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1. Maintenance vs. Repair.
Maintenance is preventive in nature. The idea behind
changing operating fluids such as engine oil, coolant,
gearbox oil, differential oil and brake fluid, for example
is to prevent the need for premature repairs. Replacement of
consumable parts such as brake pads, brake rotors, wiper
blades, filters, bulbs etc also comes under the head of
maintenance.
If you follow BMW’s and other European vehicle maintenance
schedules, there really isn’t much maintenance to be done at
all. However, European vehicles current schedule is designed
to reduce the cost of ownership…for the manufacturer! The
companies started providing free scheduled maintenance
during the warranty period about nine years ago, whereupon
the “schedule” was heavily revised. Back when owners paid
for maintenance, BMW and other European vehicle required
quite a bit of it. Now that the European vehicle manufacture
pays for maintenance, the cars hardly need any at all!? The
natural and probable result is more repairs in the
post-warranty period.
Repair work is completely different. A repair is
necessitated by a parts failure of some kind.
Owners who plan to keep the car past the warranty period or
who buy a car after the warranty expires, are well advised
to follow the old school maintenance schedule that predates
free scheduled maintenance.
2. There is a price to be paid for driving any car.
You can pay that price at the front door in the form of
interest and depreciation on a newer car, or you can pay the
price at the back door in the form of maintenance and
repairs on a mature car. The higher the functional
capabilities of any given car, the more you will pay at
either door, generally speaking.
BMWs and other European vehicles are highly functional cars
they can do more things dynamically than a Mazda 626, though
the latter is eminently competent for commuting purposes or
as A-to-B transportation. At the end of the day, it comes
down to what you want.
As for the enthusiast car vs. the CPO (certified pre owned)
car, We’d definitely go with the enthusiast car. It is
important to bear in mind that the warranty has both time
and mileage components, and most cars go out of warranty on
time. Most CPO warranty is for six years or 100,000 km,
whichever comes first. What comes first is usually 6 years,
and that 6 years begins from the original in-service date of
the car, not six years from the date it was certified into
the CPO program.
Lastly, our advice for minimizing the cost of repairs on an
European vehicle is to buy a six-cylinder, manual gearbox
with a minimum of electronic doo-dads. Expensive problems
follow options like GPS navigation, upgraded audio systems
and to a lesser extent the Premium Package equipment (though
nearly all cars have Premium Package). Also bear in mind
that if you buy a car with Sport Package, you’ll be looking
at replacing tires every 15,000 to 30,000 Km.
We highly recommend using one of our
scheduled preventative maintenance programs and you can view
the program levels here:
Schedule 1
Schedule 2
Schedule 3
Schedule 4
We are legally authorized to perform
regularly scheduled maintenance on all new vehicles, and
that the vehicle manufacturer is bound to honor it's
warranty obligations.
5820-50 Ave Red Deer
Phone: 403-342-1233
Fax: 403-341-3021
Mailing Address: 5820-50 Ave, Red Deer, AB
T4N 4C2
Contact us to book your next service.
If you have any questions regarding our technicians,
policies, training by all means call or email.
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Added
Benefits Of Vehicle Maintenance:
1. Validity
of warranties is ensured
2. Less
costly breakdowns
3.
Improved fuel economy
4. Reduced
pollution
5. Safer
and more reliable vehicle
6.
Maintain resale value of vehicle
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Express
Automotive Centre: Preventative Maintenance
Recommended
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Maintenance VS Repairs
