Everything I Wish I Knew Before My First Car Service

So, you’ve recently bought your first car - It’s one of the most exciting purchases you’ll make in your lifetime, but eventually there will come a point where you’ll need to book that car in for a service. Often that first service can come with a side of confusion; How are you meant to know what your auto technician is talking about when they give you a quote? And what service should you ask for in the first place? Wonder no more, because here are a few tips to help give you confidence.

When should you book your first service?

As much as we’d all love to strut down to the car dealership and pick up a brand new 2023 model as our first car, realistically, most of us will be rocking a second-hand set of wheels for our first few years of driving. If that’s the case, you’ll need to check the car’s service history to find out when it’s next due, and ideally, have it looked over by a technician before you buy it to make sure it’s safe to drive and doesn’t have any existing issues.

mycar Tyre & Auto recommends following the manufacturer’s recommendations. For older cars, this usually means booking in for a service every 10,000 kilometres or every 12 months, whichever comes first. If you are lucky enough to have snagged a brand-new car as your very first vehicle, keep on top of your service schedule, and have your logbook stamped each time by a licenced technician to maintain your manufacturer warranty. You can save money, reduce downtime and still keep your new car service warranty intact at trusted service providers like mycar Tyre & Auto.

Whether it’s new or second-hand, if your car isn’t driving the way it should, you’ve picked up on a weird noise coming from an unidentified part of the car or if you can see that one of the warning lights is on, you’ll need to book in for repairs.

What service should you book?

There are a range of different services offered by auto technicians, but the type of service you book will depend on what your car needs.

The most common service is a logbook service, which is like a spa day for your car! The auto-technicians will give your car all of the checks, work and maintenance it needs, just as the manufacturer intended. Getting scheduled logbook services will help maintain the resale value of your car because buyers will know it was well looked after.

For cars over 10 years old or with lots of kms under their belts, fixed price, basic servicing options are available to keep you on the road. These include detailed inspections to make sure everything is running as it should be, as well as the basics such as an oil change.

If you’re wanting to get a specific fault or issue looked at, instead of booking a set price service, you’ll want to call up your local mycar, or book online and make sure you mention the issue you’ve noticed so the auto technicians can plan for the repair and order any necessary parts. 
 

How Do I Know How Much It Will Cost?

The price of a service will always depend on the work that needs to be done. If you book a fixed-price service, you can expect the fixed price, and any other issues that are found during the check-up will be quoted up. Service providers like mycar Tyre & Auto have their service costings available on their site, so you can plan ahead for how much your service is going to cost and see everything that’s included.

A good auto technician will call and chat to you before they go ahead with any of the extra work that needs to be done. This way, the auto-technician can explain what they need to do and why!

Once your auto-technician has looked at your car and knows what work needs to be done, they will also send through a quote. Here’s where our favourite handy hack comes in - Upload a picture of your quote into mycar’s Auto-Translate tool and it will break down each item listed, to help you understand the parts that need fixing on your car.

You can also have the Auto-Translate tool open and ready whenever you’re chatting with your auto-technician, to help you grab quick definitions of any technical parts mentioned so you can easily understand exactly what work your car needs.
 

Hopefully when the time comes to book in your first service, these tips help take the stress out of things! In the meantime, or if it’s not your first rodeo, check out Auto-Translate now to brush up on your car knowledge so you can be as confident as possible when your next service comes around!