What do you have your dealer perform vs another shop?

[RB60]

I am curious what others do.

What work do you have your dealer perform and what would you have another shop do?

For example suspension work? Tires? Lift?

The dealer will help keep warranty in place but may not have the technical / experience to do non-warranty work.

Would love to hear your replies as I am considering suspension work.

 

[The_Ick]

It really depends on your comfort doing the installs. I’d rather do any electric mods so that I know where all of wire/relays/fuses are located. I don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere and trying to figure out where some tech hid a fuse when stuff stops working.

All of the structural mods like steps/sliders, bull bar, roof racks etc go on so easy there is no reason to pay someone else. I installed my Owl sliders in 40 minutes by myself, bull bar in less than 20 minutes. Leitner roof rack in 20 minutes once it was assembled.

Lifts I would have someone else install or help install if you don’t have experience. Tires really have to go to a shop.

 

[Peterr]

Oil changes so far. I have phenomenal BMW dealership a mile away that was happy to perform general maintenance on the B58.

 

[mcdoogs]

I had a local shop, a guy who has been fixing/refurbishing/rebuilding/storing rich dude’s antique Land Rovers (this is in New England, even poorly maintained old defenders are valuable) install my 30mm lift springs. Tires need a professional shop for mounting/balancing.

The dealer I’ve only had do warranty work so far. Unfortunately thats 4 trips in just about a year. Depending on which house I leave from its either a 1.5 hour or 4 hour one way trip.

I do factor in installation complexity when picking mods to do, and at least 50% of my enjoyment of cars comes from the build. Diy as much as I can

 

[abbeyroad]

Scheduled maintenance - dealer. Everything else including 5K mile engine oil change intervals - indy.