Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) sharp practice

Yeah, it does look like EVs will mark the death knell for many independent garages, there just isn't the same requirement for regular servicing. All mine needs is the brake fluid changing every 2 years, everything else is done through the software.

I guess the future for many backstreet garages will be to switch to software based servicing using reverse engineered code and 'unofficial' apps. There's Bimmercode. for the BMW stuff, Nanocom for Land Rover, and the MultiECUScan software I bought for the Fiat 500 worked perfectly, enabling me to do all the diagnostics and servicing for the 6 years we owned it, it never went near a main dealer.

I suspect that EVs might well help the local garage - after all. I ould have thought that there is no servicing possible on either the elecrtic motor or the battery. What will hurt the local garage and is already doing so is the electronics. Much of this is "locked" and inaccessible to anyone but main dealers and often not even them. It doesnt help that the few garage mechanics d have degrees in electronic engineering.

Do EVs have an annual service or a mileage based one?

Howard they just make the field replaceable units bigger and bigger until you just swap the car! Or may as well do given the pricing. We have seen it with the battery modules etc. In many cases this is writing off Zoe's and others. Then there are some new developing specialists that currently do the detailed work on the battery packs to rebuild them. Cedar Electric and EV Clinic do repairs to the cells https://www.youtube.com/@evclinic so as always it is possible but it would seem things have not caught up?

A friend just had a 3.0V6 Diesel in an older Range Rover fail and is being quoted between £7k repair to £12k for a new engine. Those prices are from a specialist as the RR garage started at £16 and went up with no greater warranty. It's still pretty expensive to sort some of the ICE ones with known issues.

Some do, some don't. Tesla's have no scheduled service requirement - just tyres and screenwash. Most won't need brakes dealing with either as regen braking means you rarely need to touch the brake pedal. Tyres seem to outlast other cars too with over 30,000 miles easily achieved - torque vectoring probably helps with this.

The batteries should easily last the lifetime of the vehicle. They have complex battery management systems meaning they should be good for 1,500 cycles or 500,000 miles. Autocar has a long term Tesla with 450,000 miles on it and it's still going strong.

Mine has 50,000 miles on it so far and it's cost a fraction of what it costs to run my by ICE cars.

Teslas’ lack of required maintenance is indeed amazing and paves the way to a much better future. My Model S had a prepaid service contract and they refunded it in full when they decided there was no need for any servicing!

Porsche, on the other hand, are a complete nightmare. Their dealers appear to be randomly inventing stuff — VERY expensive stuff. Quotes for the first service on a new Taycan vary wildly from £400 to £1500 (!). This is because they are including a check of drains which is “optional but if you don’t do it your warranty may be voided” — a great extortion scheme. Some just pour water in but others take off wheels — just to inspect, The Taycan community suspects this behaviour is a combination of vehicles designed with no eye on cost, and a dealer network which needs to be kept alive with a stream of service “opportunities”. And don’t start with wheel tracking etc, which also require parts of the car to be removed and can cost over £1000.

I am really hoping my new Morgan finds a nice spot between these extremes!

At least with the Mog once out of warranty most owners will get away with a service every two years unless you have a Three wheeler.