30000 MIle Service

Complete waste of money. Do it yourself.

 

as you will see repeated here countless times, follow the service
schedule as per the owners manual. if no service/replacement/change is
specified, leave it alone. and be very careful if you do a transmission
fluid change - make sure the procedure used is drain and fill, not
"flush". use the specified honda fluid on that one.

 

Find the owner's manual to your shiny toy, then look up what maintenance
the MANUFACTURER recommends. Do what you can yourself, then pay someone
else to do the rest.

Don't worry about what the DEALER SERVICE people recommend. What they
recommend is that you pay them lots and lots of money--which has nothing
to do with what the car needs.

 

What he said.

It bears repeating: Your local dealer is NOT "Honda". Auto dealers are
independent companies. They simply hold a franchise to sell a particular
automaker's products, this franchise being purchased (or leased, I'm not
sure) from the automaker.

The franchise agreement includes (among other things) the right to:
- have their technicians factory-trained;
- purchase parts and materials from the automaker's regional subsidiary;
- have access to factory documentation;
- fly the automaker's colors at their store;
- benefit from national advertising by the automaker.

Dealerships are otherwise free to do pretty much whatever they want,
including recommending their own maintenance schedules and using whatever
parts and materials they wish to fix your car, OEM or aftermarket.

Once new cars are delivered to the dealer by Honda, their ownership changes
hands. Honda no longer owns the vehicles, the dealership does. This is true
even as the dealer makes payments to Honda for the cars before they are
sold.

Your Owner's Manual was printed for you -- the consumer -- on behalf of
Honda, not the dealer. It was placed in your glove box by the Honda
assembly plant, not the dealer. It contains whatever Honda wants you to do
for your car's health, not the dealer. Honda's specs are what is important,
not what the dealer says in his signage or in those flyers in your mailbox.

 

The Honda dealer I use is perhaps a little more upfront than others. They
offer the basic factory service listed in the owner's manual and several
"gilt edged" options that can double the price. Stick with what HOnda lists.

 

If it is an Accord I just went through the same process. I specified that I
wanted what was in the manual + change in transmission fluid (this is not
called for until 60,000 miles but I have a V6 and had heard that the V6
Accord AT likes pampering). Total cost for my service was $165 as opposed to
the $400+ 30,000 service outlined on the Dealer flyer. Oh I did change the
cabin air filter myself since it was a 5 minute job and the filter was $15
at local auto parts store (came with instructions). That saved me about $80.
If you are really frugal you can actually wash the existing filter. It is
some kind of polymer and does not fall apart when washed.

 

About 400.00 at the local dealership . a lot of checking various stuff ,
transmission fluid change ( not sure why ) Oil change , tire rotation ect .
Wondering what the experts here think about it . any advice greatly
appreicated .

 

Okay, another "what he said".

Carol's 07 Camry came up for one of its scheduled services. Dealer
says "we recommend" followed by about 20 items and a $95 price tag.
Manual says oil, rotate and check fluids.

 

That sounds like $100 at a dealership to me...

 

I think you'll find most people think $4oo is cheap and have better things
to do with their lives

Also no service history for a car with only 30k on it?

wouldn't touch it with a barge pole mate

 

Sensible comment. I earn as much per hour as the mechanic.
So I figure its cheaper to let the expert do it faster.
If you arent macking as much per hour as the dealer mechanic is
charging,
then you are in the wrong profession.

Plus maintenance is about a sixth of my annual car cost.
Gasoline has doubled from a quarter to a half.

 

Don't know where you live but shop rates in California are about $135/hr.
Since State + Federal top marginal tax rate in California is 46% you need to
make about $200/hr to pay the shop $135/hr after taxes. So by your reasoning
if you make less than $200/hr you are in the wrong profession. Now if you
want to argue limited knowledge and skills, burned arms, scraped knuckles
and lack of a lift you probably have a point. But after taxes my time is
certainly worth less/hr than what I pay the shop.

 

Has the penny not dropped?

The mechanic does not get every cent of the 135 0r 200 - some of it might
just might go to cover overheads

 

To the customer it doesn't matter whether the mechanic gets $5 or $100/hr.
The hourly rate to the consumer is $135. To pay that you need to come up
with $135 after taxes (unless the vehicle is owned by a business and paid
for with pre tax dollars.