Indeed, technically you shouldn’t have to use dealerships for the reasons you state. However, I still maintain that it’s worth doing while the car is in warranty. It’s very easy for a dealer to initially push back on a claim (and they vary on this greatly), even though you know consumer law supports you there’s no means by which to compel them to do anything in a reasonable timeframe. So your car sits there broken while you spend a fortnight chasing them in the hope they’ll do the right thing, and after you realise they’re simply going to dig in you spend another month waiting for the matter to be listed with the relevant tribunal for remediation, and after that it may be listed for a hearing. By this time you’re exasperated, your car has been immobile for a couple of months, and you face the prospect of a hearing that doesn’t meet your expectations. Even if it goes your way you face the prospect of having it repaired by a dealership that may be inclined to do only the barest of work to fix the problem, over several weeks instead of days because it’ll be treated as a ‘fill in’ job.
Dealer servicing hurts - especially at 6 month intervals! - but I reckon it’s worth the short term pain in cost compared to the inconvenience and anxiety that could arise if you tried to make a claim having used an independent garage.
Would be interesting if some folks called (or better emailed) their servicing dealer or car company and asked what their respective positions would be, the responses could be interesting.
