subject: How To Minimize Your Expenses When It Comes To Servicing Your Vehicle? [print this page] If you are driving a brand new vehicle that is currently on a lease of finance, you can save a lot of money if you bring your vehicle to an outside mechanic. Many people have this false belief their vehicle must be maintained with their selling dealer in order to validate their warranty. This can not be further from the truth; there are many costly repairs and services on your vehicle that can be performed by virtually any mechanic. For example if you need an oil change done on your car, you can bring it back to your selling dealer because they will have your original manufacture's oil filter in stock and ready to go. Since the service itself is not very expensive there is no sense to bring your vehicle to some one who may put in the wrong oil or filter just to save few bucks. The plus side when you bringing your vehicle back to your selling dealer is simple, if they forgot to put engine oil back into your car not only you have proof but the dealership and manufacture will cover the most expensive repair on your car, the engine itself. It's worth while for you to spend the extra $5 to $10 dollars to get that kind of assurance and backing. But there are many unnecessary repairs that can be done at a fraction of the cost with virtually no risk to you at all.
If your vehicle needs brand new brake pads or rotors, you can bring that to your local mechanic. The cost difference between a dealership and a private mechanic is astronomical. For example the private mechanic may charge you $400 to redo all the brakes including parts and labor, but on the other hand the dealership may cost you as much as $1200 to do the exact same job. On the scale of skill level changing or servicing your brakes rank relative low, it is a simple job for any first year apprentice. The risk of putting the brake pads on the wrong way is virtually none, but big dealers love those types of jobs. Not only they are simple to perform but also very profitable for the dealerships, as matter of fact most of the bigger dealerships love to suggest jobs such as this.
Examine your four year service schedule carefully you will notice about 70% of the expenses of your service bill will go towards brake service or replacement. If you want to save a few bucks just simply tell your service advisor your brakes has been replaced by an outside mechanic the next time they ask you to do so.
