Interesting Service Receipt

[HJHPH]

Hi Guys, purchased my E220 about five weeks ago minus the service book. Car was owned by MB Financial Services and sold through Jet Logistics to the grage I purchased it from. The car was serviced at MB Lincoln and and they duly sent me the service book and service receipt.
Having looked at the receipt I noticed the oil was listed at £19.58 for 5.7 litres.
Now on my old C class and my wifes the oil on the invoice is usually around £70 for a similar amount.

Thinking that they had used cheap oil I phoned the service dept to be informed that as it was Mercedes paying for the service the dealer only charged at cost for the Shell Helix Ultra and other parts.
So in a nut shell it confirms what we all know, that we pay way over the odds for service items for the benefit of the dealer stamp and I can see why you guys recommend supplying your own oil.
Thought I would share this with you, HAGWE.
Paul.

 

[television]

Thank you for the above,, it does make you think

Thanks Paul

 

[jberks]

mmm - it does.
I've just rung up my dealer to clarify what oil they will use and they confirmed that if they use Mobil1 I can have a few extra thousand on the service intervals - so I've ok'd it. I haven't got a price for teh oil but as I've effectively negotiated £100 off the price already I suspect if I arrived with my own oil they'd tell me to go away ;-)

 

[Rory]

I've mentioned before that I found it astonishing that my local dealer seemed delighted that I was supplying my own oil - yet, from a business point of view, it's ridiculous as they're just throwing away £70 or so of pure profit. I wasn't even hit with an "oil disposal charge" for the old oil.

As jberks mentions, it does seem easier to beat the dealers down on price now, though. Mine advertises A services for £199 and B services for £299-£319 on most models. The last A service I paid for, I paid £160 plus about £30 for the oil I supplied so wouldn't be worth doing now.

 

[mercglas]

I've mentioned before that I found it astonishing that my local dealer seemed delighted that I was supplying my own oil - yet, from a business point of view, it's ridiculous as they're just throwing away £70 or so of pure profit. I wasn't even hit with an "oil disposal charge" for the old oil.

As jberks mentions, it does seem easier to beat the dealers down on price now, though. Mine advertises A services for £199 and B services for £299-£319 on most models. The last A service I paid for, I paid £160 plus about £30 for the oil I supplied so wouldn't be worth doing now.

£199 for an A service is not good value - a lot of the cars have a labour time for the first service of around an hour and on the four cylinder engines the oil capacity is quite small (5 for an A class, 5,5 for the small petrol C and E Class and 6.5 for the small diesel C and E Class) so £199 would be full retail in London I suspect and very high anywhere else!

 

[Rory]

£199 for an A service is not good value - a lot of the cars have a labour time for the first service of around an hour and on the four cylinder engines the oil capacity is quite small (5 for an A class, 5,5 for the small petrol C and E Class and 6.5 for the small diesel C and E Class) so £199 would be full retail in London I suspect and very high anywhere else!

Of course it's not "good value" in any true sense, but if you think they charge £100 for oil and £100 for an hours labour plus the oil filter plus VAT then there's your typical £250 charge. Those glass palaces that market research tells Mercedes that we all want have to be paid for somehow.

Doing it for £199 is a pretty recent thing that, rumour has it, MB has forced on the dealers.

Mitsubishi dealer tried to charge £199 for oil service on daughter's Colt last year.

 

[Birdman]

In France I bought 10 litres of Shell Helix plus to the correct spec for my E55 and paid 48 Euros. So around £4/litre at present exchange rates.

The oil markup here is doubly scandalous when you consider the hourly rate for MB technicians. There's no good reason why running these cars through a dealer should be made so expensive.