Servicing (main dealer)

[madjam6rc]

I have a 12m Das Welt warranty and my Polo is due a service in a couple of months. Am I obliged to use a VW dealer to carry this out?

What baffles me is that servicing costs at Skoda and Seat are cheaper so I'm tempted to use one of them (if VAG parts are a requirement) or even a local VW specialist who is considerably cheaper. £350 for a main service (on a 1.0, 3 cylinder) is extortion.

Thanks

[SRGTD]

Page 11 of the Das WeltAuto warranty booklet - ‘Servicing requirements for your Volkswagen’. Link below;

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/files/live/ ... rranty.pdf

[madjam6rc]

Thanks. That's good to know that (reading between the lines) there's no obligation on having it serviced at a main dealer. ☺

[RUM4MO]

It is a bit annoying that you have found that SEAT and Skoda can do that service for less, is there that a "we can match/beat that price" mentioned somewhere at your VW dealer's service area, or on the general owner's section of the VW website.
I have not tried that out as my wife's car was bought with a 3 years 3 services dealership plan which was good value for money as I intended to keep it within the dealership network until it was out of warranty.
I know that some people, including me, tend to buy from the cheaper outlet instead of cutting a deal with the place I would like to buy from, really out of principle, but here it might be better to get them to match your local best price for same service from SEAT or Skoda, remember it must be the same type of service for them to match it. There does seem to be at least two pricing structures out there in VW Group dealership service land, there is one for the owner of a new car that continues to get their car serviced at a VW dealer, then there is the generic servicing which might be aimed at someone that for instance bought their VW at auction and wanted to start to use their local VW dealer, sometimes that type of service costs more and you get silly things like air filter and plugs replaced every 2 years, a point to note here, some dealer's or maybe even VW's service prices only cover parts replaced regularly during a 2 year service, anything that needs replaced at 4 or 6 or 8 years will be added as an extra. Nothing wrong with that it is just part of the smoke and mirrors goings on with clarity being suggested - how the dealership's workshop meets its sales targets?

[madjam6rc]

I looked in to a service plan and didn't feel it offered any savings. Mine was 3 years old and bought from a main dealer under their approved Das Welt scheme.

I think the current servicing costs are just a rip-off strategy. It seems VW used to do: Year 1, oil service; Year 2, inspection (interim) service; Year 3, major service .. and then repeat the cycle (a bit like with BMW's servicing). Now they have done away with the middle/interim service and it's a major service instead, every other year .. no modern car doing average annual mileage (10k'ish) needs spark plugs, let alone an air filter, replacing every 2 years!

Such tactics put me off the brand to be honest. Maybe it's been done to help claw back some cash after Dieselgate?!

Ford's Motorcraft service is the best value I've experienced: £160 for a full service including full AA breakdown cover! Amazing value.

[RUM4MO]

Yes, SEAT used to offer basic AA roadside assistance if you booked the servicing via their website, did that a couple of times while looking after my daughter's Ibiza, really just to keep the service record looking good in case she was going to trade it in for a new one after she returned from working abroad, after that, when she stayed away for another year or so I had given up with dealership servicing and just serviced it myself.

I think that VW Group have been on the Minor>Major>Minor servicing for a while, I bought an Audi S4 2011 car, when it was 2.5 years old, it was still set on flexible servicing and had very low mileage, as I was also running it on a low annual mileage I left the servicing set for flexible servicing but changed the oil and filter every in between year, I did that a couple of times then when it ran out of warranty, I started servicing myself.

Polo, I only bought that service plan as the car was being bought new with a 3 year warranty and the pricing was okay.

If I were you, I'd still be trying to get them to match either the SEAT price for that correct type of service that it is due, or the price your local indie is quoting using genuine parts, another thing, I've never tried this, but dealerships willing to get your trade should also be willing for you to provide the engine oil - that should reduce the service cost quite a bit and you can buy the correct/suitable oil online for a good price - really do push them to comply with your wants - if they want that business they will do it on your terms, if they are subborn/lazy/greedy they will not and so you can tell all your friends and name they on this forum and that might get the word out and drop them a few less jobs to do. Once my wife's 2015 Polo is out of warranty, I think that I'll be doing all the servicing work, one thing to remember, brakes really do get ignored at noraml service time, the best you will get there is an advisory to book it back in for brake work - which might only be a brake service - which you could be forgiven for thinking that you had already paid for in the previous service!

Edit:- its a big bad rough world out there, if a dealership does work well for me at a reasonable price, I'll give them the work, if not, I'll either do it myself or find a good local VW Group Indie to do the work probably better and cheaper.

Another Edit:- this Inspection Service can end up being a nonsense, Audi used to expect me to hand the car in for a service then a couple of months or so hand it back in again for an Inspection Service - seems like VW Group, and maybe others think that we have nothing better to do than leave our cars with them for a day, idiots! Possibly this happens more where cars have been traded in and sold on approved, at which point they get an oil change, in the case of my car that meant it got its first flexible service in January, was traded in in May, sold to me in June so had an oil change days before I bought it, which was the point that I considered the service indicators to be reset, February remained the Inspection Service time and June became the normal annual service time if I had run it for 10K since the previous service - that just meant a steady stream of email reminders - how boring!

[Ricmondo]

Traditionally you were hooked into the main dealers service plan however the EU found that unsatisfactory and updated the Block Trading Agreement meaning the within the EU you could use any competent garage without invalidating warranties and guarantees, there is a subtle but mostly insignificant legal difference between the two but don’t ask me to explain it.

Theoretically there is no need to use VW approved parts or consumables such as oils but, in the event of component failure and consequential vehicle damage the onus would be upon you to prove that the part was equal or superior to VAG standards so it is easiest to use VW or VW approved parts and it should enable you to avoid undue argument.

Don’t expect your main dealer to understand the situation or give accurate advice, most of them are almost as useless as the average estate agent which is why I avoid them whenever possible.

There is no guarantee that the British Government will maintain the agreement should Brexit go ahead in any significant form so thank the EU for now and keep your fingers crossed.

[madjam6rc]

Absolutely. Thanks for the views and advice.

[rbz5416]

I seem to recall that when I bought mine in 2016 under Das Welt that any servicing required in the first 12 months was covered by the dealer. That doesn't seem to be the case now & don't know when it changed, but may be worth checking your original purchase documentation.

On the subject of VW servicing in general, I think it's a complete scam & every dealer you ask has a different interpretation on the fixed vs flexible pattern. In my case when the dealer was responsible for the cost of the first service, it was deemed to be under flexible. So no service required. As soon as I became liable for servicing it was switched to annual servicing. Or at least they tried. You can reset the oil service reminder yourself so I did. It's now out of warranty so won't see the inside of a franchised dealer again as long as I own it.