why bother servicing

[lor]

my employer has given me a hire car from HERTZ.
At 12,500 miles I contacted them to arrange for a service , They said ," we don't bother servicing cars , if it breaksdown call AA"

SURELY this is wrong , on a safety angle it should be checked ? or am I worrying unnecesarily?

 

[nickso]

what do you think could go wrong at 12.5k that could put your life at risk?

 

[lor]

you just reminded me of a brand new Volvo oil tanker I collected. 10 miles down the M25 and the brakes locked up , due to loose air line geting caught around the propshft.

few weeks later I was stopped by police for random check and they gave me a VoR notice to get truck repaired immediatley.I said when stopped "you wont find anything wrong its 2 weeks old "!!

If it doesnt need a service at 12.5 k why do the manufactures make a fuss about it and invalidate warranties if not done on time .

brakes can fail at any time

 

[nickso]

so one isolated case has made you paranoid.

i'd be willing to bet the next 100 volvo tankers you collect are trouble free.

unless you drive like me there is unlikely to be anything wrong with the brakes on a conventional car setup after 12.5k, the pads or discs may be worn but its not like you dont get a fair warning that they are.

manufacturers have fixed schedules for service, thats fair enough, they dont always apply in every case though, depends on your driving style and hot and cold starts etc etc.

i wouldnt worry about it if its not your car, i certainly dont worry about the works van i have.

 

[JohnD]

memo to self: never buy an ex-hire car

 

[2scoops0406]

I wouldn't be surprised if hire cars ever get old enough or go far enough to be serviced. It's amazing how long a car will go with just a basic oil change. My old cavalier went for 3 or 4 years without a service, just a 6 month oil change and filter, mind you that was only because I couldn't afford to service it. I even managed to trade it in rather than scrapping it.

 

[mattysupra]

memo to self: never buy an ex-hire car

memo to me too!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

SURELY this is wrong , on a safety angle it should be checked ? or am I worrying unnecesarily?

You only need an MOT after 3 years!

 

[Richard C]

I used nothing but hire cars from 1996 until 2002 under a major company contract with one of the big hire companies. Most of the cars had less than 5k miles & a few even came straight off the back of a trailer with all but nothing on the clock. The hire company always liked me to change them every 2 months or so & I had explicit instructions never to exceed 10K miles. Servicing never came into the equation & I never checked anything except the windscreen washer fluid; apart from the odd puncture, I never had a single problem with any of them.

Practically all of these vehicles are short term leased direct from the manufacturer; some go straight to auction (presumably the worst!) but the majority go back into the main dealer network to be sold under Network Q & whatever the other dealerships call their assured, low mileage car schemes, it’s where 99% of these cars come from; presumably they got serviced before being sold on!

 

[Watchmaker]

It seems unthinkable to,someone of my generation, that vehicles don't get serviced at more regular intervals but, cars are so well constructed now, and so reliable, that "fit & forget" is a fact of life. Years ago, you wouldn't even start the car without checking the oil level first. However, one aspect of regular servicing is that someone does look under the bonnet, and under the vehicle, at regular intervals, so that developing problems can be attended to in advance of failure. It does seem though that we are not far off the "sealed" engine and component car which, at a certain mileage, will get scrapped and recycled

 

[leewill]

i service my car all the time, make sure she`s got plenty of oil in her, top up all the levels, brake and tyre checks all the time, my girlfriend has had her car for six years and apart from me topping the oil up when she`s taking it on a long run which isn`t often, she`s never spent a penny on servicing it, trusty little hyundai accent.

 

[2scoops0406]

It seems unthinkable to,someone of my generation, that vehicles don't get serviced at more regular intervals but, cars are so well constructed now, and so reliable, that "fit & forget" is a fact of life. Years ago, you wouldn't even start the car without checking the oil level first. However, one aspect of regular servicing is that someone does look under the bonnet, and under the vehicle, at regular intervals, so that developing problems can be attended to in advance of failure. It does seem though that we are not far off the "sealed" engine and component car which, at a certain mileage, will get scrapped and recycled

Pretty much upon us already, One of the Audi's has a flip down grille to replenish, washer fluid, as it is not deemed necessary for the driver to lift the bonnet, and I think it is Cadillacs that have a 100k miles major service interval.

Going back a few years, an original mini needed a gearbox rebuild after around 3k miles.

So in terms of material science safety etc, cars have come on in leaps and bounds, just needs someone to come up with something a bit better than the ancient 4 stroke internal combustion engine.

 

[2scoops0406]

i service my car all the time, make sure she`s got plenty of oil in her, top up all the levels, brake and tyre checks all the time, my girlfriend has had her car for six years and apart from me topping the oil up when she`s taking it on a long run which isn`t often, she`s never spent a penny on servicing it, trusty little hyundai accent.

Well, you should really change the oil and filter, as the old oil get full of detritus, but yeah, certainly lack of oil is a big car killer.

 

[JohnD]

Going back a few years, an original mini needed a gearbox rebuild after around 3k miles.

I think not.

 

[mattysupra]

john D, dont get thinking to much, you will end up doing yourself an injury!