How Much Does It Cost To Service A Car

How Much Does it Cost to Service a Machine in 2022

If you're new to the world of motoring, you might be surprised at how much it costs to go along a car running each yr. From tax and insurance to fuel bills and repairs, costs tin rack upward both quickly and unexpectedly! To assist newbie drivers get a grip on motoring costs, we've researched how much, on average, information technology costs to service a car.

Not merely that, nosotros've sourced prices for iii different vehicles. Later all, anybody has different tastes and the toll of keeping a Porsche on the route will be vastly different to that of a Ford Ka.

On this folio, yous'll detect a researched price guide for the servicing of:

A Nissan Micra – the ideal small city car
Ford Focus – the perfect mid-range and everyday motorcar
A sporty BMW M235i – not quite top of the range just platonic for those of yous that desire something more than powerful

Where Did These Car Service Prices Come From?

Nosotros asked 25 machine repair and maintenance garages in the south of the UK to provide u.s. with quotes for each of the iii cars.

Just to mix things upward a fiddling, we deliberately chose a mixture of national firms and smaller local businesses.

When Were These Servicing Prices Gathered?

The price of a automobile service has been steadily increasing year on yr, roughly in line with aggrandizement. We await it to go on to do so for the foreseeable future.

The automobile servicing market is extremely competitive in the UK and there is zilch to suggest this is going to modify anytime soon.

We first contacted the motorcar servicing garages in 2019 and repeated the process in 2021, just to keep this page upward to date, we got fresh quotes in Apr 2022 and updated the prices beneath to reflect current pricing – We found that prices hadn't increased by much at all in the last three years, which was surprising.

Can You Answer This Ane Question?

Throughout our website, we like to inquire our visitors how much they think certain projects will cost as we are conducting research into the difference betwixt the actual price and how much consumers recall it volition cost.

The question below is entirely optional just reply it and yous can see how others voted:

What's the Divergence Between an Acting Service and a Total Car Service?

The level of service required for your car will depend on the service schedule created by the manufacturer.

In general, in that location are two types of service:

An interim service – this replaces the oil and oil filter and includes a top-up of the lubricants, coolants and screenwashes etc. There are also a few bones checks carried out depending on the manufacturer'south recommendations.
A full service – this replaces the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, any microfilters and all the fluids and coolants are drained and replaced with new ones. Extra checks of specific parts are also carried out, using the manufacturer's recommendations as a guideline.

Each garage will also include its own series of checks which are in addition to the in a higher place. You'll also need to pay extra for additional replacement parts should they be needed.

More details about the key differences between an interim and full service can be found here.

How Oftentimes Should a Car be Serviced?

Cars are becoming more mechanically reliable and the onetime suggestion of a full service every year or 10,000 miles is no longer relevant for many mod vehicles.

Every car is different and yous should check with the manufacturer but equally a full general dominion of pollex for regular cars:

Running-in service at year 1.
Full service at year 2.
Acting service at year 3.
Full service at year 4
Repeat total/acting services each alternate year.

How ofttimes the auto really requires a service volition depend on whether it'due south a regular or high-operation car, its historic period, mileage and as well how it's driven. For example, those that drive aggressively or even take their vehicles onto a race rails should service more oftentimes.

The website of your manufacturer should display a service guide for your car, this would be a great place to find a suggested service schedule.

As an case; nearly of the BMW service schedules we looked at suggested a service every 18,000 miles or 2 years, whichever came sooner. Yet several well-known garages nosotros asked suggested that every auto should exist serviced once per twelvemonth regardless of brand and mileage.

Our Car Service Cost Guide: Updated For 2022

Beneath you lot'll find the results of our car servicing cost guide for each of the three cars.

Don't forget, these are averages of the 25 prices given to u.s. for each car.

Generally, national "main" dealerships will charge more than your local garage, although we were surprised past the similarity in prices for the smaller vehicles. We were expecting a wider gulf between the big nationals and the local firms.

We promise you find our data insightful:

Nissan Micra 2014

Beneath you lot'll see the average cost for a total service to a 2014 Nissan Micra, this data is based on 25 quotes:

Projection:	Toll:
Total Service - Nissan Micra	£170.00

Ford Focus 2014

For the ever-popular Ford Focus, the going rate is:

Project:	Toll:
Full Service - Ford Focus	£215.00

BMW M235i 2014

The sporty but non top of the range BMW M235i costs to service, based on our enquiry:

Projection:	Price:
Full Service - M235i	£380.00

Why Is At that place Such a Big Departure Between Car Service Prices?

The blazon of oil required for your car volition have a big impact on the price, with constructed and specialist oils existence the virtually costly.

Filters too price much more on sports cars such as the BMW than on more than popular cars such as the Ford Focus.

Don't forget that our prices are averages and are based on 25 quotes.

Shop around as we did and you lot'll probably be surprised at the wide range of prices you're given.

Become a Improve Bargain by Combing a Service With an MOT

MOT pricing is determined by the Department for Ship which publishes the prices on its website.

The most a garage tin charge you for a car MOT in 2021 is £54.85.

Many MOT garages offer discounts if y'all accept a service done at the same time.

For case, Halfords currently offer an MOT and service for merely £185 which is £35 cheaper than purchasing both separately.

Exercise I Demand to Get My Car Serviced at the Main Dealership to Protect My Warranty?

You lot can have your machine serviced past any competent person and information technology shouldn't affect your warranty provided they replaced any parts with original parts and the service interval was as per the manufacturer'southward guidelines

It's unlikely that your manufacturer will honour a warranty if the cause of the fault was non-original parts being fitted or substandard work.

The Car Expert has created an informative help guide on choosing the right garage for you. merely in a nutshell, no you lot don't have to become your automobile serviced at a main dealership to preserve the warranty.

Under United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland/Eu law, automobile manufacturers cannot invalidate the warranty just considering you lot got the car serviced at a unlike garage.

They can invalidate it, or parts of information technology, if your mechanic didn't use 18-carat parts and this led to a failure.

This guide to auto servicing costs was written by and was last updated in April 2022.

You'll find many more cost guides in our motoring corner where we delve into the costs of car ownership and maintenance.

Visit our Motoring Corner today.

Author - Danny Woodley