car service at non dealer garage and effect on warranty

Hi,

I'm wondering what the story is with getting my Mazda 6 serviced by a non Mazda service agent.

The car is still in first year of warranty, but what are implications on warranty if service not carried out by Mazda dealer or does it matter as long as service manual is stamped?

Thanks

Randy

AFAIK as long as it is serviced by a qualified machanic and it can be shown that the parts used were suitable then the warranty has to stand.

There was a driecctive from EU to open up all this.

My mate owns a garage he has serviced cars that are in waranty in other places never an issue.

Any garage that tell you otherwise is a liar.

All our company vans are service by an independant gagrage different place to my mate. Whenever there is a waranty issue he just goes straight back to Ford.

Again no problem.

Shouldnt be an issue. However main dealers have been difficult about it.

I was in the same position earlier in the year.
I bought an `08 car which still had 3 years manufacturers warranty left on it and it had not had it`s first service yet.
After much discussion about it I decided to go with a main dealer service as there was little or no difference with the charge my local mechanic would charge anyway.
There was a modification to be done which was done under warranty and I probably wouldn`t have known about it had I gave it to my mechanic.
If there was a major difference in the cost then I would go with the non-Mazda guys otherwise for peace of mind should anything controversial go amiss in the future I would go main dealer.

I think this is block exemption again.

In theory if a car is serviced exactly according to the manufacturer's instructions using approved parts and materials the manufacturer must stand by the warranty. This includes ensuring that the exact grade of oil etc. is used.

In practice there are a couple of considerations - if a car is serviced within the dealer network then there is a possibility of goodwill if a fault occurs out of warranty, this evaporates with non-dealer servicing. Also, "premium" manufacturers such as Audi will not give full trade-in value on non-network maintained vehicles, they will only give auction prices.

It's always worth remembering that you can get the car serviced within the "group" and maintain the network servicing, for example Skoda or Seat dealers will be happy to service VW or Audi cars at much lower prices.

SSE

Which Garage do you work for SSE?

My mechanic is the Bosch agent for Ireland.

He trains mechanics on the awkward diagnostic stuff.

He was the one the mechanics called when they got stuck and is still getting in yolks that other garages including main dealers can not nail down.

He has newer diag gear than the local porsche garage ( in fairness only because he bought his after they did)

He spent 10 years training mechanics for top marks before trying his hand at his own business.

I know who I want servicing my car

The correct grade of oil and OEM parts can be obtained easily.

If you want to hold waranty just ask them to use the correct stuff.

Ha! I've been stung too often with dealer servicing that left a lot to be desired. A mate told me how he'd been getting his A6 serviced from new at a Skoda garage (in the UK) at just over 1/2 of Audi prices, plus he had taken it in for warranty work at the Audi dealer and it was fixed without a murmur. I just wish I'd thought of it.

SSE

I don't having a full main dealer history means as much as it used to. IMO the poor standard of servicing by dealers (in general) and better experience from independent specialists has diluted the value in having a main dealer service history.