying a FDP vehicle if it hadn't even had the oil changed.

They refused my request for a service, pointing out that it wasn't due for 1000 miles, and after some unpleasant words on both sides, they agreed to change the oil. I checked that this had been done, and went away disillusioned with FD, except for the 2 year warranty and RAC membership.

Look elsewhere next time?

I can vouch for that happening , i was refitting a large dealership in solihull some years ago and it was common practice for the cars to be fastracked as the mechanic used to call it.

One of the problems with large dealerships is the way mechanics are paid , they get a large bonus for completeing services quicker than the recomended time and for value added work such as recomending brake pad changes as they wont last until the next service , given the length of most service intervals now this should be expected , often the pads will have many thousands of miles left in them , and of courseyou always need new disks .

They tried that on my daughter on her 106 pads and disks £250.00 plus vat , her boyfreinds a mechanic and basically told her to tell them to f*ck off both were fine , infact when they did need replaceing 12 months later the bill for the pads was £14.00 and disks £21.00 and it took about 20 minutes to replace them