Worried about paying main dealer prices?

My car went for servicing the other day. As much as I appreciate the sterling service offered over the years by my local Nissan garage, I do not appreciate the labour charge. By taking the car to a different garage, I was not only able to support a local business, but I also saved myself about £30-40 into the bargain.

However, after the service had been completed, I found that the service reminder on my dashboard computer was still showing that the car was due a service. I looked in the owner's manual, which said something to the effect of "the service reminder can only be set by your Nissan dealer".

Well, I wasn't going to go to the dealer and say "I have just had my car serviced elsewhere, will you reset the reminder for me?". If nothing else, they might charge me £30 labour for a two-minute job (so to speak).

As it happens, I got on the Internet. I Wikipedia-d "Nissan Micra service reminders", which didn't give me the answer, but did tell me that my car is the "K12" series. A Google search later, and I found a Nissan Micra owner's forum, which held the answer to resetting the service reminder on a K12 Nissan Micra. All you have to do is access the service reminder on the menu, then hold down the OK button for up to twenty seconds, after which the menu will come up giving you the option to reset.

Of course, you are not supposed to do this, as it is a job that is supposed to be carried out by your Nissan dealer!

Incidentally, I complained to Nissan customer services about 3 weeks ago about the fact that part of my steering wheel has melted in the sun - they still haven't got back to me! Watch this space...