What capped price servicing actually covers at MG, Hyundai and Kia

Capped price servicing looks like a fixed cost, and mostly it is. MG Motor Australia publishes a price for every scheduled service across its range, from $135 to $565, and says the listed figure is what you pay. What no cap fixes is how often you come back, or what your warranty quietly depends on.

What does capped price servicing actually cap?

It caps the price of the services listed in the manufacturer’s schedule, and nothing outside that list. MG says its Precise Price Servicing figure covers each maintenance item its own schedule calls for at that visit, and that the number on the page is the one you hand over at the counter, according to MG’s published pricing guide. Read that the other way around and the limit becomes clear. If a job is not in the schedule, the cap has nothing to say about it.

The second thing a headline price hides is how often it lands. MG lists the MG3, ZS and HS on 15,000km or 12-month intervals, while the MG5 and the MGU9 dual-cab ute are due every 10,000km or 12 months, per MG Motor Australia. For a driver covering 30,000km a year, that difference is two services against three. A cheap service you need more often is not a cheap car to run.

Location matters too. Kia Australia publishes capped prices that vary by location and asks you to enter a postcode before it shows the figure that applies to you, so a number quoted in a city showroom is not automatically the number your regional dealer charges.

How much do MG, Hyundai and Kia charge to service a car?

MG is the only one of the three publishing a single national dollar figure per model, and the range listed by MG Motor Australia runs from $135 to $565 a visit. Hyundai and Kia both publish a maximum you look up rather than one flat national price, which is why the honest comparison is model against model, on the interval each one actually uses.

MG’s Precise Price Servicing covers five scheduled services across 60 months of ownership, and the per-service prices below are the starting figures published by MG Motor Australia, including GST.

Model	Interval	From, per service
MG Cyberster	25,000km / 12 months	$135
MG4 EV	25,000km / 12 months	$149
MG3	15,000km / 12 months	$249
MG5	10,000km / 12 months	$254
MG ZS	15,000km / 12 months	$273
MG HS	15,000km / 12 months	$292
MGU9	10,000km / 12 months	$565

The spread inside one brand is wider than most people expect. MG’s electric models are the cheapest to maintain by a long way, and the MG4 EV at $149 a service costs roughly a quarter of the $565 MG asks for its MGU9 ute, on an interval two and a half times longer, per MG’s own figures.

Hyundai does not put one national number against a model. Its Lifetime Service Plan sets a maximum price for each scheduled service, applies to cars from the 1986 model year onward for the life of the vehicle, and carries across to later owners, so the figure you need is the one the plan returns for your exact model. The measurable extras are published: a free first inspection at 1,500km or one month, 12 months of roadside support with each petrol or hybrid service and 24 months on a battery electric car, satellite navigation map updates up to nine times within 10 years, and a 12-month or 20,000km warranty on genuine parts fitted at an authorised centre.

Kia works the same way with a shorter horizon. Its capped price programme runs seven years on the assumption the car is not used commercially, covers petrol, diesel and hybrid models but not the brand’s electric vehicles, and returns a maximum that changes with your postcode, according to Kia Australia. If you are shopping for a Kia EV, the capped price line on the brochure is not describing your car.

Line the three plans up on what each one commits to and the differences are structural, not just dollars, per MG, Hyundai and Kia Australia.

Brand	Price basis	Plan length	EVs covered	Price follows the car
MG	Fixed national price per model, $135 to $565	5 services, 60 months	Yes	Not published
Hyundai	Published maximum per scheduled service	Life of the vehicle, 1986 model year on	Yes	Yes
Kia	Published maximum, varies by postcode	7 years	No	Not published

What happens to your warranty if you service somewhere else?

You keep your rights under the law, but you can lose the extras a brand attaches to dealer servicing. Hyundai covers passenger cars first registered from 1 June 2025 for seven years with no kilometre limit, and that longer term holds only where every scheduled service goes through an authorised Hyundai dealer. The base cover is five years. Hyundai also says work done by mechanics outside its network does not earn Genuine Service Plan benefits.

That is a commercial offer, not a legal requirement. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says you are free to have the car serviced and repaired by an independent workshop, because manufacturers must make repair information available to the trade. The regulator also says a voluntary warranty cannot remove or reduce the rights consumer law gives you automatically, and that warranties offered by a manufacturer or sold as an extension sit on top of those rights and on top of state and territory statutory warranties.

So the real question is arithmetic, not fear. Work out what two extra years of manufacturer warranty is worth to you, then compare it against what an independent workshop would save you across the same period. If the saving is small, the dealer stamp is the easier choice. If it is large, you are paying a premium for a benefit you may never claim.

Which servicing plan is worth choosing?

Choose on the interval and the exclusions first, and on the per-service price second. The MG5 is due every 10,000km at $254 a visit while the dearer MG HS runs to 15,000km at $292, according to MG Motor Australia, so at 30,000km a year the cheaper car costs you three services against two.

Best for buyers who want a single published number they can budget against before they sign: MG, which lists a per-service price per model and commits to five services over 60 months. Best for buyers who plan to keep the car past the warranty period, or sell it with a service history that still means something: Hyundai, whose published maximums run for the life of the vehicle and follow the car to its next owner. Best for a long ownership run in a petrol, diesel or hybrid Kia: the seven-year programme, as long as you check the price for your own postcode rather than the one on the national page.

Before you commit, do three things. Ask the dealer for the full schedule with the price beside each service, not just the first one. Ask what sits outside the cap on the models you are comparing. And decide whether the warranty condition attached to dealer servicing is worth what it costs you each year, because that is the part of the deal nobody puts on the window sticker.