Dealer Option to Upgrade to higher quality Oil For annual service

[Rocky5]

My GTi Plus is due for it's first service at the end of this month. My local dealer offered me an upgrade to oil (Castrol Edge Professional 0w-20) for a extra £29. I have two year service contract with VW.
Has anyone else heard of this ?
I know for a fact that Castrol Edge Professional 0w-20 oil is filled by the factory at production stage as confirmed to me by VW Germany.

[monkeyhanger]

My GTi Plus is due for it's first service at the end of this month. My local dealer offered me an upgrade to oil (Castrol Edge Professional 0w-20) for a extra £29. I have two year service contract with VW.
Has anyone else heard of this ?
I know for a fact that Castrol Edge Professional 0w-20 oil is filled by the factory at production stage as confirmed to me by VW Germany.

That's a first for me. My last 5 VWs have come with a service pack and I have never been asked for an upgrade.

I would be asking what oil they use as standard and how the specification differs from the oil upgrade.

My wife's GTI+ was due its first service yesterday and we have a VW service pack for it. I don't have it booked in yet as our local VW garages aren't open right now.

Sounds like a greedy money grab to me. Whatever they put in, it has to be fit for purpose - to protect your car adequately until the next service, meeting or exceeding VW specification.

[Ima]

Absolutely agree this is an awful money grabbing exercise to make you feel worried you need something better. It is a very well worn marketing trick. As monkeyhanger says the garage have to supply VW specific oil and if it didn’t it would be negligent and open to legal challenge. No need to spend anymore money.

[SRGTD]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see many VW dealers trying the up-selling tactic once they’re fully open for business again. They’ll see up-selling as a way to generate additional revenue - something they’ve not been able to do for the past 6-8 weeks. Air con service seems to be one of the most common up-sells that dealer service teams try to ‘persuade’ customers to pay for. It was offered to me in February, and I politely declined. My air con is working fine, and the air con service is a recommendation, not a requirement.

As monkeyhanger has said, whatever oil they use, it has to be up to VW approved spec. so assuming the ‘standard’ oil they’d use is up to spec, trying to persuade you to upgrade for an additional cost is a totally unnecessary expense IMO. I’d also be asking how the upgraded oil is better / how the spec differs compared to the standard offering.

It could be that dealers are no longer using long life oil for customers on the time and distance service regime - you’ll be on time and distance if you have a service plan. Cars are filled with long life oil from the factory, as the default service regime from the factory is long life / flexible. In the past, dealers have used long life oil for all servicing, irrespective of whether you’re on the time and distance or long life / flexible service regime. To save on costs and increase profit margins (do dealers make less profit on service plan servicing? probably yes). they may have reverted to using a cheaper, non long life oil for service plan / time and distance servicing, although as said, this still has to meet the VW approved spec. Even if it’s not long life oil, if it’s up to VW’s approved spec it’ll be good for 10,000 miles / 12 months.

[monkeyhanger]

When you're paying a dealer yourself for non-warrantied work or servicing not on the prepaid plan, the dealership is looking to get £75-100 an hour for labour. For VW sanctioned work that the customer doesn't pay for directly, its about £45 an hour chargeable to VW. This might be why an especially busy dealership workshop may seem disinterested in warranty work when they've got plenty of work at the higher rate.

[RUM4MO]

These engine will have an alternative VW approved oil option, ie 5W-30 to spec 504,although that will cause a slight reduction in emissions etc, so that could be what some dealers are trying to get away with using for all pre-paid service plans that involve 12 month servicing.

My wife's 2015 Polo SEL only got 5W-40 to the earlier spec when it was serviced by VW dealership, as that was the allowed option for 12 monthly services, along with a basic pollen/cabin filter - that car like most has auto HVAC so comes out of the factory with the carbon coated filter.

Every penny counts!

[giannis159]

Stay away from 0w20!! Stick to 5w30 ll every 10.000 or 15.000 every time change oil filter.

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[lancslad1985]

Lookers once tried to sell my wife a radiator flush on a one year old car with 4000 miles on it. Unluckily for them I’m a chemist that makes radiator flushes (amongst other things) so they got told!

I’ve found they’re worse with women than men for trying to upsell. As everyone else has said they have to use a minimum standard according to the handbook anyway.

[RUM4MO]

You can't deny that they do try though!

[monkeyhanger]

It will be interesting to see if they try to upsell me - the wife's GTI+ is going for its first service tomorrow morning. Asked them to look at the mooing brakes in reverse as mine's had the sortware update but hers hasn't.

[monkeyhanger]

Well the service was done and not a penny to pay either forcilbly or in upselling. The car's status for all checks was green - so no trying to sell me aircon refresh, new brake pads, discs etc.

I forgot to tell them not to wash it though. For my troubles I got back a car barely cleaner than it was handed over, due to all the water marks and most of the squashed bugs still on my front bumper. I believe that Pulman Durham site have an automatic car wash, so it was probably a little less abrasive than the apprentice's gritty sponge. The interior had a decent attempt at cleaning - nicely hoovered out, but unfortunate cleaning product residues on the screen of the virtual dash.

They said that they also applied the "ABS controller software update" to get rid of the mooing after i'd asked them to look at it. It doesn't seem to have working though. For my 2018 Polo GTI+, the fix was semi-effective, reducing the mooing a lot, for the wife's 2019 model, I couldn't hear a reduction at all when I reversed into a space back home from the garage.

My courtesy car was a 7 speed DSG Polo 95ps 1.0. I took it easy in the car and only achieved 45mpg on the 5 mile journey - disappointing! The wife's GTI+ bettered this on the way back home with 45mpg. The GTI+ did seem better on fuel than i'm used to seeing from it, I don't know whether there were any software tweaks that have improved economy, or whether it is that they've "adjusted" the tyre pressures in their report. I had them 36psi fronts and 33psi rears which is plenty for the PS4s - I suspect they'll be up at around 41psi for the fronts when I check tomorrow, the ride did feel harder than normal. The report showed even tyre wear,so i'll stick to the pressures we have been using.

The courtesy car had a hard slamming boot lid - yet another not set up right at the factory!

One major annoyance - why do the technicians feel the need to alter absolutely everything in the car? I get that people are different heights and shapes, so not bothered about steering wheel height and seat rail position being different, but what's the deal with setting the seat back to half way between upright and horizontal (how can that be comfortable to drive in such a laid back position?) putting in 2 radio presets, adjusting all the vents so they point away from where they were (if you don't want air blown at you, just turn the fan speed to zero!), and messing with the lights dial so it is on dipped beam rather than auto?

They had a display/demo Golf MK8 in that I had a quick look at - the front end of that is just hideous, and the infotainment screen doesn't look in the least bit integrated into the dash. It is like someone glued an ipad to a shelf.

[S_94]

Well the service was done and not a penny to pay either forcilbly or in upselling. The car's status for all checks was green - so no trying to sell me aircon refresh, new brake pads, discs etc.

I forgot to tell them not to wash it though. For my troubles I got back a car barely cleaner than it was handed over, due to all the water marks and most of the squashed bugs still on my front bumper. I believe that Pulman Durham site have an automatic car wash, so it was probably a little less abrasive than the apprentice's gritty sponge. The interior had a decent attempt at cleaning - nicely hoovered out, but unfortunate cleaning product residues on the screen of the virtual dash.

They said that they also applied the "ABS controller software update" to get rid of the mooing after i'd asked them to look at it. It doesn't seem to have working though. For my 2018 Polo GTI+, the fix was semi-effective, reducing the mooing a lot, for the wife's 2019 model, I couldn't hear a reduction at all when I reversed into a space back home from the garage.

My courtesy car was a 7 speed DSG Polo 95ps 1.0. I took it easy in the car and only achieved 45mpg on the 5 mile journey - disappointing! The wife's GTI+ bettered this on the way back home with 45mpg. The GTI+ did seem better on fuel than i'm used to seeing from it, I don't know whether there were any software tweaks that have improved economy, or whether it is that they've "adjusted" the tyre pressures in their report. I had them 36psi fronts and 33psi rears which is plenty for the PS4s - I suspect they'll be up at around 41psi for the fronts when I check tomorrow, the ride did feel harder than normal. The report showed even tyre wear,so i'll stick to the pressures we have been using.

The courtesy car had a hard slamming boot lid - yet another not set up right at the factory!

One major annoyance - why do the technicians feel the need to alter absolutely everything in the car? I get that people are different heights and shapes, so not bothered about steering wheel height and seat rail position being different, but what's the deal with setting the seat back to half way between upright and horizontal (how can that be comfortable to drive in such a laid back position?) putting in 2 radio presets, adjusting all the vents so they point away from where they were (if you don't want air blown at you, just turn the fan speed to zero!), and messing with the lights dial so it is on dipped beam rather than auto?

They had a display/demo Golf MK8 in that I had a quick look at - the front end of that is just hideous, and the infotainment screen doesn't look in the least bit integrated into the dash. It is like someone glued an ipad to a shelf.

Wondering if the mooing issue is more prevalent on the 2019 builds of the GTI. I had the pads/discs changed and the issue never went away unfortunately.

I'll definitely be buying a 'do not wash' sign for when mine goes in for a service after what you've said monkeyhanger. Changing things inside the car would really annoy me as well, especially messing with the radio.

Every picture of the MK8 Golf GTI I've seen looks terrible. Can't decide what they've ruined more, the interior or the exterior.

[SRGTD]

@monkeyhanger; I think they try the air con service up-sell at 2 years and then every two years after that, so as your wife’s car is only a year old, get ready for the up-sell next year and then every two years thereafter. I politely declined when my car was serviced and MOT’d in February.

I always instruct the dealer not to give my car a service wash - I’m a bit OCD when it comes to my car, and I don’t want the dealer giving it an ‘abrasive wash’ with a gritty sponge and bucket of dirty water, especially if I’ve just machine polished it. I have a ‘do not wash’ hanger that I put on the rear view mirror, I tie a tag with the same instructions written on it on the keys and get the service advisor to store a similar instruction on their job sheet. It seems to work OK as they’ve respected my wishes ever since I started doing this about 9 years ago.

I also get annoyed when they adjust every conceivable moveable thing in the car’s interior - in particular the seat. I have a long standing back problem so my seat is set in the ‘perfect’ position for me so I don’t suffer back / neck/ leg discomfort. If the seat position gets altered by the dealer, it can take me quite a while to get it back to the optimum position again - really annoying!

I’m also in the mk8 Golf haters club. Agree, the front is hideous , especially that ‘wide mouth’ lower grille. I also don’t like the fascia or the removal of the physical buttons and switches, and think that it’s probably a sign of things to come for the Polo when it gets its mid life facelift. I must change my car before the facelift happens! .

[SRGTD]

I'll definitely be buying a 'do not wash' sign for when mine goes in for a service after what you've said monkeyhanger. Changing things inside the car would really annoy me as well, especially messing with the radio.

@S_94; I have this one;

https://www.carboncollective.com/produc ... -pvc-hook/

The sign, along with a tag tied to the keys and a similar instruction written on the job sheet by the service advisor seems to do the trick. I also try and make sure the car’s clean when it goes in for servicing so a) it removes the temptation for the dealer to clean it and b) it’s easier for the dealer to agree it’s damage-free when they do the damage inspection walk around when I drop it off and for me to spot any damage that the dealer may have caused when I collect it.

[S_94]

I'll definitely be buying a 'do not wash' sign for when mine goes in for a service after what you've said monkeyhanger. Changing things inside the car would really annoy me as well, especially messing with the radio.

@S_94; I have this one;

https://www.carboncollective.com/produc ... -pvc-hook/

The sign, along with a tag tied to the keys and a similar instruction written on the job sheet by the service advisor seems to do the trick. I also try and make sure the car’s clean when it goes in for servicing so a) it removes the temptation for the dealer to clean it and b) it’s easier for the dealer to agree it’s damage-free when they do the damage inspection walk around when I drop it off and for me to spot any damage that the dealer may have caused when I collect it.

Thanks SRGTD will definitely be ordering one later. Like the idea of a tag on the keys as well, will have to remember to do that before I go in.