"Most fleet cars don't go anywhere near the main dealer

[JohnT]

In picking up on a comment about poor fleet car servicing I would add that I have spent my working life driving fleet cars(800k), and managing those who did drive them. At no time was safety or economics put before correct main dealer servicing.
If anything was ever wrong, or gave cause for concern, the cars were sent straight for repair. Yes, of course the fleet manager kept an eye on costs but no consideration was ever given to non-dealer servicing primarily because the guarantee would have been voided.
Most fleet cars are covered for all repairs as part of the deal anyway.
A well-serviced company car with 80k (3 years) would be a far wiser buy than a local 'shopping trolley' with 25k on the clock. I do appreciate that most would go for the lower mileage though! Few cars over three years old remain fleet owned.
You do not see many Citroen fleet cars for the reason is that they have been considered a financial liability.

[Peter.N.]

Because they are in constant use, and thus nearly always warm, they suffer far less wear than you average family runabout. I bought an XM 2.1 td that had been a taxi, at 244k miles, and sold it at 292k, it was one of the best I have had.

[Kowalski]

I think it was me who made that comment originally.

Back when I was looking for a new Xantia (3 years ago) I had a look at quite a few cars (I was looking for an HDI that didn't seem to exist.). I was looking at cars about 3 years old and the majority that I looked at (not just Xantias) were ex-fleet or ex lease cars and they came with a couple of pages of A4 paper showing their service history, none of the work on any of the cars I looked at (as far as servicing was concerned) was done by main dealers. I know that one dealer in particular dealt with cars from companies that lease to big companies and he had a batch of cars that Barclays had (the cars had been based in Glasgow).

They were maintained well, I couldn't see any evidence of skimping or poor maintenance, in fact quite the opposite, the servicing was done close to the mileages it should have been. A lot of the histories showed items being done that weren't strictly required, e.g. tyres got replaced relatively frequently (at low mileages) and were always replaced as a set of 4. Brake discs got replaced at the same time as pads, thats not strictly necessary either.

I think that because of the mileages these cars were doing and the fact that they were being sold off cheaply after 3 years, having dealer stamps in the book didn't add a whole lot of value to the cars where as it would add rather a lot of cost. These cars were all cheap to buy because of the mileage, a fair few cars had done more than 50k a year.

[Paul Mi16]

Its the standard of the servicing from main dealers that always gave me cause for concern. This is a combination of the main dealers paying peanuts, and therefore getting monkeys, and the leasing companies fixing the price to the penny and making it difficult to do anything else thats not on the service schedule.

As for fleet managers, in my experience nearly all the of them are fiscally obessed fools who know nothing about cars, other than what they cost per mile.

[stevieb]

I found Pug dealers vary a lot.

My old 405 had full main dealer history from the supplying dealer in Leeds.

I took it to a Sheffield main dealer for my first MoT with it, and had the timing belt done at the same time, along with a full check-up. Everything was done by the book. No deviations, and every little extra was chargeable.

A couple of years later when I took it to a Rotherham main dealer to have the head gasket done they did all sorts of extra stuff and didn't even charge me. "All part of the service" said the chap when I collected it.

Needless to say I recommended the Rotherham dealer to mates

Unfortunately they now have a different name, so may not be quite as helpful. New management, new practices etc...

[Robin]

I have the benefit of working with and for companies that have used fleets of vehicles - from outright purchase and contract servicing through to lease with full support.
In general I have to say that the worst situation was the contract servicing. The principle was all arranged through a third party, they are not garages but fleet management companies who engaged garages to service the vehicles against maximum hourly rates, gave the garages specific times in which undertake tasks based on manufacturers times.
The third party company made its profits from the difference between what they charged their client and the costs billed by the garages. Most of the garages were at the lower hourly rate end and this generally reflected the skills and facilities available.
It is easy to see how things can go wrong. I have experiences of below specification parts being fitted because they were cheaper, voiding guarantees if ever called upon, brake pads being run to failure because the garage had not checked them despite being part of the service list, ran out of allocated time and service books not being completed or just checked off even though most of the work was not undertaken. Some of the cars I inspected at 2 years were close to dangerous and many failed their first MOT.
Two garages I initially put onto the preferred list because I knew them and trusted them pulled out after only 6 months. They would not compromise standards or jeopardise reputation.
Sadly being able to recognise which cars were serviced under this system is virtually impossible unless the service books are completed and you can question the garages directly.
Buyer beware again. AA or RAC inspections? Never had one so cannot comment.
Robin.

[simonelsey]

When I had a company car (through pendragon leasing), Ive had several , I was responible for servicing the car eg booking where I wanted it done. As I had the choice the cars always where serviced correctely , apart from 1(was a vauxhall) . Ive had servicing in the past 10 years from toyota,vauxhall,nissan,citroen,peugoet, levels of skill as follows .
Toyota , Citroen(Must have found a good dealer),nissan, peugoet and vauxhall. Last 2 wouldnt repair faults with cars just service items .The rest good ,When i got rid of my company car Tax reasons. I purchased a high mileage Toyota Carina CD . Loveliy car , It was on 100,000 miles so just run in. It had full dealer service history and 7 pages of costings printed of by lease company including wiper blades and batteries for key fob . this car lasted me upto 250,000 miles before someone smacked it up for me .
SO Lease/fleet cars DO get Serviced correctly , If you have a fleet car in X location you not going to get it serviced back at base area which could be a few hundred miles away .So companies cannot tender for work as x dealer in london may not be owned by x dealer in leeds.Just dont make since to.