Audi A1 1.4TFSI petrol. One year old this week, 4400 miles done, time for first service. Somewhat strangely (to me), even though Audi NZ are paying for the first 3 years' services, the dealer gave me a copy of the invoice to talk me through the work done:
- oil, filter, plug washer, cleaner fluid (?)
- replace wiper blades (already?)
- wheel alignment and wheel rotation
- check and inspect brakes, fluid levels, blah-blah etc
All in: 280 quid!!!!! Seems like a lot to me. And wouldn't they be invoicing Audi Cover at mates rates, not full workshop rates?
Also surprised that wheel alignment check and new wiper blades are part of first service and billed to Audi?
Don't know whether to be happy or astounded!
What will the year 4 service bill be like when I am paying...?!?!
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My Ex, who has no idea about money, took her 4 year old VW Touran to the local VW dealership the bill came to more than £1k!
We had owned it from new and It had been serviced yearly by the dealership from new and had only done 16k miles.
I couldn't afford to stay married to her! ;-)
I ought to add that I had asked her to take it to a local independent VW specialist but she refused.
Most of the cost came from changing the cam belt and water pump at the same time!
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 26 May 15 at 00:32
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1st Service on our Golf was billed to VW UK at £68 inc parts labour and VAT.
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Just collected the V70 from the Volvo dealer and paid £347 for the *small* service (o
I'm sure it wasn't that much last year for the big service.
Oil @ £75????
Pat
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Did you check it here Pat?
www.volvocars.com/uk/own/maintenance/service-and-maintenance/service-price-indicator
Not had opportunity for real yet to compare a price from that with one from the local dealer so I'd be interested to know how "accurate" it is - but only you know the specific details of your car to get a price out of it to compare with what you actually paid.
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I've just tried to do that but ours is a 2005 and that only goes back to 2008.
It was the 120000 mile service
Labour £120
O/Filter £16.20
Multi filter £43.80
Sump plug gasket £1.20
Lube £1.25
Diesel Conditioner £13.95
Castrol E/P A5 3w-30 £75.80
Screen wash £1.25
Copper slip £0.56
Environmental disposal!!! £3.70
Loan Car £12.00
Fuel for loan car £2.58
They valeted and washed it to but appear NOT to have charged for that:)
It's only once a year as we reach the 12 month period before the mileage so I'm not really complaining and they certainly come into their own if there is a Volvo specific problem. That's when we save on labour as opposed to taking it to the local indy garage.
Pat
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Hmm. It's easy to play games with bills in hindsight of course, especially other people's, but...
Diesel Conditioner? That's naphta and two stroke then, or something similar, about 10p a bathtub if you're brave enough to mix it yourself. But realistically even Redex from Halfords is under a tenner for four treatments.
Oil? 5 litres of the Castrol version of that spec is £23 from Amazon Germany (first page of Google), probably available mail order in the UK easily enough. Take your own next time, they won't mind and you know it's what it says on the paperwork.
Loan car? I don't think I'd expect to pay for a loan car - haven't done so at previous Toyota or current Volvo dealers anyway.
Screenwash? Always fill it before taking it in and tell them it's full, then you don't get caught.
There, hindsight goggles removed. At least you know next time. But you did, really.
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I haven't checked Crankcase but I think you may find that Amazon oil is 5w-30 and ours has to be 0w-30 which is why it's so dear.
But you are right, we did know that anyway and we budget for the easy option of taking it in once a year and not having to worry about it anymore:)
Pat
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My Yaris uses 0w-20 C2 oil, probably more expensive than printer ink. Ignorance will be bliss if they use 5w-30 but will no doubt charge for 0w-20. :-(
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Speaking to someone at a Toyota dealer, Toyota state the 0W-xx oil is prefered but not insisted on by them. The dealers put in 5W-30. I asked for some, I think, 0W-30W and told they don't stock it, just 5W-30. Not sure if they bill people for the more expensive oil.
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Mine goes in for its first service on Friday, I will let you know.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 26 May 15 at 20:24
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Just checked the cars handbook, 0w-30 is the factory fill oil for the diesel, 0w-30 or 5w-30 is the service refill recommended oil.
0w-20, 5w-20 or 5w-30 are the petrol engine oils.
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Sounds about right, I'd bet it's 5w-30 used for both. Bet it's the same across all the dealers.
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>> But you are right, we did know that anyway and we budget for the easy
>> option of taking it in once a year and not having to worry about it
>> anymore:)
>>
Up to you, obviously, but that cost is bonkers unless there's some need to take it to a franchised dealer. I take our Merc, Mitsubishi and Honda to franchised dealers but with all of them it extends the breakdown cover. I still wouldn't pay £350 for a glorified oil change though!
I take the VW to an indie now - never felt comfortable with the dealer and there's no benefit in using the dealer.
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I thought it quite cheap for the oil. Those D5 lumps take 6.5 to 6.7 litres.
Volvo also offer full Europan breakdown cover as part of the service, that'll cost a few bob if you do that separately for a 10 year old car if you can get the cover.
...and the software updates which are included in the service which you don't get from most other garages unless they've thrown a five figure sum at VIDA.
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Quite right gmac, all of which we wouldn't have got putting it into the local indy for a simple oil change.
We both love it and want to keep it as long as possible.
Pat
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The car is 10 years old, I doubt its getting anything in the way of software updates. In any case, you can always have it serviced every now and again by Volvo.
I guess the European Breakdown Cover has a value - I don't know how that compares with the price of buying such cover separately.
It is a damned expensive oil change.
Ultimately though, having a 10 yr old fairly "normal" car serviced at a main dealer is an emotional decision, not a financial one. I very much doubt it makes financial sense, but it may well make emotional sense to you.
And that is perfectly adequate justification for choosing that route, at least in my opinion. The cheapest (or most financially efficient) route is not always the right route.
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Quite so, my solicitors were not the cheapest....
After 7.5 years of ownership my 11 yo BMW has never been near a main dealer, apart from the recent recall. The chap who services it used to be a spannerman at a main BMW place so that's good enough for me. I thought the £570 I paid last year for a full Inspection 2, all filters, plugs, pads all round and new rear discs, was a heck of a lot. Apparently not.
I buy my oil & filter for the annual lube change from a motor factor then pay about £50 to have it done...up on the ramps and a thorough inspection all round. Always change from £100.
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>>having a 10 yr old fairly "normal" car serviced at a main dealer is an emotional decision<<
It may be 'normal' to you Sunshine, but it's pretty special to us:)
However, I agree it is to some extent an emotional decision but swayed by the fact that we wouldn't have had the correct oil put in at the indy which in turn could have have caused problems. It also keeps it updated with a FULL main dealer service history and we looked long and hard to find one with that before we found this one.
Pat
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>>It may be 'normal' to you Sunshine, but it's pretty special to us:)
Don't misunderstand; I meant"normal" as in not ridiculously highly tuned or modified, hybrid technology, classic status, silly value or other complication.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 27 May 15 at 14:33
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To the OP, it is probably an accounting thing to reduce tax. I often notice companies have all kinds of subsidiaries upon which seemingly unnecessary internal invoices are furnished.
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Like selling pre registered cars at used prices to achieve the sales target for a manufacturers sales bonus?
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Exactly.
Initial invoice is at full rate. Agreements are done with over-riding, and in some cases retrospective, discounts.
Typically, for example, Service will "invoice" Sales at full rate for work done preparing a car for sale.
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>> Typically, for example, Service will "invoice" Sales at full rate for work done preparing a car for sale.
Wow... I sort of remember stuff like that from my west end days. You were aware of the churning down below but in the end you got some sort of newish middle-class car to hurl about. No one gave a damn what happened to it. I'm almost sorry I never wrote one off.
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>> Volvo also offer full Europan breakdown cover as part of the service, that'll cost a
>> few bob if you do that separately for a 10 year old car if you
>> can get the cover.
>>
That fair enough. Make sure it does cover them though - the Merc one runs for 30 years, but the Mitsubishi cover stops at 10. Don't know about Honda.
>> ...and the software updates which are included in the service which you don't get from
>> most other garages unless they've thrown a five figure sum at VIDA.
>>
That's always raised as a point by the MB crowd - but turns out the dealers don't do software updates unless you raise an issue and the fix noted is to do an update. Dealers hate doing them as some take literally hours so it ties up a bay.
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Volvo service promise includes software updates:
tinyurl.com/on7u68s
The UI updates do cost extra though and map updates for navigation takes a long time with four disks.
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>> Volvo service promise includes software updates:
>> tinyurl.com/on7u68s
>>
Mercedes say the same. They don't routinely do it though. With MB the car has to be connected to their diagnostic system, StarDiagnose, and people assume it has to be connected to reset the service indicator etc, but it doesn't.
Maybe Volvo's SOP is different.
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Very honest of Pat to post the service prices which were bound to attract comment. Compared with an indy with sensible parts prices she's perhaps spent £140 more than essential. However once a year for her own peace of mind it's no big deal.
Now the car is 10ys+ there is little financial sense in a dealer history for resale value but it might add to saleability. Last time we traded an 8yr old car into a main dealer they were totally happy that the service book was stamped accepting at that age it was unlikely to have been 100% main dealer. They flipped through the service book and never noticed/commented that the last 3yrs rubber stamps were my own that say HomeService and our village name.
Regarding the "special" oil at different times Volvo have advised both a 5-30 & 0-30 (both fully syn) for that engine and it is widely accepted any fully syn 0-30, 5-30 or 5-40 with be absolutely fine... particularly as you are changing just before the 12k mark. Many of the more expensive oils these days are to meet the long life requirements of current service intervals but if you change yearly at 12k they are overkill.
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>>Many of the more expensive oils these days are to meet the long
>> life requirements of current service intervals
Or low ash oils for DPF fitted diesels.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 28 May 15 at 12:07
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Audi A1 - A1 first service - how much..?! - zippy
