Popular Cars Most Neglected for Servicing..

[csv8]

USED car buyers beware. A recent study has revealed some of our most popular car brands are also the most neglected when it comes to servicing.

And prestige brands are not immune to the problem.

A survey of 74,000 Australian vehicles showed that about 14 per cent of cars on our roads are overdue for their scheduled service, risking ongoing problems or damage from dirty oil and worn parts.

Daewoo owners are worst when it comes to neglect, with close to 18 per cent of them overdue, but Holden and Ford owners are close behind at 15 per cent, while Honda and Toyota owners were at 14 per cent.

HOW DOES YOUR CAR RATE: Scroll to the bottom of this story to see the 15 most neglected brands.

Surprises in the worst 15 list were luxury brands Mercedes-Benz and BMW, with more than 13 per cent of vehicles behind service schedule.

The survey, undertaken by Kmarts Tyre & Auto Service chain, showed that cars in the Northern Territory are worst with 26 per cent past their service date, while West Australian owners are most careful, with just 6 per cent lagging behind.

The ACT is close to double in second place at 10 per cent, followed by Queensland on 11 per cent, New South Wales (16 per cent), Victoria (15 per cent), Tasmania (21 per cent) and South Australia (22 per cent).

Kmart Tyre & Auto Service spokesman Tony Skallias said cost and awareness were behind the neglect.

"There are a number of factors including family budgetary pressures and cars generally being more reliable and less prone to break down between services," he said.

"There is also a general lack of awareness of the importance of servicing and the savings to be had through a correctly serviced and well maintained vehicle."

Mr Skiallias said poorly serviced cars risked higher fuel consumption due to clogged air and fuel filters, driving unknowingly on dangerously worn tyres, brakes or shock absorbers, or catastrophic engine failure in the case of a potential broken timing belt.



MOST NEGLECTED


1. DAEWOO - 17.76%

2. HOLDEN - 15.52%

3. FORD - 15.33%

4. HONDA - 14.48%

5. TOYOTA - 14.26%

6. MITSUBISHI - 13.84%

7. HYUNDAI - 13.66%

8. KIA - 13.63%

9. MERCEDES-BENZ - 13.57%

10. SUBARU - 13.35%

11. BMW - 13.29%

12. VOLKSWAGEN - 13.07%

13. NISSAN 12.58%

14. MAZDA 12.09%

15. SUZUKI 11.00%
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/n...-1226418198858

[svo supporter]

Looks like some advertising for K-mart tyre and auto.....Now this thread is adding to some free advertising for the company.

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

Looks like some advertising for K-mart tyre and auto.....Now this thread is adding to some free advertising for the company.

I was thinking that too. When they say the servicing was overdue, how much overdue were they? They need to define what they call 'overdue'. Normally there is a tolerance such as 10% that is applied to the service intervals. Owners naturally dont worry about servicing until the odometer ticks over the km or calendar time, but then the service centre is booked out for another two weeks. Meaningless article.

[Auslandau]

Stupid stats ...... Stupid article.

Take an average and it works out at about 14% ..... which is 3% difference between the 1st and 15th.

Variance is .... well bugger all .... so it is just saying that around 14% of cars are not serviced to the manual.

Woopdy do.

[Motorbreath310]

I know a human female with an 05' cv8 Monaro that hasn't had a service in tge 4 years and 40-odd thousand km's She's owned it.


Terrible.

[Brazen]

I know a mechanic who bought a Commodore simply because he gets families never service them and they keep going and going and going, I'm sure Falcons are the same.

[hawke]

How many Mercedes owners get their cars serviced at K-Mart?

Agree that it was a meaningless survey.

[InTrail]

Originally Posted by Motorbreath310

I know a human female .....

As opposed to that other kind of female??

[WILDB]

or catastrophic engine failure in the case of a potential broken timing belt.

Alot more to be worried about than just a timing belt.....

[dallasv8]

lol, the auto in my EF hasnt been serviced in about 180 000 km

[IDT]

Ha ha. This article makes me think of my dad. He never gets any of his cars serviced. He does oil and water, yes water as he wont pay for coolant, and says the car is now serviced. He checks his brake pads every couple of years. But for the life of me I cant remember his car ever braking down. He's a legend my dear old dad.

[chevypower]

Weird...I was just writing for my studies about non-scientific research and data. My point was that I didn't believe I had ever read any scientific data in a newspaper or magazine. After reading this, I still stand by that claim. But they do seem to get the attention of their readers.

[turbodewd]

Reminds me of 2 days ago when I saw some lady in her Nissa Tiida with one half flat tire, god it looked silly. how could she not know.

[EDManual]

At mitsubishi they let you go 7500km over the handbook service before they worry about warranty issues.

Also, depending on what driving you do makes a difference.
I wouldnt worry doing well over the normal amount of km if just idling along the highway for instance.

Also out of interest at Mitsubishi they (for diesel tritons) want you do do the valve clearances every 30k km, but in having a chat with them off the record, they say dont bother (out of warranty) as they have seen engines go for 100000+km without it and theyve never seen anything go wrong. When they adjust well after due like this its just a tiny bit more wear (3 adjustments worth), which would have happened anyway with 3 expensive adjustments.

[superfly]

As a Used car buyer would you not check if the car has been serviced or not? Rather than just assuming it has?

If you buy a car on assumptions, then you're a wally.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by superfly

As a Used car buyer would you not check if the car has been serviced or not? Rather than just assuming it has?

If you buy a car on assumptions, then you're a wally.

How do you know whether it has been serviced or not???? Some people do their own servicing and don't bother putting the lovely sticker on the windscreen...Some people don't even like a sticker placed on the windscreen, even when a service has been done at a mechanical workshop.

[superfly]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

How do you know whether it has been serviced or not???? Some people do their own servicing and don't bother putting the lovely sticker on the windscreen...Some people don't even like a sticker placed on the windscreen, even when a service has been done at a mechanical workshop.

Correct. Unless the servicing is done by a dealer, you don't know if it's been serviced or not. It's up to you to work out if you're ready to accept that risk.

But to blindly believe a vehicle has been serviced and looked after is foolish.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by superfly

Correct. Unless the servicing is done by a dealer, you don't know if it's been serviced or not. It's up to you to work out if you're ready to accept that risk.

But to blindly believe a vehicle has been serviced and looked after is foolish.

Unless you're prepared to buy new everytime, you're ALWAYS going in blind...So you're always going to be foolish...It's that simple...

BTW, receipts aren't definate proof......I can make a few up to make a car look good, as far as service history is concerned, so that excuse is out the window...

Bottom line...This thread appears to be free advertising for K-mart.....Business must be slow for them, as this is a classic way to drum it up.

[Vesper Martini]

I was told it was Common practice in Japan is never to get new cars serviced (at least it was 10 years ago) they get rid of them after 3 years because thier insurance goes up they can easily go that time without an oil change.
the cars mostly get exported afer that.

[Mr Hardware]

Originally Posted by EDManual

Also out of interest at Mitsubishi they (for diesel tritons) want you do do the valve clearances every 30k km, but in having a chat with them off the record, they say dont bother (out of warranty) as they have seen engines go for 100000+km without it and theyve never seen anything go wrong.

Well i'll take your word for it, but after 3.5 years of having a diesel triton as a fleet vehicle, the happiest day was the day i handed it back. What a thoroughly terrible car.

[csv8]

a NZ female ? baa !!!!!! sorry !!

[ebxr8240]

What about some of us that service there own...

[Nic85]

If you service the car yourself, you still write in the book (well you should). I serviced my own cars for years, and always wrote the KMs and the date in the book, and signed the thing too.

I just sold a car today, and the guy didn't even want to look at it. Put money straight into my account and drove up to pick it up, then drove it away. It was in mint condition, and fully serviced, but the point is that some people really don't seem to care.

[pottery beige]

i change my oil more often than i wash my car.. brake dust and bird poo rocks....

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

i change my oil more often than i wash my car.. brake dust and bird poo rocks....

My old man lives by the same theory:



Used to be silver back in 2003, lol.

[The Yeti]

I wonder what they class as over due?

When I had the shop I would say 60% of the cars were overdue they would get them serviced at rego inspection time and thats it regardless of km traveled in that time and some people not even that.

One man child came in in his car 3 years in a row and had done an average of 15,000 km per year in that time and had done nothing more than the items on the rego regetion in that time, this last time we knocked him back for a leaking strut leaking PS rack and a few other things.

he had them fixed, a week later the car wouldnt start one morning (coil lead shorted on the body) and he abused the hell out of us for not fixing the car properly and shouldnt we have checked that when we serviced it. after all we had just charged him all this money

WTF, serviced it.

Any how we got a phone call from his very angery mum after that, yes thats write this guys was older than me at the time (I think he was arround 30 - 35) and his mummy rings to complain that we ripped her son off, his mummy was a regular customer so we had to be a little dilamatic and give her our side of the story, she didnt beleive the baggy arsed mechnaic over her baby so she came in to give us a piece of her mind so I got out the file on the little darlings car to show here every thing we had done since we started "servicing" it the big 3 page file showed 3 regos and a few road worthy type repairs, she said nothing and stormed out

2 days later the cars still in the car park waiting and we get a call asking for a "quote" to give it a "full service" and "proper once over" from the son we gave it did the job the job grew abit once we got it properly apart but there was no questions the bill was paid and we saw him every 3 months 5000km after that

I dont know what the mum said but this guy was always polite and there was no more smart **** comments ever again

[csv8]

New BMW's have a service indicator which tell you when to have car serviced.
Depending on driving style, can be up to 25,000kms!!!

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by csv8

New BMW's have a service indicator which tell you when to have car serviced.
Depending on driving style, can be up to 25,000kms!!!

EL Fairmonts had that feature back in 1996

[Auslandau]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

EL Fairmonts had that feature back in 1996

A little bit more sophisticated than a throwing a spanner up. I am quite sure that 98% of EL/F's would have that on as a permanent feature .....

[SPArKy_Dave]

Originally Posted by Auslandau

I am quite sure that 98% of EL/F's would have that on as a permanent feature .....

Yeah, for some reason, the damn thing kept turning on every 10,000km......


I gave up trying to keep it at bay, after the first 50,000km.