its soon time to service my high milage 2006 NC again, the car has done over 130.000 miles and always been serviced at Mazda before and during my ownership. I used to bring the car to EMG in Cambridge when Robbie still worked there, but with him having left and me also relocated to a village some 25 miles from Cambridge it is not as obvious as before where to drop the car. I recently had issues with an oxygen sensor that EMG wanted about 500 pounds to change (a price I found ridiculous) so I dropped the car at a well renowned local garage instead that charged me 50 pounds to change it for a new third part sensor (from MX-5 parts) that I provided them with. The garage gave a very good impression and I have several neighbours that praise them so I am tempted to ask them to do the service of the MX-5 from now on.
Question is if I am loosing out on future resale value or not by ending a clean run of online service history, or whether it makes much difference for a 11 year old car with high milage. Thoughts and comments welcome!
I would only use a Mazda Dealer while the car is under warranty. My previous 2009 NC was serviced by the garage I bought the car from. They always did a great job, using either Mazda original parts or parts/consumables I supplied them with. If they come with good recommendations and offer good value I would go with them. As long as you keep all your service receipts you should have no issues
Full service history is always needed when you sell a car. Does not really matter who serviced it as long as the work was done. At 130000 miles you have to be realistic in the value of your car. I compromise. I let the main dealer do the servicing but any repairs I let my local Bosch garage to do the work
Mine’s 10 yrs old this year, been self serviced now for 4 of those years. I hope it doesn’t affect the sell on value if ever that comes soon, my last two MX-5’s sold pretty quickly with vitually no SH apart from the records I kept whilst in my ownership. Showing you have a FSH is great, I don’t think on older cars it’s going to cut any ice with prospective buyers that you have gone to an independant, keep all receipts and get the book stamped (if supplied), job done.
Your car is maybe worth £1,500 on a good day there is a similar mileage car on Autotrader at a dealer for £2,650, the dealer needs £1,000 to turn around a car so what are you worried about. In reality anyone would buy an other car with a lesser mileage as there was one for £2,200 and 90k miles at £2,200 with a full service history.
If you are happy with your local garage then just use them.
If you ask your local garage for a letterhead you can do the work of registering them on the Mazda European portal 10 minutes work at most and they can fill out the Mazda Digital Service record when they have serviced your car.
I self service all my cars out or warranty and just bought a rubber stamp that cost say £5 and I stamp the service book myself and the last three cars I have traded in, I just produced the stamped handbook and not one garage looked at it.
There is no service book for the MK3 so that will sort it.
Procedure here, I have done that for a few local garages.
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The important issue is proper maintenance of a car. Servicing typically looks after the engine and other running gear but the body needs to be cared for too to avoid rust and other issues.
A 2006 MK3 car with 130k could be scrap value or worth £3k+. That depends at least as much on you and your attitude as it does on the person who services the car(ideally you too).
Nobody buys a rusty, uncared for car with a great service record - at 11 years old the car is judged on condition and performance as well as obvious evidence of regular servicing.
You have apparently done the right thing and already saved a good chunk of the top value of your car on the lambda sensor alone - £500 is a joke!
A service history helps sell a car. But it doesn’t matter a jot who services it. I wouldn’t use a main dealer after the warranty has run out. Going to Mazda with an 11 year old is a waste of money.
Thanks everyone! I think you convinced me to opt for the local garage, I will check if they can add the data to the online service book. If not I will still have detailed receipts to prove the job has been done.
Cheers!
For all of my cars I have always had a clip file and attached notebook in which I keep records of everything I do to them, in this I also record average fuel consumptions etc.
These records are not only for my use and general information but also they have proved to be of great value when it comes to selling them.
I keep an excel spreadsheet for each of my vehicles. I record date, mileage, work carried out and cost. This is backed up with a folder with the receipts. I also record my petrol cost, litres and mileage. On the log sheet I will also record the routine top ups of oil etc and observations.
This may seem a bit OTT but with 4 cars and 2 motorcycles to maintain it is the only way to remember what has and needs to be done. When I have sold something buyers are very appreciative. I carry out most of my mechanical repairs so rarely have garage bills.
I service my '5s myself. However, they all came with copious and extensive service history, so I’ve continued that by keeping receipts, taking lots of pics (some of them showing the old oil draining from the sump - REALLY exciting stuff ). Then assemble together in a Word doc as bullet points of everything done, with inserted colour pics, and the receipts scanned in. Couple of pages for each service - a neat and unequivocal ‘DIY’ service history.
One of my Roadsters came with a A4 notebook full of scribbled services, and random receipts. Doesn’t mean jack as the owner could have just whipped it together in the week before sale. And I have spent 3 years undoing the bodges of this “meticulous” owner.
