Cost of replacing a cam belt has just risen by 50%

[Alboyuk]

I have just been told by my local VW dealer that the cost of replacing a cam belt on my Polo has gone up from £768 to £1148 a jump of 50% this is daylight robbery I have checked with other main dealers and have been told that the price increase has come from VW and they are all charging the same price.

[lancslad1985]

How old is your polo? I wouldn’t be taking my car to a main dealer unless it was to maintain a warranty. If you’ve not got an extended warranty to keep I’d be looking for a good back street garage.

[SRGTD]

@Alboyuk; £1,148 sounds very expensive for a cam belt change on a Polo. I’d do my research and find a good, reputable VW independent specialist and get some alternative quotes. However, just looking at your previous posts it looks as if your car is a 2022 Polo, so unless you’re a very high mileage driver, your cambelt shouldn’t need changing until the car’s 5 years old, based on the information on VW’s website.

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/need-he ... mbelt.html

IMG_0246.jpeg (56.65 KiB) Viewed 5365 times

It seems that of late, VW have been increasing their servicing and maintenance costs. When I bought my GTI+ back in 2020 I also bought a service plan, and the cost of the service plan for the first two services was £199 when purchased at point of sale at the time of ordering the car. The same service plan purchased at point of sale now costs £360; an 81% increase in price. If an owner buys the service plan after taking delivery of their car but before the first service is due then the current cost of the service plan is £480.

I accept that some increase in prices might be justified as current inflation levels will have driven up the cost of parts / consumables, and workshop techs wages / workshop overheads (e.g. workshop heating and lighting) may have increased, but VW’s price increases are waaaaay above inflation. Maybe they’re seeing fewer vehicles going through dealership workshops, so overall revenue for servicing / repairs has dropped? If so, then it looks as if VW may have increased their prices to compensate for a reduction in business volumes, but with the objective of generating the same - or similar - overall revenue as before .

[MikeDO]

Daylight robbery!

As to:
"so overall revenue for servicing / repairs has dropped" ... not sure that jacking your prices up is a good way to go to encourage folks to take their car to a VW dealership for servicing

When a bought my Polo GTI last September, the two year service package was £269. I thought "not bad" at the time.
I wonder by the time I need the third year service, what the price will be
Probably need to take a 2nd mortgage out to pay for it

[SRGTD]

Daylight robbery!

As to:
"so overall revenue for servicing / repairs has dropped" ... not sure that jacking your prices up is a good way to go to encourage folks to take their car to a VW dealership for servicing

Agree 100%.

Excessive price increases / excessive pricing is likely to drive customers away.

IMHO VW’s aren’t premium brand cars and customer service isn’t anything special, so it doesn’t warrant VW charging premium prices for servicing and maintenance .

[lancslad1985]

I got my servicing free with the car. Yes it’s bad VW have put prices up but they’re nowhere near premium - my mate pays £350 minor and £480 major for his Volvo. Audi are similar according to my brother in law and that’s just a VW with a posh frock on.

[SRGTD]

I got my servicing free with the car. Yes it’s bad VW have put prices up but they’re nowhere near premium - my mate pays £350 minor and £480 major for his Volvo. Audi are similar according to my brother in law and that’s just a VW with a posh frock on.

At the rate VW prices are going up, it won’t be long before they’re up there with Volvo’s servicing costs.

Audi servicing costs are an interesting one; as you’ve said, an Audi is just a VW under the skin. The VW dealership I use also has Audi and Seat franchises on the same site. An Audi is serviced in the same workshop as a VW by the same workshop techs and I dare say the work carried out as part of the service is no different; the price will be though………….

Out of curiosity, I’ve just checked the Audi service plan prices ; essentially the same as VW’s service plan (1 oil change service and one 1 oil change and inspection service). For Audi’s up three years old and engine size 2.0 litres and under; £671.70. That makes the VW service plan sound like good value - even at either £360 or £480.

If the latest VW price for a cam belt change on a 1.0 litre Polo is £1,148, I wonder what the Audi price would be to change the car belt on a 1.0 litre A1?

[lancslad1985]

Well the salesman’s reasoning for an a3 s-line 1.6 tdi costing as much as a golf gtd back in 2016 was because “it’s an Audi”. So I’m betting £1500 plus as “it’s an Audi”.

He wasn’t best impressed as I walked out the showroom pointing out it was a Skoda underneath

[RUM4MO]

I think that the service "pack" being sold for "cars under 3 years old and under 2 litres" is only aimed at buyers of used VW Group cars who, for some reason, find the need to "protect" their purchase, which they bought out with the VW Group service "circle". So it will always be more expensive than the service "pack" deal either being sold with a new car at initial ordering or even at collection or bought as a product of the selling dealership.

I've never been bitter and twisted about/against Audi products, they are what they are, same as some Skoda based cars when sold as VWs are just that - ie Polos are just Fabias in the most important areas, which has, over the past 21 years annoyed me a lot and cost me a lot of cash due to CZ sourced components being used.

I bought a slightly used Audi S4 back in 2013, it was a 2011 with very low mileage, I had owned a 2000 VW Passat 4Motion before that, bought new, I thought that I was lucky that I had bought a VW, but later discovered my luck had been buying an Audi in more economic clothes, this I worked out when buying my wife a VW Polo, I had not expected that it would be a terrible car due, in my mind, to it being a Skoda in smarter clothes - that was very annoying and that 2002 VW Polo needed fed with new parts for the Skoda sourced under carriage/running gear at an early age and every bolt and nut were a nightmare to remove, working on that car, starting at just over 4 years old was a rude awakening for me coming from Ford and Vauxhall!

The only reason that I replaced my 13 year old, bought from new VW Passat 4Motion with an Audi was down to me owning VCDS, so I really did want to remain within the VW Group so that I had some control of fixing my cars myself. VW Passat was out of the question because its 4X4 offerings are Haldex controlled and the VW Passat is just a Golf that has been inflated slightly and has a transverse engine layout. The Audi S4 offered me proper suspension, proper brakes and a well built engine, so it was a no brainer for me.

Note, I am an Audi owner but not what even I see/consider to be an "Audi driver", one thing that confuses me slightly is the people that buy lower spec Audis as they tend to have VW engines which invariably expire early and cost a fortune to repair/replace, certainly a lot more on average than my costs of running my S4.

I suppose after my horrible experiences while tending to my wife's 2002 VW Polo 1.4 for 13 years 105K miles, I would have aimed to buy from outside the VW Group, but again being a VCDS owner/user just meant that it was easier to stay within VW Group and trust that VW had forced a bit better parts quality out of Skoda, so far so good and that car seems to have missed some stray bullets on the engine and gearbox - Skoda just love to have engine assembly hic ups - which owners get left to pay up for!

[grazuncle2]

I have not had reliable or dare i say honest service from local VW garages.

Honest in the sense that for my first Polo every MOT required headlight adjustment and occasionally some other adjustment requiring no parts. .. and after the fifth year of that, I never had any of that in the subsequent years when using the local council MOT testing centre.

underhanded was the constant pressure for necessary extras during servicing or putting the frighteners on like brake pad are over 50% worn and need changing; similar with tyres.

I have had the last of my 2 yr service plan done now. (never bothered with the included MOTs) My local guy will get my business again. He arranged the previous Polo's two cambelt replacements by getting a 'local VW guy' in to do it. doing 'a foreigner' if you will. I don't care who does it as long as it is done to spec.

The local VW franchise won't be doing it.

[RUM4MO]

There seems to be an "emerging" - from official sources, statement that the cambelts on "newer engines" - maybe only petrol engines, is no longer a periodic service item, and so has been redefined as a more once in a lifetime requirement.
This might account for the huge jump in price for carrying out this task, the(my) logic being, when it was a regular 5 year periodicity, the customer/punter would almost stomach £400 or so, but when the exact same time and parts are only needed once every maybe 12 years, then why not bump it up to £1400!
I don't have the exact details of all the engines involved with this change of service plan, though if I'm being kind(?!), maybe VW Group's importer into UK thought that they would wait until some data was available before falling in line with VW Group "rest of world".

Edit:- from having another look into what has been posted online, it seems that this change from VW Group UK importers was issued 1st July 2023 - though I still don't know the full scope of engines this relates to - although the conditions recommended wrt EA211 engines was always this from day one.

[grazuncle2]

Thanks for the information..

I'll be coming up to 5th year next year... My car has only 22,000 miles and reluctant to waste money for no real reason. Any more info from where this came, perhaps.

I'd ask my local VW garage but i can guess what the reply will be.. probably based around a 'just in case' scenario.

[RUM4MO]

I'd hope that your local VW dealership does give the same answer as written in this thread, if not, you should be quoting them in this thread, mainly to help clear this issue up to others or confirm that this latest "thing" is true.

[lancslad1985]

A colleague of mine just paid £350 for his Mazda 3s second service. What was interesting is the brakes were changed as part of the service routine…. I would have expected brakes to last longer than 2 years at 20k miles.

[grazuncle2]

I'm pretty sure a friend, who recently had front pads replaced on his Mercedes, paid just under that price, just for the parts!

Your friend must have some sort of deal going on.. Good for him!