"In relation to general servicing, motor vehicle dealers are entitled to insist that any servicing performed on cars they sell is carried out by qualified staff, according to the manufacturer’s specifications, and using genuine orparts where required. Provided these appropriate quality conditions are met, regardless of where you choose to get your car serviced, your warranty will remain intact. So shop smart and shop around."
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.pht ... 06&fn=ACCC
Restricting you to only a dealer (like they were originally trying to tell me I had to do) is third line forcing and illegal under the Trade Practices Act. MMAL do however have an exemption from the ACCC for the road-side assistance to only apply if you service at their dealerships but as for warranty this will not be affected.
So according to ACCC supposedly they can say the person has to be qualified however, I was told my MMAL it just needs to be done by the book if I do it myself. besides, half of the dealer's general servicing work is done by useless and un-qualified apprentices.
So servicing by any mechanic is ok, whether or not you want to go by what I was told by MMAL and service yourself is upto you and I would recommend consulting MMAL yourselves.
But again it's really going to depend on what the issue is, if say your MAF dies and you had replaced the filter as per spec then they have no way of saying your maintenance caused the faulty part. if the whole engine shits itself and needs a major rebuild then you'll have a fight on your hands. Although given most people here are going to have mods on their engine, you'll already have a fight on your hands to get major stuff done under warranty.
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