VW reasonable service
 

My local dealer has just carried out the first service on my 2008 TDi 140 Passat Highline Estate after ownership lasting 26 months and 14500 miles. They came and collected it from my home, serviced it, carried out a minor sensor re-call under warranty, carried out a "health check", road-tested, phoned me back with their findings, washed/dried and returned the car to my house (17 miles each way).

All that for a tad under 160 quid including VAT, so that's round about 75 quid per year.

Compare that to the local FIAT garage that looks after my wife's puny Grande Punto. Her annual service always comes in at over 200 quid. For that we get no collection and no wash.

So some rare praise for VW. How much does the equivalent Audi service cost?

you did well buddy. only time I have been happy with VW was in Austria:freak3:. mind me asking which garage?

Just paid £460 for four services at once on the BM - oil, brake, inspection, filters - they now split them up to try and hide the overall cost (well that's what I think anyway!)!

Just had a service on my e320 cdi sport,which boiled down to an oil change and a look around £405.:cry:

£340 for me at a BMW main stealer for oil and a micro filter.....oh and the vital £80 ' vehicle check '

Kettering (formerly Autohaus, Kettering). I've used two dealers over the years: this one and Lindvale, Southend. Both have been absolutely fine.

£140 for 1st yr service on my Civic Type R but had to drop it off myself. They offered to wash it but I dont trust anyone to do a decent job. That was £100 cheaper than the quote I got from Honda Reading after ringing around.

Simon

:eek:

I think this goes both ways:

MY last VW dealers insisted on using Castrol GTX mineral oil in my R32. Which is the cheapest most basic oil one can buy (VW500 00), there is a TSB floating around advising 3.2 engines should run on longlife oil (full-synthetic) regardless of service interval (presuambly due to the timing chain tensioning issues, of which my car has suffered from, and has the £2K warranty bill to prove it).

I have a tick in the service book saying the pollen filter has been changed on the previous service at the same dealer...I checked it (passenger footwell, remove foam trim, slide off cover, out it pops), due to the state of it, it can only be the original one.

They changed the car from the 2yr variable mile longlife regime to 12month regime servicing without asking nor telling me. To add insult...the reminder date on the trip computer was somehow set incorrectly (2months overdue).

They negated to change the spark plugs and air filter, despite it being due on the schedule (thankfully didn't charge for them either...Six NGK Iridiums at full RRP would make me feel quesy when I can get them for nearly half that).

Not to mention my knocking gearbox they haven't fixed (already replaced flywheel+clutch)
Nor fix the auto wipers
Nor fix the auto headlamps
And saying I can't get my mirror switch to work both mirrors independantly when set on "L" (it can be reconfigured via the diagnostics software).
They also failed to disable the welcome home/leaving home feature on the lights when I asked (I can't do it myself as the car doesn't have the high-line LCD panel, so it needs to be configured via the diagnostics plug).

Yes VW experience has not exactly been rosey.

At least the service only cost £120; mainly due to using the cheap mineral oil, and not changing or checking anything else. I've since fitted new plugs myself, new pollen and air filters, changed the brake fluid myself and will drop out the oil before winter for some nice Edge 5w-30 (VW507 00).

Why didn't I do it myself in the first place? Well, seeing the car was aready there for the warranty work, I figured it'd be more time-effective and a full VWSH service book looks nice, even if it doesn't mean that much.

At least they washed and vac'd it (Which I'd rather they didn't as I'd just got all the swirl marks out the paint the month previous). I might be a fussy bugger, but the silly thing is the stuff they've missed, they could have made more work for themselves and made more money.

You can save a few more quid by servicing VW's at Skoda dealers. The hourly rate is smaller, and they're still VAG and so use OE parts and have all the relevant diagnostic equipment. First services on our Fabia's and our Octavia were about £110 each all in IIRC √

which Octavia do you have ? i get my VRS in sep ?

Only an old 55 plate 2.0 PD140 Ambiente. Slapped a Neuspeed 25mm rear ARB and some 18's on it and it's not too bad a barge now. Strongly recommend you put a thicker RARB on your vRS as when I tested a vRS the handling was similar to ours suggesting they give them a bit more poke and some body prettiness, but not much to help the handling.