Stealership servicing - shoddy and a rip off!!
Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 1:22 pm
Just had my 60K service done last week - £340.
Now you might think £340 for a service isn't that bad. Ordinarilly I wouldn't have thought it was too bad either given the perfromance of these beasties until I looked into the quality of the service work performed. All they did was changed the oil, plugs, oil and air filter and measured my tire tread.
I always thought they spent some time giving the car a good look over lubricating hinges etc thus justifying the £340!
I deliberately didn't tell them about the 4 diagnostic trouble codes stored in the car that I'd found with VAGCOM and the more obvious diff to prop shaft seal leaking oil.
And a 20mm long x 10mm wide strip of rust on the inside of the rear passenger door which had they been checking the condition of the hinges they would have spotted!
I did tell them for the second time to check for a very slight lumpiness to the engine which VAGCOM confirms a missfire. They didn't fix that despite telling me otherwise.
So I says to the service receptionist. What about these problems. Look of confusion "Errr let me talk to the foreman."
Apparrently they only check for error codes associated with the engine!
Eh? It takes exactly 2-3mins to complete an automatic error code check. Main dealers are in theory the only guys who can do this! I just happen to know a bit about this car and have the software to do this myself!"
"So how was the leaking oil missed?"
"They did notice it but didn't think it was that bad."
"It's leaking onto my drive. They have been reporting the front bushes splitting for over a year now - but they don't think they are that bad!"
The upshot is I was charged 2.5hrs of labour for a oil and filter change.
The oil was £93 for new Mobil ESP 5W30 oil where it used to cost £33 for SYNTRA. (I checked out the price of this new Mobil stuff a quick internet search came up with £40 for a pack of 4x1L bottles. The We typically need 6L and I always take a 1L spare just in case. So £70 tops and that's retail small quantity order!)
£67 for spark plugs
£4 for a sump plug and washer.
I am now going to look into buying this stuff myself and seriously consider servicing the car myself. I'll keep all the receipts as I do anyway for proof of service history as the main dealer stamp only confirms an oil change etc and is not a true indication of how the car has been cared for.
Rant over.
PS Anyone know where we can get this mobil oil ESP 5W30 and plugs cheap? I can't remeber what we dicided about group buys but this would be a case for one. Even if you don't service the car yourself you can hand over the parts.
Now you might think £340 for a service isn't that bad. Ordinarilly I wouldn't have thought it was too bad either given the perfromance of these beasties until I looked into the quality of the service work performed. All they did was changed the oil, plugs, oil and air filter and measured my tire tread.
I always thought they spent some time giving the car a good look over lubricating hinges etc thus justifying the £340!
I deliberately didn't tell them about the 4 diagnostic trouble codes stored in the car that I'd found with VAGCOM and the more obvious diff to prop shaft seal leaking oil.
And a 20mm long x 10mm wide strip of rust on the inside of the rear passenger door which had they been checking the condition of the hinges they would have spotted!
I did tell them for the second time to check for a very slight lumpiness to the engine which VAGCOM confirms a missfire. They didn't fix that despite telling me otherwise.
So I says to the service receptionist. What about these problems. Look of confusion "Errr let me talk to the foreman."
Apparrently they only check for error codes associated with the engine!
Eh? It takes exactly 2-3mins to complete an automatic error code check. Main dealers are in theory the only guys who can do this! I just happen to know a bit about this car and have the software to do this myself!"
"So how was the leaking oil missed?"
"They did notice it but didn't think it was that bad."
"It's leaking onto my drive. They have been reporting the front bushes splitting for over a year now - but they don't think they are that bad!"
The upshot is I was charged 2.5hrs of labour for a oil and filter change.
The oil was £93 for new Mobil ESP 5W30 oil where it used to cost £33 for SYNTRA. (I checked out the price of this new Mobil stuff a quick internet search came up with £40 for a pack of 4x1L bottles. The We typically need 6L and I always take a 1L spare just in case. So £70 tops and that's retail small quantity order!)
£67 for spark plugs
£4 for a sump plug and washer.
I am now going to look into buying this stuff myself and seriously consider servicing the car myself. I'll keep all the receipts as I do anyway for proof of service history as the main dealer stamp only confirms an oil change etc and is not a true indication of how the car has been cared for.
Rant over.
PS Anyone know where we can get this mobil oil ESP 5W30 and plugs cheap? I can't remeber what we dicided about group buys but this would be a case for one. Even if you don't service the car yourself you can hand over the parts.
just not the basic ones! 
I'm coming around your place for my next service 
