Habitation Service cost

the same as people going to restaurants when you can buy the ingredients for a fraction of the price 

yes, some will have , but i'm talking about the people who use google to advise about faults , there can be some very dangerous advice given out on forums 

Bob

Thanks for the clarification. I agree with you and personally take the cost of servicing as part of motorhome ownership. Fortunately I have a dealer I have confidence in and I think their charges are inline with others within reasonable travelling distance.

David

I know, I’ve seen it 😀

Oil looks to be about £50 for 5L of correct oil for a modern Fiat so that's £100 then a filter say a tenner so "£110.  Plus often needing special tools and to crawl around under the van then dispose of oil.  A large cost of a garage costs is disposing of oil environmentally as they are no longer allowed to pour it down the drain.   Not saying dealers are still overcharging but its not as bad as you like to make out. Plus not everyone wants to get greasy and oily or has the skill to do it like many things in life.

Michael, my comment was aimed at servicing of vehicles in general, not specifically the servicing of a Ducato M/H.

My local Asda has Castrol Magnatec oil almost permanently on offer at £23 for 4 litres of most common grades, and oil filters for loads of cars are available with free home delivery from Euro Car Parts, OEM brands, for less than a tenner, meaning anybody with modest DIY skills can do an oil & filter change with quality parts for £33.....

Yes some vehicles take a bit more oil etc but your hundred quid will buy an awful lot of oil for most vehicles and even the Ducato/Boxer doesn't need 10 litres so not sure where your hundred quid comes from.

Whether you can "crawl under the van" comes down to your level of personal mobility, I can, you might not be able and/or willing to do so...

The rest of the servicing jobs like changing air, pollen & fuel filters, spark plugs on petrol vehicles etc are also quite easy with basic skills & tools, and instructions usually freely available on You Tube and the internet forums.

I was probably lucky, my dad started buying me knackered motorbikes when I was 12 and we would rebuild the engines together. At 14 we did the same with old banger cars so I can do basic maintenance....... 

As for disposing of old oil, I pass my local tip on the way to work so dispose of mine for nowt......

Self servicing is possibly not for most people, and the new Ducato needs Multiecuscan software to reset the service light or it goes into limp mode apparently, so I may have to pay a dealer to reset that for me, or cough up the £100 to download it to my laptop......

Dealers obviously provide an important service for those unable or unwilling to do their own maintenance, or for the jobs beyond basic servicing. But the big glass fronted showroom, the smiling blonde in reception, the "free" Latte and the admin staff wandering around with sheafs of paper all have to be paid for.  I would far rather you pay for them than me, so will be avoiding the dealers if at all possible........

We tend towards the DIY servicing of vehicles and certainly habitation. Both practical people, brought up learning how to do/check things, tinkering with classic cars, making and mending lots of things around home. We have restored old caravans, old cars. Bit more difficult nowadays where computers are involved, but a habitation check list is three quarters observation, an eighth the right tools and an eighth a bit of practical knowledge. Here's an example from one company that does them:

https://habcheck.co.uk/media/find/47

Note that this is a habitation checklist, not a service. They will want more of your pounds to do that! 

We have a Laika MH it needs a Damp Check every year and it takes them a couple of hours £90 + vat. Worth checking as when we had a Pilote the Dealer insisted that we had to have a full service at nearly £300 so I contacted Pilote who said it only needed a Damp Check. The original Dealer refused so I went elsewhere.

Swift on the other hand insisted on full Habitation Service.

The Habitation Check is just a way of charging you for checking to see if the can find anything wrong that they can charge you extra to fix.

On an Alco Chassis the grease points on the axle need attention every year. This is not part of the Habitation Service, neither is cleaning out the flue on the fridge or a Gas Check.

if you then take your MH to a Fiat Dealer for service then they don’t grease the back axle either because it’s not part of 5he Fiat Service as it was not supplied by them.