Main Dealer Servicing Costs.

[Thrustyjust]

13 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

 

I do have some sympathy with MD as the cost of having a franchise now is huge. A new Audi dealership will cost you £3million before you sell a car and the workshops are controlled by the rules they put in place with regards to training, tooling etc. When you then add in huge business rates and the cost of staff it is easy to see why they need to charge more than a good independent does.

 

Strange that you mention Audi Jeff. I had the mis-fortune of going to Basingstoke Audi a couple of weeks ago. An admin balls up, meant the salesmans A6 was due an MOT and he wasnt even in the country. So, we picked his car up and took it to Audi for an MOT. Now , for me an MOT take 45 mins ? We book it in and they wont let me wait for it, as they cant say when ( in the next 2 days !!) it will be done. I drop it off and get met by Dolly Short Skirt ( sure thats her name) who asked me to take a seat and she will get a service advisor to see me. The place is riddled with glamour queens and poncy blokes all ready for a fashion cat walk. 20 minutes later, I am thinking of walking out. Still havent been seen. I dont kow if she advised anyone or they forgot. No apology when he appeared. I just had to give him the key. Its a lease car, so after asking me how to pay, I said check his paperwork. Not employing people who read. I left and returned 3 days later.

Troloppey Tracey was now on reception on my return. She asked me to take a seat and she would advise the service team of my presence. I also witnessed a 'potential' customer call up to speak to a salesman , who was sat at his desk, doing nowt and getting the receptionist to say he is with a customer. So, a blatant lie. It does get said, but not in front of customers !! 

So, I wait 10 mins, still nothing Trollopey, then looks at me and asks , can she help. She had forgotten me. Que frantic running around and a look of despair and an apology from the other receptionist.  Service lady then comes over. I am sure they sent a lady for the next part . 

Audi ' Hi Mr Limited '

Me ' er, who ?'

Audi ' oh, it says your name is Mr Limited'

Me ' Nevermind , did it pass ok ?'

Audi ' yes sir, it did, but there are some advisories' 

Me 'mmmmm, go on'

Audi ' The front brakes have 5mm and the rear tyres are now 4.5mm' 

Me ' Really ? '

At this point, I get flaunting of women bits , in a way to think I will advise them on changing a grands worth of tyres and brake discs and pads.

Me ' Thanks thats fine. I'll let the office know'

Audi ' Oh, OK, heres the key, sign here, cars outside somewhere'

Total shambles...................

 

[Thrustyjust]

13 minutes ago, CraigHew said:

Isn't it just a case of "charge what you want / can for labour" ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/financial-services/motoring/car-repairs/garage-labour-costs-soar/

£99 per hour average for francised dealerships.

Thats thing Craig, a large proportion of people have no idea on what they are getting for their money and just pay without blinking at it. The highest cost at £234/hr in Reading . We have Porsche and Lambo under one roof , so guess its them. We looked at their a/c recently and it was knackered and they didnt want to spend out and fix it. We charge £46/ hr for an engineer to go to their site and fix it 

[Blatman]

7 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

Troloppey Tracey

I think I know her...  

[Thrustyjust]

36 minutes ago, Blatman said:

I think I know her...  

Sorry Blatters, I wont be heading to buy an Audi after that, at least you know where she has run to, to get away from you 

[Blatman]

21 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

Sorry Blatters, I wont be heading to buy an Audi after that, at least you know where she has run to, to get away from you 

 

 

Git 

 

[Thrustyjust]

Morning Service,

                  Following on from a call and letter from yourselves, I wish to enquire on how the air conditioning in my car will need servicing and what is done for this ? This is the first time, a car has had a requirement of a service after 2 years. Working in air conditioning , I also cant quite understand which parts need this work to be carried out, so wish to understand what the requirements are please.

Also, I wish to have a breakdown on costs for the £260 you wish me to pay for a second service. Consisting of oil ( 3.5ltrs) , an oil filter and a pollen filter and the brake check, according to Taylor-Ann on Friday . I cant quite justify the costs for a small Skoda like mine , to make it to £260. My Volvo XC60 service includes 8 ltrs of oil , a filter, an air filter, vehicle updates, a printed tick sheet of everything from 4wd transmission, to brakes etc, a years breakdown and recovery ( European) with loan car for less than you are quoting for a basic service.

From a timescale, I can see no more than an hours labour.  I have emoved the pollen filter in under a minute, oil and oil filter must be 15 mins, and a brake check , which even with wheels removed is about 30 mins.

If this is the costs for the Citigo, we have considered a Kodiaq to replace the Volvo, but with these crazy servicing costs , I don’t think I will have this on the list of cars when the time comes. I did enquire recently about this, but Skoda didn’t have any decent deals in relation to Volvo, so I didn’t buy it. Certainly feels the right decision currently !

I have had a cost from my local garage for the service and to also include a new air filter at £160 , which is more like it , but if you can genuinely show me why your servicing costs are so expensive , it would be appreciated. Not sure that having to shop around for you to find a cheaper place so you can price match is really something a customer should be doing though.

 

So, I sent the above at 8:30 this morning and have yet to get a reply from them. I also had a quote from Winchester Skoda for the service and the price was..............................£157 including the pollen filter. No mention of the a/c service though, although I did find on VW Skoda website about the 2 year a/c service and the gumph they had told people why and the next line says about 'fixed priced servicing for vehicles 3 years and over' . For up to 2 ltr is................. £162 .........  

Its comical really.............

[Ian Podmore]

That Audi experience reminds me of BMW... and they think it's good service to the customer.  I was offered 5 cups of coffee on one visit. What I actually wanted as a customer was to drop my car off, pick up the keys to the courtesy car and go.  I didn't want to spend enough time there to be able to drink a cup of coffee.

It's not good service, in case these premium dealers are interested.  I've never been treated so 'badly' at any other dealer over the years with my company cars, and none of the others was a 'premium' brand.  

[Thrustyjust]

6 minutes ago, Ian Podmore said:

That Audi experience reminds me of BMW... and they think it's good service to the customer.  I was offered 5 cups of coffee on one visit. What I actually wanted as a customer was to drop my car off, pick up the keys to the courtesy car and go.  I didn't want to spend enough time there to be able to drink a cup of coffee.

It's not good service, in case these premium dealers are interested.  I've never been treated so 'badly' at any other dealer over the years with my company cars, and none of the others was a 'premium' brand.  

I did think it was a marketing technique they were using to think you would get up and walk around the cars in the showroom and perhaps then buy a new one. Well it did the opposite, as I wont be buying an Audi , thats for sure.

[darve]

I love my audi but not so much the dealer service costs

Never have to wait long. But I do drop off first thing

Have to remember most folk don't even know what a pollen filter is, where the oil goes, etc

I do make the point of saying I'll do the air and pollen filters going forward once out of warranty as they're a piece of cake

I've used audi the last two years mainly for convenience, but have paid. Also gives you the comfort factor (maybe falsely)

Tyres done elsewhere as their quote was outrageous

Trouble is you need a laptop to do simple jobs like changing pads / disks. Stops us handy folk doing it ourselves

Overall happyish. Always keep me up to date and on time. They did damage some trim but are sorting it out after the usual internal politics 

Warrenty is now up so not sure what I'll do next year

I do enjoy asking the service ladies what does the service include. They never know

[GaryH]

These vague main dealer costs a recurring theme on the Briskoda website, wait till you ask about service interval/work done and variable service interval/work done costs! The law changed recently enabling serving to be done away from main dealers without losing warranty rights, parts need be manufacturer specification, not necessarily manufacturer parts. I checked this with the dealer and my local garage, so my Octavia VRS has been being serviced by my local garage. Only warranty work has to be done by the dealer, which is fair enough as they are paying for the parts and labour.

Gary

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

Well must admit I dropped my daily driver (BMW and still within service plan) off this morning and it was a most pleasant experience. there was someone outside with a clip board who welcomed me by name as I got out of the car, obviously had a list of car regs and names. He directed me  where to go where I was met by someone else who was expecting me I was directed to a waiting service receptionist to hand over the keys and check details. Then straight out to a waiting car for a lift home. Within 5 minutes of pulling on to their car park I was on my way back home.

Talking to the chap giving me the lift, the sales team do the meet and great each day and take turns with the different duties. they do this until about 9:30 then meet for a sales meeting and then back to the day job. 

There was no sales talk, even though had they checked they would have seen I'm coming towards the end of the 4 year agreement. 

As it happens I'm planning on keeping the car but where I'll take it once the service contract expires is a different matter. More than likely the chap I use to MOT the Westfield. I know that with him he's always that busy he need not look for additional work to charge you for.

[Thrustyjust]

Well, after 56hrs , no response from the service department or the chap who sent me the letter, so , I have a month, I'll move up the chain. Anyone know a contact at Skoda HQ ? 

Its amazing what I will do with no car building or tinkering needed, to pass the dark evenings..........

[DamperMan]

The wife’s seat came with fixed price serviving for the first few years.   Sure it’s ~100 notes.   I thought all vag group cars had the same deal.    I’m still boiling when at service my wife mentioned the air con had stopped working.... that was an extra £60 !!!  When I launched into them saying a 2 year old car with 10k should not have lost its gas it must there fore be faulty they agreed to look.....   but the wife collected the car and they charged 60 saying there was no leak, the gas had disipated.   The wife forbid me from popping in to discuss the difference between dissipate and leak...   

[Thrustyjust]

6 hours ago, DamperMan said:

The wife’s seat came with fixed price serviving for the first few years.   Sure it’s ~100 notes.   I thought all vag group cars had the same deal.    I’m still boiling when at service my wife mentioned the air con had stopped working.... that was an extra £60 !!!  When I launched into them saying a 2 year old car with 10k should not have lost its gas it must there fore be faulty they agreed to look.....   but the wife collected the car and they charged 60 saying there was no leak, the gas had disipated.   The wife forbid me from popping in to discuss the difference between dissipate and leak...   

The car has a 3 year warranty damperman. Gas does leak from the rubber hoses, but shouldnt fail in 2 years. The compressor has a gland on it, which if the a/c isnt regulary used, can dry out, as it needs oil from the system to seal it.99.9% of workshop guys think they know about a/c but really dont have a clue. Scares me what they know about cars !! Especially after seeing what was written on Honest John by so called experts. As for a service contract, we didnt buy new, but 1 year old and 5k miles on the clock, so was offered 2 services at £500 plus. I strangely declined that offer 

[DamperMan]

The wife actually uses the Aircon requently after I showed her the windows demist faster, so it probably gets used quite often more so in the winter,  but not for extended lengths of time.    Swiss Toni,  was so condescending that as we left the car my wife said next time it will be a toyota!..  By the way her ex-car (corrolla) never needed a top up in 6 years.    My 2001 Vectra once in  in 7   or  my 2007 Seat altea once in  7..   I appreciate some gas will escape like air from a balloon but 2 years 10k and relatively good use its rubbish.    Maybe it simply has a low gas volume so as a little escapes it makes a big different to pressure, and if i was told that i'd be more accepting....    And when you have fixed price servicing and they say an air con service is extra I start wondering what else is not covered by the fixed service.... brake service, lights service, engine service...      I have bought an almost 3 year old 320d this still has 1x BMW service free before 60k/ 5 years, and some sort of first MOT package.   I think i'll just run the car down the road to my regular MOT place, its easier than loose a car for a day for BMW do do it.   I'll use the "free" service as this will at least reset the service info on the display...Then i have another 20k to decide if to invest in a post 2012 "F" series diagnostic and service reset tool.