DO I REALLY NEED TO HAVE MY CAR SERVICED BY MY LOCAL DEALERSHIP

Alright congratulations you’ve recently purchased a brand new car. Whilst purchasing a new car is extremely exciting for lots of people once you’ve done a couple of thousand kilometres you’re going to need to start considering which mechanic you will choose to service your new car.

Now this decision can be tough for many people. Usually your car dealer will offer you some sort of capped price servicing deal, and they absolutely encourage you to use their service bays at the dealership. Why is it that they do this? The answer is quite simple. Once you’ve purchased your new car, and then you start having your vehicles serviced by your dealership they actually make more money out of ongoing servicing of your new car then they do out of the actual sale. So often what happens, and what the sales people are instructed to do, is to lead you to believe that you must have your new car serviced at your local dealership otherwise you will void your new car warranty.

In Australia, this is actually untrue. I would advise you to check your local state laws, however my experience in the past has been that as long as your mechanic is registered and qualified in your state, and can prove their trade qualification, and use as recommended parts as per the manufacturer’s specifications, they should be able to perform your service and fill out and stamp your vehicles log book service handbook.

Obviously, you need to be very diligent and make sure you have a trusted mechanic in your local area, that you know can perform your servicing. In my experience, one of the best ways to find a trusted local car mechanic if you don’t have one, is to do some Internet searches and find local mechanics in your area who have lots of positive Google reviews.