Did you know that the Office of Fair trading (OFT) reported that consumers no longer have to have their car serviced by a franchise dealer to comply with the manufacturer’s warranty?

From the OFT report: "Servicing at franchise dealers is typically more expensive than servicing at independent garages, averaging £199 and £116 respectively without any apparent difference in the quality of service offered."

Taken from the OFT bulletin 85/04.

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Which? magazine reported in 1999, little difference in quality between independents and franchised garages, but did find that franchised dealers were generally more expensive.