- My model of MX-5 is: 2.0 ND Homura
- I’m based near: East Yorkshire
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on:
Ring up, book it in, get it done?
Just booked my car in for its first service at a Mazda main dealer. Cheeky monkeys are going to charge me £236.94 for what is really just an oil & filter change. They also kindly offered me an “engine flush” and a “fuel system” flush for about £50 each. (Whatever those are) I declined their kind offer/s.
I had my Elgrand’s oil changed earlier at the local import place I got it from. Admittedly I supplied the oil (Shell Helux Ultra 5w-30 A5/B5 fully synthetic), but it was mad to see how ‘little’ work it is, really, for dealers to charge £237 for! And it’s good in the local garage that I can stand around talking to the mechanic whilst he does it.
Anyway, £70 all in for oil change labour, a new oil filter, plus two bulbs which were intermittent on the back. I paid £35 (IIRC) for the oil on eBay, so £105 in total.
Mad how much dealerships charge (I do still go to a main dealer from my other motors, so I’m not dissing people going). ANd they tried to get an oil flush and fuel system flush out of you too, on the first service as well!! lol
Edit: I think those are known as a ‘wallet flush’
I buy a “service kit” from Mazda and my son carries out the service. He is a fully trained Ford Vehicle Technician.
Service kit comprises of oil (I keep the leftovers for topping up throughout the year), filter and sump washer.
In past years that has cost me £125 
.
Add two hours labour at £50 and hour and the Mazda quoted price seams about right.
Remember on the ND a cover plate with about 10 bolts needs to be removed to get access to the oil filter. I would hope that the service technician gives the car a quick once over in case something is amiss.
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Two hours to do an oil change and ‘quick inspection’?
Also, have a look at your last main dealership print out. If its says £50 an hour a labour ,can you let us in who it is…as I think all of us would be driving to that dealership lol
Your service kit is also paying top draw, non trade price too- they wouldn’t be paying their supplier £125 for 5L of oil, an oil filter and a sump washer.
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The £50 per hour was a guess 
.
I don’t doubt I am paying premium for the oil. The only advantage going to Mazda for it is that I get a Mazda headed receipt with my name and registration on. I keep that in the history file.
I dare not say how much I paid for brake fluid from them, suffice to say it’s recorded on an receipt for the second year service.
It seemed logical approach at the time. Fourth year service is due in March next year. I might rethink my strategy for that one. If I don’t I am going to get stung again for the cost of the brake fluid 
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£50 per hour is cheap at a main dealer! Think mine is over £100 per hour 
However, I would expect the first service to only be ~£180 including labour (£80 on parts and £100 on labour)
If you want a full breakdown:
Prices may be marginally out of date
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^ that might be before the 20% VAT? Unless I missed it.
Unit prices are what you would pay to do it yourself so include VAT from memory, I think they are from MX5 Parts
I made that a while ago to work out what the service plan prices were really like
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Latest MX5 Parts prices for genuine Mazda parts where possible:
- Spark Plugs (per plug): £24.97
- Air Filter: £28.82
- Oil (per Litre): £16.26
- Oil Filter: £9.84
- Coolant (per Litre): £3.02
- Brake Fluid (per Litre): £9.94
- Transmission Oil (per Litre): £14.75
There are other consumables that are missed such as a sump plug washer at ~£1 etc. but the spreadsheet gives a general idea
Bringing this back on topic, can you please ask for a full breakdown of the costs as that seems astronomical
I can provide you will breakdowns from my recent services to compare (basically what I put in the spreadsheet) if wanted
I can also provide what service plan quotes as required which is where I got the labour hours from
lol, there are so many mugs walking around these days, it’s unreal. What is the point in getting main dealer receipts? So you can get a thousand pounds more when you sell the car? Yet you’ve wasted more than that when you owned it by taking it to a bunch of merchants. Do the work yourself or with friends wherever possible, keep receipts for your quality parts and fluids in your little file with all the other stuff that prospective buyers never read anyway. Nobody even trusts main dealer service history anymore because so many car companies have messed up their PR: too much unreliable ■■■■ is on the market; too many parts with no long-term testing made of bloody plastic; too many horror stories getting out on the normyweb; untrained, overworked “technicians” in the workshops with their hands tied behind their backs with red tape. The technicians never deal with the customers anyway so they can’t bring themselves to care about their work.
Do you really think some kid fresh out of college without a clue about anything in life and next to no experience can do an oil change better than you can? Because that’s who’s changing your oil: Some clueless kid on little more than minimum wage. Granted, he’ll learn in time, but he’s practicing on YOUR CAR!!!
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Main main dealers are generally a con for parts and labour rates in my experience with most services constituting little more than oil and filter whilst ‘inspecting’ other things, if they even bother to do that. accompanied by the receipt and stamp which is really what you’re paying for. Ive even had to explain their own service bulletins to them (ford) on 2 occasions as they weren’t aware of any issues.
Every bad garage experience I ever had was with main dealers, and as soon as the warranty was up I either carried it out myself from then on or took it to a local garage I trust.
Previous owner of my car never had a bill less that £500 for servicing and never did more than a 1000 miles between these. They wanted discs changed and pads, which were all very good . Its quite embarrasing looking through the invoices he paid. Its not like it was under any warranty either. The amount of advisories with the service would make you baulk at the prices.
I guess with most Mazdas having extra long service intervals, they are trying to cream their monies in ways of working on people being, averagely unaware of the scam.
As for buying service parts from MX5 parts. Thats not happening at those prices either !!!
I would imagine I will get a break down on a service receipt when I pay for the service, so will post costs on here.
Top your screen washer bottle up before taking for a service, probably £10 saved there😁
Probably the air into the tyres is still free, who knows🤔
Sadly, it does not work. When I had a Mazda 6 serviced circa 15 to 20 years ago, I topped mine up to the brim. When I went to pay, the invoice showed a £5 charge for adding washer fluid. When I queried this, I was told the service chap tried to add more, leaving a part filled bottle in the boot.
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@FastH Out of interest, did you ring up any other main dealers in the locality to check on pricing? As when I last needed to use a main dealer for servicing, I was surprised at the difference in cost for what was the same requirement (first variable service on a leased VW). Different franchises with different profit margin aims was my logical reasoning.
I got the impression most owners just took it in, without asking for a price beforehand. One dealership didn’t even get back to me with a price!
Not sure where in East Yorkshire you are - the nearest would be Hull/Grimsby/York/Doncaster for main dealers if I had to hazard a guess.
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