URGENT ADVICE PLEASE - STEALERS TRYING TO RIP ME OFF

john_cook

john_cook

I was the STIG.
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
216
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Lancashire
Hi,

got a 2.0 TDI A3, 2005, still has 1 yrs warranty

taking it in for 2nd service for oil filter etc. change, inspection

they want £385!

What do I do. Thats ridiculous. Will other dealers be cheaper. Have I got a case to argue? HELP!!

Cooky
 
Other delaers may be cheaper as they are all franchased, urgently ring aroung and quote the price you have got asking them if they can beat it. They may well do if they want the business!

Saying that my 2nd service on my old S3 (8L) did not give me much change from £400 as the 2nd inspection service is the bigger one.
 
am on 30,000 miles.

I phoned up bolton and said ditch the oil change and screen wash, originally they wanted £350, but then they dropped it to £295

I phoned preston back up and said the same, they said they need to completely drain the oil as part of the service but bet they could do was £320 so am gonna have to pay that. 2.2 hrs labour at £94 per hour. Cheeky Fooking Ba$tards.

Cant believe it. :crying:

My mini cooper S had TLC so service was free with warranty.

Cooky



PS - thanks for the quick replies guys, appreciate it :icon_thumright:
 
Why is it a ripoff? Sorry, but I don't see why - in some areas of the country even non-franchise dealers charge £90/hour. I really don't see why people spend £20k on a good quality A3 then whine about £300 on a major service.

Sure, no-one is happy about spending money on servicing, but I'd rather have it done properly, access to proper diagnostics kits, with a good quality loan car and manufacturers recalls checked etc than try to save £50 at a dodgy backstreet garage using cheap oils/filters etc and with only 50% of the car checked.
Yes there are some Audi specialists with the right equipment and parts I might use, but then you are only really saving maybe £10-20/hour labour and a bit on parts/oil.

Having said all this, VW have the right attitude - you get a discount if your car is over 4 years old - they would rather have the business than insist on full price for something you probably aren't that fussed about.
 
Covenant said:
Having said all this, VW have the right attitude - you get a discount if your car is over 4 years old - they would rather have the business than insist on full price for something you probably aren't that fussed about.
Click to expand...

Audi do this too.

If your car is over 3 yrs old labour rate is dropped to around £60 per hour and 10% off parts with free MOT.
 
JamS3 said:
Audi do this too.

If your car is over 3 yrs old labour rate is dropped to around £60 per hour and 10% off parts with free MOT.
Click to expand...


Not at my dealers. I'll keep this in mind though for the next 2.5 years!!
 
Covenant said:
Why is it a ripoff? Sorry, but I don't see why - in some areas of the country even non-franchise dealers charge £90/hour. I really don't see why people spend £20k on a good quality A3 then whine about £300 on a major service.

Sure, no-one is happy about spending money on servicing, but I'd rather have it done properly, access to proper diagnostics kits, with a good quality loan car and manufacturers recalls checked etc than try to save £50 at a dodgy backstreet garage using cheap oils/filters etc and with only 50% of the car checked.
Yes there are some Audi specialists with the right equipment and parts I might use, but then you are only really saving maybe £10-20/hour labour and a bit on parts/oil.

Having said all this, VW have the right attitude - you get a discount if your car is over 4 years old - they would rather have the business than insist on full price for something you probably aren't that fussed about.
Click to expand...

Why is it a rip off? are you kidding? £385 to change £50 worth of filters. Plus the fact that other dealers can charge much less for the same thing and if you haggle with them they will suddenly knock off £65. Why isnt there a unified price from all Audi dealers? They are taking the **** and making up different prices just as they feel like it. That didnt include a loan car, they dont have them available this month. About £200 I would have expected, thats still £50 more than say VW charged me for a full GOLD service on my former Mk 4 Golf, but my original quote on the A3 was nearly double that. If you dont think thats a rip off your mad!

Cooky
 
I agree with the above, a labour rate nearly £100 a hour takes the p*ss for us car owners.

You cant say cause you are prepared to pay 20 grand on a car then you should accept these prices. They can soon drop them when complained to.
 
JohnS3 said:
Not at my dealers. I'll keep this in mind though for the next 2.5 years!!
Click to expand...


I thought it was all dealers?

Oh well maybe not, anyway for anyone in the North East all the Colebrook and Burgess Audi centres do this ie Teeside Audi, Newcastle Audi, Wearside Audi and Silverlink Audi.
 
My local dealer charges ~£120/hr for labour.. I've shouted, waved, pointed but doesn't seem to make a difference :(

-Sal-
 
My local Chelmsford dealership charge £115/hour labour. My a6 is booked in to an independent for some work now - at £47/hour.

And it's an Audi-trained, Audi-specialist independent too :salute:
 
Might be a ripoff but it's to be expected. All the premium marques will charge the thick end of £100 an hour for labour, thus making dealer servicing expensive. TBH you should really have expected this with an Audi - at least the services are few and far between these days.
 
Carlisle audi charged me £250 for my 2nd service at 36000 miles on my previous 2004 tdi 140 sport.No complaints about price.
 
Yup, main dealers are always expensive, not much you can do about other than shopping around other dealers to try and get a cheaper quote. Try taking it an independent VAG specalist if you want it done cheaper, it doesn't have to be done at a main dealer to keep your warranty, and a specialist will often take more care over your motor than the main dealer would anyway, but charge you less.
 
Whilst a main dealer is not required for your warranty necessarily, whe you come to trade it in or sell it, people do take account of whether it has been serviced by a main dealer. It could end up being a false economy. As someone has said already, you haev nearly £30k of car £385 doesn't seem bad to maintain the value in the investment and £385 for a 2nd service isn't bad
 
my first service is due in Sept, i will ring round, i take it i can ask for quote for the first service?
 
If you're stretching yourself to buy the car in the first place,£385 for a basic ****** service is scandalous !
Thankfully,I don't have to worry about service costs (company car).
If I did have to pay for servicing,it's a ****** shame that costs like this would steer (sic) me away from Audi when I could probably otherwise afford the car.
Seriously,who do you know that can happily pay £385 without it affecting them in some other way ?
I know some pretty wealthy people,yet they'd still baulk at that.
Come on boys,take the Audi blinkers off.
If you think £385 is fair,then their marketing people,their shiny showrooms,their lifestyle magazines and their coffee machines have worked.
All things the excessive servicing costs pay for,coz it's not the profit on car sales.
Vicious circle.
Excessive service costs mean they can afford all the trappings,the trappings make you feel the service cost is fair blablablablabla.
The shiny service area doors are just a version of the Wizard of Oz's curtains.
 
The second AVS service on my previous 2.0TDI-140 was due around the time I traded it in for a new A3 Sportback. The quote I got from the local dealer (Huntingdon Audi) was £245.00 plus, as it was over 2 years, the brake fluid change would have been a further £80.00. The car had done 38,000 miles and the service was due (according to the DIS in 1,000miles)

If I had kept the car it would have been due for a DSG oil change at 40,000 miles for which they had quoted £180.

So if fact that was a further £505 that was, in effect added to my trade-in figure.

The car was 30 months old and my previous service (at 18,000) had cost me £185 so my total bill for servicing on that particular car would have been £690 or £23.00 per month or 19.17p per mile.

As it was I sold the car so the servicing costs were £6.17 per month and 5.14p per mile.
 
bowfer said:
If you're stretching yourself to buy the car in the first place,£385 for a basic ****** service is scandalous !
Thankfully,I don't have to worry about service costs (company car).
If I did have to pay for servicing,it's a ****** shame that costs like this would steer (sic) me away from Audi when I could probably otherwise afford the car.
Seriously,who do you know that can happily pay £385 without it affecting them in some other way ?
I know some pretty wealthy people,yet they'd still baulk at that.
Come on boys,take the Audi blinkers off.
If you think £385 is fair,then their marketing people,their shiny showrooms,their lifestyle magazines and their coffee machines have worked.
All things the excessive servicing costs pay for,coz it's not the profit on car sales.
Vicious circle.
Excessive service costs mean they can afford all the trappings,the trappings make you feel the service cost is fair blablablablabla.
The shiny service area doors are just a version of the Wizard of Oz's curtains.
Click to expand...

From talking to people I know who own Beemers and Mercs the servicing costs are not much better...

I would be upset with a servicing cost that high, but I seem to remember my R32 costing £300 to service at VW...

I guess the lesson is to shop about and try to get it cheaper
 
Cooky,
I've used Bolton in the past but they seemed to have put their prices up last time I asked for a quote. They matched the price from Warrington once but wouldn't do it last time when I told them how much I had been quoted.
I've always found Warrington ok, and they were the cheapest for the first service on my current A3.
But, both were slightly dearer than Preston when I needed the brake fluid change at 2 years (it didn't coincide with the service) so I went there.
I've never been to Lancaster Audi in Manchester as they do quote extortionate rates. (and I've heard bad reports)
Depending were your'e from you could also try Blackburn, Macclesfield or Stockport if you fancy a ride out. I've no idea what they're like though.

Ian
 
bowfer said:
If you're stretching yourself to buy the car in the first place,£385 for a basic ****** service is scandalous !
Click to expand...
True, £385 for a service is scandalous, but if you were stretching yourself to buy the car in the first place, surely you'd be making sure you could afford the running costs for the car you were buying?
 
I wasn't stretching myself in anyway to buy the car but thought £385 was steep. If it was my M3 I could understand it costing more but for a 2.0 tdi thought it was bit dear. Am paying £320 in the end, in Preston, they cut it down after I said that Bolton was cheaper. Preston is closer so going there for convenience. No loan car tho is a bit of a pain.

cooky
 
bowfer said:
If you're stretching yourself to buy the car in the first place,£385 for a basic ****** service is scandalous !
Thankfully,I don't have to worry about service costs (company car).
If I did have to pay for servicing,it's a ****** shame that costs like this would steer (sic) me away from Audi when I could probably otherwise afford the car.
Seriously,who do you know that can happily pay £385 without it affecting them in some other way ?
I know some pretty wealthy people,yet they'd still baulk at that.
Come on boys,take the Audi blinkers off.
If you think £385 is fair,then their marketing people,their shiny showrooms,their lifestyle magazines and their coffee machines have worked.
All things the excessive servicing costs pay for,coz it's not the profit on car sales.
Vicious circle.
Excessive service costs mean they can afford all the trappings,the trappings make you feel the service cost is fair blablablablabla.
The shiny service area doors are just a version of the Wizard of Oz's curtains.
Click to expand...
Never said I thought the charges were fair - indeed for what they actually do they are indeed a rip-off.

All I was saying is that these type of costs are par for the course with the prestige marques and he should really have expected them. They know that you want a full main dealer service history with your shiny expensive car so they have you by the short and curlies. BMW and Mercedes are exactly the same so please don't talk about "Audi blinkers" as if they're the only ones guilty of this.
 
Vertigo1 said:
BMW and Mercedes are exactly the same so please don't talk about "Audi blinkers" as if they're the only ones guilty of this.
Click to expand...

What do they charge for servicing to their 'starter models' ?
The A3 is the base Audi,so what do BMW charge for a 1 series and Merc charge for an A/B series ?
Or Honda for a Civic ?
Just curious.
 
Don't know for sure but I'd be very very surprised if they charged any less than Audi do, even for their "starter" models as you put it.

I don't see why they'd charge any differently for labour regardless of the vehicle being worked on. If they did, how would an A8 or 7 series owner feel when they discovered they're being charged more for the labour of the same workforce simply because they had a more expensive car?
 
why is the labour rate different in various dealerships? are some audi mechanics trained better than others so cost more?!? Its unbelievable that they havent got a unified charge for audi UK which applies to all dealerships. thats why I feel bit messed around, ring one dealer its £385, another its £350, another its £320. If it was £set price from all dealers theres no room for feeling like they are making up the charges.

cooky
 
The actual time to carry out a particular service or procedure (clutch change for eg) is fixed, in hours, by the manufacturer. However, it is the labour rate that varies depending on geographic location of the dealer. London and surrounding areas for example tend to be higher as it always believed they can charge more. All franchised dealers tend to work the same regardless of car manufacturer. Try the Park Lane BMW dealership in London: you can even have a massage while you wait! Someone has to pay for it!

Commercially, a dealer could charge as little as they liked; they could do it free. You might pick up on a dealer who is keen to take on service business at a particular time.

As an ex E46 BMW M3 owner, I rarely got change from £800 for a service with inspection 2 topping a grand if you were unlucky. I would imagine an RS4 much the same...
 
john_cook said:
why is the labour rate different in various dealerships? are some audi mechanics trained better than others so cost more?!? Its unbelievable that they havent got a unified charge for audi UK which applies to all dealerships. thats why I feel bit messed around, ring one dealer its £385, another its £350, another its £320. If it was £set price from all dealers theres no room for feeling like they are making up the charges.

cooky
Click to expand...

Here are a few reasons I think the prices of sevices differ between dealers

1 are they a stand alone franchise if so their prices will tend to be higher as they will be purchasing a lower volume of product.Converse should be true if they are part of a group.
2 Where are they situated ie town centre or outskirts of town, town centre dealerships will pay higher business rates than dealership on edge of town.
3 Where in the country is dealership situated ie London price of land and commercial property expensive.Say Carlisle price of land commercial property relatively inexpensive.

I'm not making excuses for dealers just pointing out a few business realities.
 
john_cook said:
why is the labour rate different in various dealerships? are some audi mechanics trained better than others so cost more?!? Its unbelievable that they havent got a unified charge for audi UK which applies to all dealerships. thats why I feel bit messed around, ring one dealer its £385, another its £350, another its £320. If it was £set price from all dealers theres no room for feeling like they are making up the charges.

cooky
Click to expand...

You may as well ask why petrol costs more in certain areas of the country at the same brand of station. Franchises can charge what they like within the limits (if any) set by the franchise holder and this will depend on the running costs in the area they operate.

If you really want to save money go get your car serviced by KwikFit with pattern parts and at £40/hour. I know which car I'd buy in 3 years though....

Whatever - you seem to have a slightly skewed sense of priorities imo - you are happy to spend money on
replica RS6 alloys Rieger front bumper/side skirts, Eibach 30mm springs, Caratere Rear Spoiler, Silver wing mirrors, powerflow twin exhaust tips, Alpine iDA-X001 iPod Ready headunit, amp and 1000 watt sub....
Click to expand...
but whine about a £40-50 differential on a major service interval?
 
Covenant said:
If you really want to save money go get your car serviced by KwikFit with pattern parts and at £40/hour. I know which car I'd buy in 3 years though....
Click to expand...


This is the sort of thing that's always thrown at those who complain about servicing costs.
Taking it to stupid extremes.
How about happy mediums,like perfectly respectable garages that use genuine parts ?
Under those condition,Audi have to honour the warranty,so there's no reason to moan.
This 'fear' that results in people going to the main dealer.
It really is stupid beyond belief.
So old fashioned.
 
It all comes down to the service you want from Audi and your dealer. I have used main dealers for all my Audis and have had great service including varios things being done by Audi UK free of charge long outside the warrantly period and this work equated to thousands of pounds worth of parts and labour. The reality is that you get this if you use main dealers, but it comes at a cost and that cost is higher servicing prices. Is it worth it, that is a interesting debate and the reality is that it is just another form of insurance policy for your car.

But when it comes to buying a second hand car, I would much prefer to buy one that has been serviced by a main dealer throughout its life as it suggests that the car has been properly looked after from a service perspective and short cuts/cost savings have not been taken that might come back and bite you later
 
I dont think you can say the dealer is trying to rip you off. If they quoted one figure and then tried to charge you another - that would be one thing. If they quote before doing the work and you think it is too much - go elsewhere.

Audi are no more expensive than BMW or Mercedes etc. Yes the labour rates are high, but so are the running costs of a big dealership. These prices should not be a surprise, and if they were an issue you should have bought something else, or use independents for servicing. This however as has already been pointed out, will probably knock the value of your car by as much if not more than the saving.

Also take into account that these cars on variable servicing are doing 20k between services - so 350 or so per 20,000 miles doesnt seem to harsh to me - yes it used to be cheaper, but it also used to be twice as frequent....
 
edowen said:
or use independents for servicing. This however as has already been pointed out, will probably knock the value of your car by as much if not more than the saving.
Click to expand...

Do you have any actual proof of this ?
Or is it just the usual baseless assumption/speculation ?
 
In all the cars I have owned over 12years not ONE dealer has asked for proof of full service DEALER history when iv'e come to trade them in.

They only have asked has it full service history, answer yes!

They have never checked I presume until the car has been handed over and i'm driving away in the new one which by then is too late!
 
bowfer said:
Do you have any actual proof of this ?
Or is it just the usual baseless assumption/speculation ?
Click to expand...

1. I wouldnt buy an Audi that was in warranty but had been serviced by indi's.
2. Ask a dealer to give you a part-ex price - then tell them it has been serviced outside the network and see if a) they still want it or b) they hold the price they offered.
3. Indi's dont all have the same access to recall info
4. You find 2 used Audi's, both the same condition, both the same spec - only difference is main delaer stamps versus indi - which would you honestly buy?

Dont get me wrong - some independents are great, but dont kid yourself that going out of the netwrok wont affect at the very least the ease of sale/trade-in.

Once a car is out of warranty fair enough, it will make less difference.
 
edowen said:
1. I wouldnt buy an Audi that was in warranty but had been serviced by indi's.
2. Ask a dealer to give you a part-ex price - then tell them it has been serviced outside the network and see if a) they still want it or b) they hold the price they offered.
3. Indi's dont all have the same access to recall info
4. You find 2 used Audi's, both the same condition, both the same spec - only difference is main delaer stamps versus indi - which would you honestly buy?

Dont get me wrong - some independents are great, but dont kid yourself that going out of the netwrok wont affect at the very least the ease of sale/trade-in.

Once a car is out of warranty fair enough, it will make less difference.
Click to expand...

Honestly though how many people do you think would ask this if they buy a car from the main dealer?
 
I can only talk for myself - I would. I dont dispute that there are plenty of muppets out there that dont.
 
edowen said:
1. I wouldnt buy an Audi that was in warranty but had been serviced by indi's.
2. Ask a dealer to give you a part-ex price - then tell them it has been serviced outside the network and see if a) they still want it or b) they hold the price they offered.
3. Indi's dont all have the same access to recall info
4. You find 2 used Audi's, both the same condition, both the same spec - only difference is main delaer stamps versus indi - which would you honestly buy?
Dont get me wrong - some independents are great, but dont kid yourself that going out of the netwrok wont affect at the very least the ease of sale/trade-in.
Once a car is out of warranty fair enough, it will make less difference.
Click to expand...

1. I would - I'd welcome the fact that someone had the balls to do it.
2. I don't part-ex,never have,never will.
3. So go for one that does,or keep an eye out yourself.
4. I'd go for whichever one was best,a full main dealer history (compared with a specialist independent) will not sway me.

Nobody is condoning shoddy,back-street servicing.
But I don't see the alternative should be feeding the main dealer either.
The law was changed to benefit the consumer,yet some consumers STILL cower back to the main dealer,whilst he rubs his hands and cackles...
Honestly,it's laughable.

FWIW,I have to pay for servicing for the wife's car.
As it is,I got free servicing thrown in from the main dealer.
if I hadn't,I'd use an independent that used proper parts.
Any warranty claims would be dealt with by the main dealer and woe betide them if they dared grump about it,because I know my rights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Are Edinburgh Audi trying to rip me off......
Replies
4
Views
1K
PH1L
PH1L
MA3TDIQ
Audi Rip off - advice please
Replies
17
Views
2K
John@ECM-TECH
John@ECM-TECH
5
New (to me) S3 advice please.
Replies
10
Views
834
PaulAr
PaulAr
W
Turbo rip off?
Replies
20
Views
2K
WISHY
W
R
Is someone trying to con me?
Replies
20
Views
2K
NHN
NHN
Top
Back