Service due - dealer or not?

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Does it make much difference to the resale value if you have a full dealer service history?

My A6 is due a major service and the Audi fixed price is £309., byt my local garage will do it with OEM parts for around a third of that :ohmy:

I've had a full service history from audi up to now, but as its 4 years old I'm not sure whether its worth continuing with them. If it has another 2 or 3 services before I sell it, thats a good £500 saving.
 
Personally I would go with the dealer just to keep the service history up to date.
 
Go to Audi just for an oil service to get the stamp, then do the rest yourself, it's a piece of cake to change the air filter and pollen filter.

Full dealer service history is NOT that important when the car goes out of the manufacturers warranty or over 100k miles, in my opinion.
 
I always use a vag specialist now and the customer service I get is infinitely better, where are you based?
 
If I was keeping the car long term: VAG specialist all the way. Better quality of service and workmanship, plus you get to talk the the bloke doing the job, not the fanny on the counter (although they're better looking, I agree :yes:).

If I was going to sell it on privately in the next year or two: dealer. To Joe Public, a book of dealer stamps always carries weight when it comes to re-sale time.
 
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For me, it's a reputable independent all the way over the franchised dealer. I have both within two minutes drive of the house, and over the fourteen years I've been an Audi owner, the indie has consistently out-performed the dealer on every level; timeliness, quality of work, technical knowledge and customer service. And all that at less than half the cost of the dealer's hourly labour rate.

I mean; where's the decision?
 
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I will never ever use a main dealer again, there just con artists, not audi i know but i had a beemer and long story short the stealership charged me for a lot of work & parts that weren't used or done, as for service history i can tell if a cars been looked after or abused
 
joinerman said:
I will never ever use a main dealer again, there just con artists, not audi i know but i had a beemer and long story short the stealership charged me for a lot of work & parts that weren't used or done, as for service history i can tell if a cars been looked after or abused
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Having previously owned BMWs for 10 years I can tell you that their main dealers have been nothing short of awful. They not only over charge (by av 70%), but were also rude and caused extra damage in the process. After being lied to and inconvenienced over and over again I eventually left the brand.

Having moved to Audi I can say, unfortunately I get the same feeling that things are not better. So I'll be looking for a good indie garage to service my cars in the future. Provided that I find a good one of course.
 
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Yes people believe they get better service at a stealership, not true, the spanner monkeys can only plug in the diagnostic & replace a relevant unit if required, give them more of a problem they can't see an answer to & they farm it out to an Indie, most of your invoice at the end of a job is to pay for the shirts in the showroom that think they are superior to you, i recently went to my local dealer simply to ask a question about my sat nav, i was in my work clothes & boots, well i never even got in the door before the doorman / bouncer stopped me, now I'm not rich but I'm comfortable & probably better off than any of the shirts in there, they had no time for me, i will NEVER have any time for them.
Rant over.
 
I won't be taking my Audi anywhere near the dealer when it comes to servicing. There's a couple of local garages who would do a much better job for a fraction of the price.
 
Unfortunately Main Dealers nowadays rely on fleet and thats where they make their money as they can bill for something and just get paid, with individuals, we can kick up a fuss.

I have always used Independants too, the only time I used the dealers was for the coil pack recall and I was so cautious about it, luckily the car came back fine.

As above, if you are keeping short term then yes dealers, however if its long term then Indy all the way.
 
The general public will believe full dealer service history is amazing - and may well be a deal maker.

However, when I bought my A4 two years ago with full dealer service history (with expensive invoices) - it still didn't stop the camshafts wearing out.

I have always done my own servicing - however if I was to have it serviced I would use an independent specialist.
 
Those in the know use indys, those that know jack about cars think that dealers are the best thing since sliced bread... how can anyone be more specialist than the dealer that sold you the car they say. :noway:
 
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One benefit of a main dealer history is if you are unfortunate enough to have a major problem and the car is out of warranty there is a very good chance that you will get some or even all of the work done as good will by the dealer. I had a situation on my Touareg where the servo motor linkages for the swirl flaps failed, the car needed two new inlet manifolds and servos, the total bill was £1500 ish, with good will contributions from VW UK, VW Germany and the dealer the bill was reduced to £200.00 to me. I had a very good relationship with the dealer at the time and due to the complex nature of the car and the lack of indie garages with any experience of the Touareg I stuck to the main dealer, although having said that I used the same dealership for my Passat too, that had seized rear caliper replaced FOC when it was 5 yrs old on good will.
 
Spares said:
One benefit of a main dealer history is if you are unfortunate enough to have a major problem and the car is out of warranty there is a very good chance that you will get some or even all of the work done as good will by the dealer. I had a situation on my Touareg where the servo motor linkages for the swirl flaps failed, the car needed two new inlet manifolds and servos, the total bill was £1500 ish, with good will contributions from VW UK, VW Germany and the dealer the bill was reduced to £200.00 to me. I had a very good relationship with the dealer at the time and due to the complex nature of the car and the lack of indie garages with any experience of the Touareg I stuck to the main dealer, although having said that I used the same dealership for my Passat too, that had seized rear caliper replaced FOC when it was 5 yrs old on good will.
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Your general point is a good one, but the example you use less so. I have a B7 A4 3.0TDi (possibly the same or a similar engine to yours), and had the same problem (it's a common one). It's only VAG dealers who have insisted on wholesale replacement of the entire manifold assembly as a cure for the swirl flap problem in the first place. Most indies have long since been happy to repair them by replacing just the worn parts (usually, the drop link and ball joint) for a fraction of the cost.
 
jdp1962 said:
Your general point is a good one, but the example you use less so. I have a B7 A4 3.0TDi (possibly the same or a similar engine to yours), and had the same problem (it's a common one). It's only VAG dealers who have insisted on wholesale replacement of the entire manifold assembly as a cure for the swirl flap problem in the first place. Most indies have long since been happy to repair them by replacing just the worn parts (usually, the drop link and ball joint) for a fraction of the cost.
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Yep, I know it's a common problem and I believe VAG will now supply a repair kit, but at the time the only option for me was to either try to source parts that I could perhaps effect a permanent repair with, or take it in and have it fixed using the official repair. I didn't have the time or the inclination to diagnose the problem or source, buy and fettle bits to repair it so it went to the dealer. TBH I don't think an Indie would have done the repair for less and I don't have one locally that I know enough about to trust. The good news is that my current A4 3.0 TDI doesn't have them ........unless someone can tell me different.
You will often get some good will with a FDSH regardless of what part has failed.
 
Depends on how old the car is, mine was devalued (p/x) by probably £250-400 because it doesn't have a FSH with Audi. I explained I always use genuine Audi parts at the Independent and only went to them because Audi were damaging my car.

I think on a newer car I would use the dealer, I just have to travel far because my local one sucks.

As for which, go with where you're comfortable. I will be better off selling mine anyway and the type of person to buy my car will know about Independents.
 
Treat a dealer like you would an independent. I travel past three Audi's to use a specific Audi garage because the staff are good. I want to use a dealer as car is still quite new and I don't like lots of different dealer stamps when buying a car, so I guess i use that mentality on my car.


I also agree consistency with one dealer helps when there is problems. But no one is perfect, although HR Owen rank as my best service and dealer experience if your willing to pay for it.
 
I would always use main dealer!!!! After having a practically whole new engine replaced out of warranty (nearly £6k of work) done for practically free (well £266 contribution from me!) from Audi due to me having a full Audi Service history! The customer service manager from Audi UK said that even out of warranty, if you keep up the main dealer Audi service history, there is a good chance that Audi will make contributions if anything goes wrong!!!!
 
Plus the Local Audi 'Specialist' near me wanted MORE and weren't really interested as I didn't buy my car from them originally!!!!!! Fixed price Audi servicing is VERY competitive!
 
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Independent Everytime. As soon as a car is off the forecourt it goes to a good independent specialist, as soon as warrantee is spent I service it myself and the following year it's traded in or sold on. It's never been even a sniff of a problem as the records are kept for all parts right down to the new dustcaps on the last Clio.
 
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ScottishS3 said:
I would always use main dealer!!!! After having a practically whole new engine replaced out of warranty (nearly £6k of work) done for practically free (well £266 contribution from me!) from Audi due to me having a full Audi Service history! The customer service manager from Audi UK said that even out of warranty, if you keep up the main dealer Audi service history, there is a good chance that Audi will make contributions if anything goes wrong!!!!
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You're a lucky boy then! I don't know many people who've had a complete engine replaced for 266 quid from Audi, there must be a reason for that!?
My sister did get a brand new engine fitted by VW on her Polo GTI for a known piston ring issue, they wouldn't replace it for over 12 months until I told her what to say, and guess what, it was FREE! :D
 
jojo said:
You're a lucky boy then! I don't know many people who've had a complete engine replaced for 266 quid from Audi, there must be a reason for that!?
My sister did get a brand new engine fitted by VW on her Polo GTI for a known piston ring issue, they wouldn't replace it for over 12 months until I told her what to say, and guess what, it was FREE! :D
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Well there a few on here that got the engine replaced for FREE out of warranty!
 
My S3 is due an interim service and DSG service. One local indy was £25 more than audi for those two, another local indy was £15 more for both, Audi is £159 & £139 fixed price, another garage a little further away with a good rep was £270 for both so a little less. For me its a no brainer, two of them won't offer me a courtesy car never mind a brand new one and the other ill be lucky to get one! Again my car is 5 years old with FASH so I'm going to keep it that way, I'm still tempted to take the £299 offer but I'm also due a cam belt, had a price of £425 from an indy so hopefully ill get my local dealer to price match it and or do me an even better deal since I'm also due an MOT.. Expensive month :(
 
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