What a full car service should cost in Cardiff, and what you are paying for

Ask five garages in Cardiff what a full service costs and you will get five different answers, all of them technically correct. That is not a scam, it is the result of "full service" meaning slightly different things depending on who is saying it, and of engines varying far more than most price lists admit.

Here is what is actually in the box, and what moves the number.

The three service levels, and what separates them

An interim service is the short one. Oil and filter, a top up of the other fluids, and a safety inspection covering brakes, tyres, steering and lights. Most manufacturers put it at every six months or 6,000 miles for cars doing high mileage or a lot of short journeys.

A full service adds the annual wear items. Air filter, pollen filter, a deeper inspection, and a proper look at things that only need checking once a year. This is the one most cars want annually.

A major service adds the long interval items on top: spark plugs on a petrol, fuel filter on a diesel, brake fluid, and anything else the manufacturer schedules at two or four year intervals.

The useful question is not "which is cheapest". It is which one your car is genuinely due, which the manufacturer schedule already answers.

What actually moves the price

• The oil. This is the big one, and it is invisible on most quotes. A modern low ash long life oil for a German diesel can cost several times what a generic oil costs, and using the cheap one to win a quote is how engines get damaged. Ask what specification is going in.
• How much oil the engine takes. A small petrol might take four litres. A V8 can take nine or more. That difference alone is significant.
• How hard the filters are to reach. Some cars have the oil filter on top of the engine. Others need an undertray off and an arm down the back.
• Spark plugs, on a major. Four plugs on an accessible four cylinder is a quick job. Eight plugs under an intake manifold is not.
• Whether the service indicator needs resetting properly. On most modern cars this needs the manufacturer software, not a button sequence.

What a fair quote looks like

A fair quote tells you three things without being asked: what level of service it is, what oil specification is going in, and what happens if something is found along the way. If a quote does not say what happens when the technician finds a worn brake pad, that is the part that turns into a surprise later.

At this workshop, nothing extra happens without a phone call and an agreed price. If we find something, you hear about it before we touch it, and the old part is kept back for you to look at.

Where the dealer premium actually sits

Main dealers are not overcharging you for the oil. The gap is labour rate, because a showroom, a service reception and a coffee machine are all real costs and they end up in the hourly figure.

What you should not give up in exchange for a lower rate is the schedule or the parts quality. Follow the manufacturer schedule and use genuine or OEM parts and the work is equivalent. That is the entire argument for a specialist independent, and it is also why servicing here does not affect a manufacturer warranty. There is more on that in our guide to genuine, OEM and aftermarket parts.

So what should you pay?

We are not going to publish a single figure, because a figure that does not know your car is a guess and you would be right not to trust it. What we will do is give you a real price for your exact vehicle when you ring, taken from the manufacturer schedule for that model and mileage.

If you want to see what that covers first, the car servicing page sets out exactly what is included at each level, and the Mercedes-Benz specialist page explains how the Service A and Service B schedule works if that is what you drive.

Ring the workshop with your registration and we will tell you what is actually due, not what is most expensive.