[GapBoyPCS]

NefCanuck,Aug 17 2005, 08:20 PM Wrote:Playing Devil's Advocate for a minute (Or Ford's Advocate, same thing right? :lol: )

There's one situation where having done all of the recommended services at a Ford dealer (Or a garage that offers you a detailed invoice for work performed) and that's Warranty work, esp. if you've bought an Extended Warranty.

It's much easier to browbeat Ford into covering repairs if they get lippy when you have documentation proving that all recommended maintenance items were dealt with (Thereby removing one of the big clubs from their bag of tricks to deny warranty work).

Just another POV

NefCanuck
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There are a growing number of cases for other manufacturers (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc.) where if you don't get service done at the dealership during your warranty period, you could be SOL.

Having the documentation for "factory recommended service intervals" by someone other than a dealership isn't a guarantee to the manufacturer that specific items are done. The common reasoning could be that Joe Blow garage doesn't know that a tranny fluid change would have to be done at 40,000 km, due to a revision in the maintenance guide. Lo and behold, at 50,000 km the tranny blows. The dealership you take your car in for repairs turns around and says you didn't maintain it properly because you didn't change the fluid at that specified point in time.

Ultimately, it's up to you how you want to spend your dollars. For the small things like spark plugs, cabin air filter, air filter, PCV valve, I just do it myself. For fluid changes (oil, tranny, brake, etc.), I just can't be bothered finding a place to dump them so I take it all back to the dealer.

My recommendation is always go to the dealer up until warranty expires. After that, go nuts. 3 yrs/60,000 km isn't a long time...at least for some of us ;)