Just a quicky ... 8000 mile service at the dealer I bought the Gtr from, today cost me £280 .... simply put ... oil filter, gasket drain plug ( pence ) spark plugs x 4, rivet, 4 1/2 litres of silkolene oil, clean the air filter and dispose of old oil, 3 hrs labour and a sheet of Service Checklist things that have all been ticked ... check this, lubricate that ...etc etc ... loan bike and free coffee. Service book all stamped up which is so important to me ( also for when I want to buy the extra warranty ) ... This is a popular and well thought of dealer ... chatting with the service manager he said that last year had been difficult, both in sales and service, and they knew this time last year that this year would be similar and it has been almost identical except that everything has dropped off about 6 weeks earlier, so they are looking at ways of saving money within the dealership, as all companies are doing at the moment. He has noticed with bikes simply not coming in for services or being left longer or tyres being VERY thin on tread where the owner has got every mile out of the tyre as opposed to changing it with maybe still 1000 miles on it .... not a cheap day by any means but I am sure we all know that if you enter into the " new bike " market you have to put up with the costs of doing so and I never want to be in that position where something doesn't start or breaks just through shear lack of care ... ;D
I wonder what the margins are on new bikes versus margins on repeat servicing. Everyone seems to be struggling in this environment and I can't see it getting better. Personally, I believe we are in a period of stagflation which is nasty
Rusty, thats a lot of money, are you sure they changed the plugs at 8k miles, seems a bit unnecessary. I'm glad I do my own service's where ever possible. Everything you have mentioned there with the exception of the plugs is an easy job to do yourself that would have still only taken at worse a morning.
The price is about right and the schedule says the plugs should be changed at 8,0000 miles - which does seem that long but that's what they say
Steve
I do think times are tight. The dealer principle at my local dealer, whom I have got to know quiet well, explained that margins for the whole dealership have been very low - 6 or 7% overall for a couple of years.
You think of the capital tied up in buildings, stock, then the heartache and stress of employing folk and balancing demand, makes you wonder why you'd want to run a dealership right now. With that sort of capital, you could earn that sort of return in a bank.
Times are tight for us all, but as a society, I think we have become conditioned to expect everything to be as cheap as possible. We rarely seem willing to pay for skills, experience or effort these days.
Shame. No idea how it can be changed though, I do think it is endemic in society. I am just as bad, I managed to negotiate my bike's purchase down to a ridiculous cost + £50. They are getting it all back in service costs though, damn this bike is far from cheap to run ::)
Martin.
Mr Wolf I know it's a lot of money ! Thank goodness it's not a BMW !!!
According to my handbook, plugs should be changed at 7500 mile intervals. Today I visited 2 Kawasaki dealers to ask about the service. First told me plugs are changed at 7500 miles plus 2.5 hours labour. Total quote was £150.
Second dealer told me that plugs do not need to be changed as they are iridium. He quoted £120 incl vat for a 7500 service without plugs. ?????
Licence to print money springs to mind.
Think ourselves lucky. My mate is the parts manager for an Aston Martin dealer and it is not unusal for him to hand out service bills for 2 or 3 thousand pounds. I used to work for a SAAB and Lotus dealer and we often gave service invoices out for over a thousand pounds, in 1993!!!!!!
You are right of course Mr Wolf, but as with all these things they have you tied over a barrel as the saying goes ... buy anything new and you will pay top dollar for everything that goes with it in the first couple of years and that is what they want. It makes total sense too for those who like to buy a bike thats a couple of years old .... the depreciation will have been soaked up by the chap who bought it new, HE will have paid for all the dealership servicing AND if anything has gone wrong in that time it will have been replaced under warranty ... ( just talking my self out of buying new here ! ) For me, as I have said before, it just doesn't matter as I shall keep this wonderful bike for my standard 5/6 years and get my monies worth ;D
My 7,500 service was due while I was in Germany over the summer, local dealer said plugs should be CHECKED and quoted 4.5 hours at a cost of 460 euros (over 400 pounds). Needless to say I declined the offer, Iridium plugs should last at least 24000 miles, thats the reason for using them.
Quote from: Ubertours on October 24, 2011, 12:24:05 PM
My 7,500 service was due while I was in Germany over the summer, local dealer said plugs should be CHECKED and quoted 4.5 hours at a cost of 460 euros (over 400 pounds). Needless to say I declined the offer, Iridium plugs should last at least 24000 miles, thats the reason for using them.
I was talking to a chap yesterday up at Kirby Lonsdale who had done 85000 yes 85 thousand miles on an early fireblade and it was still on the original plugs, and still running sweet as a nut.
The only reason for changing the plugs at 7500 miles is for EMISSIONS.
Since this is not tested in the UK you are wasting money.
The environmental damage of replacing plugs every 7500 miles FAR outweighs the damage that marginally increased emissions may cause.
The plugs came out of mine @ 26,000 miles and looked like new.
The 4 plugs cost £50 so they had BETTER last longer than the £22 I paid for my GTR1000 plugs.
Well, Bolton Kawasaki serviced the bike which I picked up on Tuesday. They did not change the plugs and confirmed there is no need. Speaking to other friends and experts, the general opinion is that the iridium plugs will last for 100,000 miles and most people replace them because they think or feel they should. I will ask NGK man at the NEC what he thinks, should be interesting. Anyway, Bolton Kawasaki did a grand job and even cleaned the bike for me. Yes I think I would recommend them, a friendly bunch who try to give value for money and didn't rip me off when I gave them the opportunity.
Interesting stuff .... the plugs change is on the K service check list, which I would imagine would be the same for all dealers but perhaps they don't have to tick that box if they don't want to ! When I have more time I shall put/copy the list for all to see ... I think it's just another extra that's put on the list to bump up the price !