THE Retail Motor Industry Federation says car servicing is one of the most competitively-priced services available today. Director of the RMIF's Independent Garage Association Hugh Roberts has dismissed as 'nonsense' allegations of excessive servicing costs which the RMIF claims are due to be made in a yet-to-be-published Consumers Association report.

Roberts said: 'We should compare servicing costs of cars against their high capital outlay, the figure is extremely low in relation to white goods. The cost of servicing a washing machine or dishwasher is about 30% of the new purchase price, a car service would only be in the region of 1%. Servicing has to be put into perspective. Even a figure of £1,000 over three years is only £1 per day. Compare that to public transport costs and it is still an inexpensive form of transport even after adding petrol, tax and depreciation.'

He said fixed menu pricing, customer benefits packages and extended servicing schedules has resulted in increasingly competitive deals. A Consumers Association spokesman said a report on the subject was in the pipeline, but he was unable to reveal its details.