Vehicle Service Schedules / Access to Manufacturer Information

It’s a good suggestion @samwardill, I’ll pass it on to our campaigns team. We’ve done articles before, but to be fair these are probably due for refreshing.

3 Likes

I just looked at the articles. There is nothing on the industry wide issue of excessive servicing regimes. I made a contact on LinkedIn that might be useful (albeit he works in the industry). I’ll see if he is willing to explain. He would probably say it is due to the fuel standards but then that would still be a worthwhile cause for Choice to pursue. He has argued previously that Australia gets less developed country car models because we do not have developed country fuel standards. This is presumably because companies owning refineries in Australia lobby against tighter fuel standards. The knock on impact of this is that we also have lower emissions standards so more particulates & NOx are pumped into the atmosphere.

2 Likes

It is not just vehicles, it is almost everything. Manufacturers were still selling VHS here like there was no tomorrow while the rest of the developed world had moved on to PVRs, then ‘we’ were blessed with SD PVRs while HD was rolling in. And so it goes. There is a history where ‘we’ seem to be the last dumping ground of choice (no pun intended) for most all outmoded, superseded technologies and products.

5 Likes

This is the guy https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-mcguiness/. I will ask him but Choice might get more response @BrendanMays

2 Likes

Thanks for the info, much appreciated :+1:

1 Like

A post was split to a new topic: Australia’s weaker emission standards

Having been retrenched and suddenly using my Toyota Corrola much less, Toyota continued to undertake the service regime appropriate for a car being driven many more kilometres. With the car out of warranty and after a very expensive service, I shifted locally and was told Toyota should have been following the much less expensive servicing for lower kilometres which is indicated in the back of the servicing booklet. My mechanic maintains that the oil needs to be changed 6 monthly.

1 Like

Toyota or the Registered Motor Dealer who had a Toyota dealership agreement?

The car makers or the importers are one step removed from the customer. It would be interesting to hear from Toyota Australia on the behaviour of the dealer/service agent.

This highlights one of the great challenges for consumers in changing the motor vehicle industry. There is a firewall between the importer (who may be an extension of the manufacturer) and the customer, created by a sales and marketing focused organisation, the motor dealers!

Any call for change needs to target both layers directly.
The dealers would seem unlikely to ever agree to anything different to what the manufacturers/importers accept. And perhaps the vehicle importers or manufacturers have no desire to involve themselves in any way in the day to day operation of the motor dealers, to ensure the degree of separation remains?

Mark it was the Toyota dealership under Toyota’s name, but they were paranoid about getting positive reports from customers as anything less than near perfect feedback wasn’t seen as acceptable by Toyota they intimated. It’s a while back, but I stopped the feedback questionnaires as I didn’t want to deal with all the texts and emails. It was my impression they were under considerable pressure from Toyota to maintain Toyota’s reputation.

Those asset management /engineering off-campus maintenance postgrad programs were developed in MonashU days but continue from Federation Uni from Gippsland Campus. Students are engineers and senior technicians in the workforce all around Oz and overseas.

Harsher conditions do indeed cause more wear. We are all familiar with the instructions to “replace every xxxxx kms or yyyy months whichever occurs first”. It is incorrect to assume low mileage car does not need to comply with the time period. A good example would be timing belts. Even if a vehicle has had “local shops only” use, fumes and atmospheric conditions will compromise belts and failure can be catastrophic. Find a local mechanic with a good reputation and be guided by him.

4 Likes

A bad example would be platinum spark plugs. Whether 12 or 120 months old, at 22,000 km they do not need to be replaced just because their time is up. They might need replacing if the get damaged or degraded, but not time - unless an expert can correct me on that.

Most service schedules assume 15K or 20K km p.a. and schedule such replacements accordingly. I had to replace a perfectly good set just because and was not happy, but the choice was to void the remaining warranty or not.

Some bits degrade with time or environment such as belt and hoses and rubber-ish type things, and others don’t. Some bits such as cam belts can be costly if they fail so prudence is warranted, others such as spark plugs don’t have the same gravity.

I subscribe to that good advice.

2 Likes

Ray, that’s good to know. I’ve since moved on to semi retirement. I twice had the opportunity in the 90’s to have the insights of TK providing business support.

There is a growing diversity of opinions evident in this discussion thread.
It is also a very challenging topic in the complexity of the competing interests.
From a Choice consumer perspective consumers are seeking solutions that provide better value.

Competing interests include businesses seeking profit, manufacturers and service agents desires for legal certainty or protection in warranty claims, and regulators driving firstly safety standards or secondly fuel/emissions requirements. The mix of vehicle designs, usage and condition (age/wear) add to the complexity.

Consumers being able to reliably choose a competent, experienced and and fair service provider might be one way forward. This is also likely a separate topic/discussion.

With one group of consumers seeking to be better informed on key maintenance needs. I wonder if it would be possible to provide a definitive answer on many aspects given the diversity of conditions and design?

Quite simple it’s a way to make more money on servicing and parts. Once the car is out of warranty you could revert back to the once every 12 months or every 15,000.

1 Like

Hardly surprising given Toyota’s brand comes with a price premium, as does Subaru mentioned in the first post in this topic.

Hopefully the change to an independent mechanic continues to save you money. For our Toyota we have not used a dealer (aside from recalls) for nearly a decade. Prior to that we had to direct the Toyota dealership on several occasions to perform only a basic service. It takes a strong will to do so given the reactions from some of the service personnel.

I’ve also had a very negative experience with Ford and their dealerships when the Work Ute went for it’s first post warranty service, and received a long list of required repairs, that would have been evident at the previous in warranty service (at a different dealership). Given I was self employed and working remotely, pursuing Ford more directly over the issues was too much to take on at the time, although I did try to bypass the dealerships. It is an exercise in frustration and time wasting, and not aided by organisations such as the RACQ. Subsequently Choice remains one of the few organsiations I have any respect for. If we ever buy another new vehicle it will go for a full independent inspection separate to the service provider towards the end of the warranty period.

Note only:
I’m still able to do a basic service at home and have some complementary skills plus the spare time.
For any major services or repairs we continue to rely on local mechanical services. We also have located a reliable brake specialist and a tyre service centre. This work is typically subbed out by many of the dealerships, so that you pay twice when you go to a dealership service centre. A reliable local mechanical service will often recommend other dependable locals if you choose to arrange other work independently.

2 Likes

Perhaps not family friendly some of the time nor for overly sensitive folk, but John Cadogan of AutoExpert TV has many of the automotive answers most are asking.
Just a couple of his links relating to service intervals below:


7 Likes

I have people having heated arguments over services premium fuel, etc on YouTube and forums. So this is not a topic that I want to discuss typically :slight_smile:.

I’m not an expert, this is just the information that I have received.

I also drive a Subaru. You must services the car as soon as the recommended milage or the time (6 months) has passed, if you want to maintain the car in good condition, that’s what my friend ( who works at a Subaru service centre) told me.

You don’t have to take the car to a Subaru dealer for the service. That’s enough for to satisfy any warranty conditions.

I would not wait 12 months for a service, personally.

2 Likes

My now-elderly Suzuki Ignis gets serviced at the time its rego is due, so every 12 months which is what the manual recommended. I bought it late in 2002, and since then, it has only required a couple of high cost fixes. It has served me well, but would have been costing a lot more had I done the 6 monthly services as requested by various mechanics over the years.

It should be noted that I drive my car infrequently these days, probably <5000 km p/a and even now its only done just over 125,000 km. And its going great.

1 Like

Entertaining @V8Snail, and informative for the everyday driver in an everyday more modern vehicle.
A good find and great contribution to the discussion.

2 Likes

Yes, very interesting and answers @timetaxi question why, even though it may be rather colourful commentary.

What he says about drivers/owners not checking fluids/lights/tyres etc regularly is so true. My last job the fleet manager would send out regular emails to remind staff to check vehicles before and during company vehicle use as they were getting reports from the servicing mechanics that many of the fluids were low/empty. At the end of his reminder email he also said that an empty windscreen washer bottle could render a vehicle unroadworthy and the driver (not the company) would be responsible should a fine/defect notice be issued. I never new if it was true, but it did make one check the vehicle regularly.

1 Like