[Familyman 90]

The £2000 extra we got on the trade in, was to the penny almost what we'd paid on servicing over 8 years.

So, on balance, we serviced our car at a dealer, with genuine Volvo parts, and a lifetime warranty on the parts, for free.

Have a service a a dealer and you get a years free Volvo branded RAC cover. Because it was dealer serviced Volvo also gave us 8 years of RAC membership for free, which is roughly £1000 on its own at about £130 a year for similar cover.

If I'd taken it elsewhere for servicing we'd have got £2000 less, and still had to bear the cost of the servicing on top of that, and had pay £1000 for our own breakdown cover over 8 years on top of that, so either way we're very, very much quids in.

Just because theyre knocking on a bit doesn't make them any cheaper to maintain or repair. Garages and parts suppliers don't take pity on us because our old buses are knocking on a bit. If you can't stomach the prospect of a big bill one day then a 2.2 tonne, highly complex, expensive-when-new SUV is not the car for you, regardless of the badge on the grille. No one wants a big bill, and I have sympathy with anyone who gets one, but feigning indignance at it is completely disingenuous.

And then theres the side issue. This forum is littered with stories of folk who've tried to fix their Volvo on the cheap at a local independent. Having spent loads of money and being no closer to a resolution, they give in and have to pay a dealer. I'm an ex X5 and RX300h owner and can confirm that the BMW and Lexus forums have plenty of similar tales of people who'd spent a fortune trying to save money.