REGULAR MAINTENANCE

Is your car due for a service?

What is a service and why do I need it?

What is required?

What will it cost?

Read on for the answers to these questions and a little about Euromotive's approach to the mystery world of a service!.

Service or Regular Maintenance
Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation and confusion as to what constitutes a service.  This is evidenced by the many inquiries we get along the lines of "how much is a service"?  Our answer is always the same, "it depends on what service your vehicle is due for"!

What does a service mean?  Firstly, a better description is "regular maintenance" as that is what it is.  Most mechanical devices require regular maintenance to ensure they perform as expected over their design lives.  Space shuttles, aircraft, ships, cars and down to the humble push bike all require regular maintenance and the occasional repair throughout their lives.  Manufacturers of these machines provide a recommended maintenance schedule to ensure they perform as expected over their lives.

The manufacturer of your car publishes the recommended regular maintenance usually in the form of a schedule as part of the owners book or separate service booklet.  Listed in the schedule is what needs to be done and when.  Time and distance the vehicle has traveled are usually used to determine the regular maintenance intervals.  This is why if your car is fitted with a digital electronic service reminder it may display that a service is required even though the vehicle may not have traveled the distance specified between services.  For example if the interval is specified as 6months or 10,000km then the reminder will illuminate 6months after the last service even though the vehicle may not have covered 10,000km and visa versa.

Consider the cases of the mythical little old lady who drives to the shops once a week and may cover less than 2000km per year versus the country sales rep who does 50,000km per year.  Regular maintenance requirements for both are vastly different over say a two year time frame.  Following the manufactures service schedule will provide the appropriate maintenance service for both motorists.

So to sum up; manufactures specify a maintenance service regime that if followed will virtually ensure your vehicle is reliable, fuel efficient, safe and environmentally friendly as possible.

What is Required?
A vehicle manufacturer's service or regular maintenance schedule will specify various lubricants, fluids, filters and other service replacement parts that require replacement at the appropriate distance traveled and or time since the last service.

Some examples of typical service requirements are;

Engine oil to be changed at 20,000km or 12 months

Spark plugs at 60,000km or 3 years

Air cleaner element  40,000km or 2 years

Brake fluid; 2 years or 40,000km whichever the sooner.

Timing belt 4 years or 80,000km whichever the sooner.

Your vehicle's specific service schedule is based on "average" motoring and there is always some "fine print" that says arduous conditions will require more frequent servicing.  Arduous conditions are usually defined as small annual distances, frequent short journeys, extreme temperatures or dusty conditions.

Euromotive interprets the manufacturer's service schedule and performs the various services accordingly, taking into account your particular driving circumstances.  You have peace of mind knowing that your vehicle is serviced as the manufacturer intended.  

Euromotive does not expect the customer to know all this or indeed what is needed at a particular service.  That is our job and we use a simple paper chart for each vehicle to keep track of what is due, what has been done and what needs to be done.  We call this your "Service Summary".  We first developed this in 2000 as we couldn't find computer software that allows the flexibility we require to apply service schedules in the real world.

Euromotive provides these services in a professional manner at all times which has earned us the respect of our customers and colleagues within the automotive service and repair industry.

Euromotive services performed to these standards means that we "do it right or not at all".  If you want a cut price "service" then please exit this website now and find a "repairer" that does cheap cut price work.  We certainly don't regard ourselves as being cheap and take pride in that, possibly a shock to some who read this!


What will it cost?
By now you will have a good idea of Euromotive's services and our philosophy behind how we perform services.  It amazes us that some "competitors" will offer a "service" for at times less than $100!  This is particularly applicable to franchised chains.  How they can advertise any price when they haven't even seen a vehicle or spoken to the owner leaves us mystified.

Euromotive believes that before making any decision on your service provider, including us, a vehicle owner should ask questions such as;

Is the oil to be used approved by the manufacturer of the vehicle?
Modern high technology cars with 20,000km or 12month oil change intervals such as Peugeot, Citroen and Renault have vastly different requirements than a 10year old car, even if its an earlier Peugeot.  A current example is diesel engines with particulate exhaust filters, a generic "suits all" grade of oil will damage these.  Lubricants suitable for todays longer oil change intervals are more expensive but this is offset with less frequent changes.

What else is required to be done at this service?
Any service provider giving a professional service should ask you if you have the service history of the vehicle for at least the last two years.  From this they will be able to determine what is needed if you are not sure.  They may also offer to contact a manufacture's dealer for service details if the vehicle has been previously serviced by them.  Most professional independent workshops have a respectful rapport with dealers' service staff.

Are you familiar with these types of cars?
A specialist independent service and repair workshop builds up a vast knowledge of a particular make of vehicle that they specialize in.  The customer then benefits by the repairer knowing the solution to a previously encountered problem and often an economical repair solution is known from previous experience.

After reading the above information you will have an idea of some factors that are involved in providing a befitting service for your vehicle.  We believe that service and repairs on modern "state of the art" cars such as Peugeot, Citroen and Renault can only realistically be performed by appropriately trained and experienced technicians.  The era of the "grease monkey" is well and truly over.

Professional technicians need to be realistically rewarded which unfortunately wasn't the case not too long ago.  In addition there are significant costs involved in keeping up to date with developments in modern car technology and updating of service and diagnostic equipment.

So how much will it cost?  Definitely more than franchised chains so called "full service",  "lube and oil change service", "fixed price service" etc etc but less than the manufacturer's dealer.

Euromotive customers are loyal, expect the job to be done right the first time and are satisfied to pay appropriately.  In our view this is how the industry should be.  People don't ask doctors for a cheap job!