Main Dealer or Independent Service

Jesus. That's stupid amounts of cash for a cambelt and service. It's only a VAG V6 (ISTR), not something exotic.

I good indie should be able to do a service for around £150 and the cambelt etc for £250-ish.

I certainly wouldn't use a dealer charging that amount of money.

I thought there was a new ruling that to maintain the warranty, ie stamp the logbook, anyone can do it so long as genuine parts are used. Land Rover allow this as I know an owner who uses this method.

toy

Thanks for the reply.

I don't need to worry about the warranty as it runs out this week.

Thanks

Richard

Best to try & find a decent Independent who specialises in VAG. Such as

I.

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I am in the North East. I believe there is a VW\Audi locally but I don't know anything about them so I am wary about using them especially when I have an honest garage close to my home. Unfortunately they don't specialise in Audi but how hard can it be to work on them ?

Richard

I know a guy who does my MOT's in Sheffield, v small back st garage(but in v posh part). he does things like Masaratis, 70's or older Jags etc or brand new stuff or the run of the mill shit 1.1 festas. Not the fastest at getting round to doing it, or maybe thats on my cars. But i can ask him a squestion and he seems to know all the ins and outs about all brands. Whats a regualr mailure etc or things like that.

I wouldnt trust my Toyota dealer to work on my car (1977 Celica) but someone like him.

If it's any help, I have a Rover which is well out of manufacturer's warranty but for which I have an AA warranty. The deal is that I have it serviced professionally, i.e. not do it myself. But they do not say that it should be a main dealer, so I use an indie.

Rob Graham

For my money, stick with the guy you trust, and have the genuine parts. BUT see if there is a VW equivalent - while waiting in our local VW parts shop (which is next door to the Audi parts shop), the assistant served a customer to a part, and commented that the same part from the Audi spares place would cost a great deal more!

Richard Goulding ( snipped-for-privacy@nospam.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

A small specialist indie is FAR more likely to be good than a dealer.

Think about a typical mechanic's career path - start off in a dealer, training up, senior technician, then off to start own business. If they've chosen to specialise, it's usually in a marque they know well and are enthusiasts for.

A dealer will also get away with sub-standard work, as they don't need to trade off their reputation - there's a bloody great big sign outside that does all the selling for them.

A dealer is also not going to see as much of the long-term work on older cars. They're mainly going to get the first couple of years routine servicing.

Pay more for worse quality work? Hmmm. Let me think.

Before you make a choice, get quotes from a few other dealers in your approximate area (£800 buys a lot of petrol ;o)

I can't remember exactly how much a service varied between low and high in my area, but it was something like 50-100%. Yep, up to double from a different franchised dealer.

One also upped the price substantially when I converted from a quote to booking the car in. And lost the business in the process..

I'm personally very happy about specialists carrying-out work, but stick to the dealer for the service stamp. 'Tis up to you, really..