My VW Golf will be due a service soon. Last year I took it to my local VW dealer and I was very disappointed with the service, infact I went to City of York Trading Standards because some of the items that had been ticked on the checklist had not been looked at (two broken bulbs had not been replaced).
I am loathed to give VW anymore of my money. My car has depreciated by 40p.c. in the last 18 months (remember the advert? I am the guy who put all his money on black and it turned out red) The point is however, my car has a full VW service history and i am just wondering if I should pay for bad service in order to preserve the FVWSH. I think I will hold onto the car for another two years. Your comments please?
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Find a decent local garage - ask around for a recommendation or use the HJ database - and keep it for another four years, using the money you save from not going to VW to pay for any repairs. By that time the car will be as good as worthless, but with a FSH it will sell on easily to the bangernomics crowd. Once you get beyond a certain age (five years?) it doesn't much matter who did the servicing as long as the pile of bills and the car itself look like you cared for it.
Chris
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I think there us a confusion as to what a "Full Service History" actually is.
Some people seem to interpret this as "every page is stamped by a main dealer", and some people regard " a history of receipts for parts and work done" as the answer.
Personally, given the incompetence of most main dealers, in any country, I'd rather have the second.
M.
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Find a good independent VW specialist. Keep the car and keep all the bills. My Golf VR6 was bought new five years ago and it's such a delight that I'm certainly keeping it at least another five years. The chap who bought my ten-year-old Audi was very happy with all the copies of servicing biils I gave him and very receptive to the suggestion that he should stick with the independent I had used -- Mike Chapman in St Albans. If I bought another used car, I'd be more impressed by a comprehensive history of servicing and repair by a good specialist than by almost any main dealer. Also, you can go and talk to a small specialist, as he's likely to know the car well and be willing to talk; I set up such a chat between the purchaser of the Audi and Mr Chapman, knowing that the latter was impressed by the overall condition of the car anyway.
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I agree with Mark, if you know your VW's one stamp from a serious independent like Wheelbase (Hersham, Surrey) is worth a dozen VAG main agents.
Colin
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Many franchised dealers service depts are staffed with people that really have not got a clue beyond draining the oil and maybe fitting a new filter and trying to bump the bill to make bonus.It may look impressive with a full book of stamps,but a good independant wll invarably do a better job.
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Absoultely. Every VW I have bought has had a FSH but never 100% VAG. It seems to be German motors that are advertised boasting their dealer history. Examples being "Full VAGFSH" or "Full BMWFSH" , you never see "Full FORDFSH" - why?
One of the most cared for Golfs I had was serviced by a Mazda dealer! I would go for a pile of bills showing dates and itemised service tickets, regardless of workshop - within reason!
I would also swear by a local specialist. In Somerset I would go for Carshop of Taunton - they all own or have owned Golfs and know their onions. More importantly, they only charge around £20/hour and don't rip you off. I have had some major works carried out there and always been pleasantly surprised by the bill.
I think, at the end of the day, the private buyer isn't that important to the big dealerships. In their utopia we would all be Co. car drivers who couldn't care if they changed the tyres 2,000 miles too early or filled the already full washer bottle with £5 worth of screenwash (D.Lacey - guilty as charged)
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......and another point!
Most independants will charge you for the time it actually took to do the jobs and not the time it says it should take in their Unipart/BMW/VW/XYZ handbook!
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Which, will usually lead to bigger bills.
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Do what every body else does find a good small garage to do your work and buy a john Bull childs printing set and stamp your own service book,if you are happy with the car keep it but cut your overheads.
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actually i think halfords/the AA now own the servicing places do a better than average service for much less than the main dealers, and you can stand and watch and they dont mind, and they are allovertheplace
plus you have a much bigger/more reputable company to chase if anything ever did go wrong
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