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On Sun, 6 Feb 2011, tom wrote:
On a lot of modern cars there is an attempt to prevent you accessing the cars computer via DRM laws etc. There was a law going through the European Parliament to make it illegal to have your car looked at anywhere other than an approved garage. Not sure if it got kicked out or put to one side for later.
There's something called the "Block Exemption" law passed in 2003 which means that your car manufacturers warranty is valid if it's serviced at a non-manufacturer owned garage, but AIUI, it still must be "approved", however I don't know who does the approval - I suspect you need the right diagnostic kit and facilities. Once outside warranty, then it's up to you, of-course.
I've just used the facilities of http://www.servicingstop.co.uk/ to get my car serviced and MOTd, however I would not recommend them, nor will I use them ever again as their price was actually higher than Mercedes would have charged me for a standard "level 2" service - Merc. includes all the consumables in the price they give you, Servicing stop didn't - and they didn't warn me of this either. I also found it very frustrating to have to deal with a call centre (in the UK) who then called the garage, etc. rather then deal with the garage directly. They seem to tie the garages up into exclusivity contracts too, so while I was happy with the garages work, I can't go directly to them, but must always use Servicing Stop...
My cars original 4-year warranty expires this month anyway, so I'll be shopping around for the next service, and doing bits of it myself - changing oil/filters, coolant and brakes isn't a big deal for me, but the garage can use their diagnostics to check the tuning, emissions, etc.
And does anyone actually check the service records when buying a 2nd hand car privately? I'm not sure for a car over 6-8 years, it's worth it unless it's a really good car...
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq