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As everybody knows the extortionate rip-off prices that franchised dealers charge for serviceing whilst rarely doing the job correctly,could anybody out there advise me on a quality independant vw specialist in or around the Cambridge area.My local VW dealership are a joke,i\'ve already got one mortgage i don\'t need another one to get my car serviced!!
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Hi Kam,
Whilst I agree that dealer servicing can be expensive if your car has a 3 year warranty you will need to keep it serviced there so not to void you warrantee.
I you car is outside the warranty then I would go and get it done at a VW speicialist as they will have the diagnostic gear if yours is a modern VW.
Cheers
Jlo
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Do what I do and use the Skoda dealer.
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That\'s because in Cambridgeshire and surrounding counties there are only 2 companies franchising all the different VW dealers - competition (not) !
Our New Beetle has been serviced by both in the Cambridgeshire area - and I got so fed up with their standards that I ended the warranty early at 2.5 years. I think this longer warranty on new cars just gives more money back to the dealers - read my thread on my Corolla gearbox problems.
My advise - get Kwik Fit to do the oil & filter (but nothing else), and find a decent local mechanic for the rest; I\'m sourcing my own Plugs and Filters, too.
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Well that time has just come, with the service indicator flashing at 56K I have phoned around for the cost of getting the cambelt renewed at the imminent 60k service for my 2001 TDI PD Passat. The results are interesting 5 regional VW garages quoted as follows
Garage 1; £375 for the belt and £195 for the service VAT to be added more if the tensioner is needed \"around £50 sir\" VAT to be added to all prices;
Garage 2; £350 for the belt \"whole front of car has to come off sir\" £185 for the service seemed to include the tensioner but VAT to be added however they did say the belt might not need to be changed;
Garage 3: £320 for the belt and tensioner £205 for the service VAT to be added;
Garage 4; £250 for the belt and tensioner £160 for the service plus VAT unfortunately its a 500 mile round trip to this one;
Garage 5; £405 for the belt and tensioner and £205 for the service VAT to be added.
In each case I had to phone the dealer twice before getting someone to speak to \"as all service lines are busy sir\" 3 others took my number but no call back very much felt they were doing me a favour in all cases and none could offer a courtesy car.
Fed up with this and rang the local Seat dealer, only 500 yards from the house \"can you do the belt on a PD Passat?\" the answer was \"of course sir, can you pop in for a chat\". The end result was they will do it on Wednesday using VW parts and let me have a Leon for the day. The price £205 for the belt and tensioner WITH VAT and the service for £120 VAT inclusive. Thats the whole job with VAT for less than the cheapest non VAT VW price (which was at a dealers 500 miles away). They can also access engine codes in exactly the same way VW can as they have the same computer.
I can live with the Seat stamp in the book as the car is just out of its second year of warranty and VW want £505 for the 3rd year.
Might be worth following the Skoda/Seat route for servicing as the engines are common across VW/Seat and Skoda.
as ever
Mark
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Mark
I thought that if the servicing was carried out to manufacturers standards using genuine parts then the warranty is unaffected. So presuming the Seat garage (part of VAG) know what they are doing and they used VW partS then your warranty should be ok.
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ahh, Seat dealers - handn't thought of that ! Might get them to quote for the plugs on the New Beetle, then ...
And, since the EU law change, presumably if your VW is serviced to spec then it's still under warranty ? Prsumably same at Skoda garages ? Anyone know ?!
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Well I had it done at the Seat Dealers, the cambelt, tensioner and 60 k service on the PD Passat, dropped the car off at 9am they phoned at 4pm to say it was ready so I went to settle up. Went through what had been done with the service manager, no problems found and told all the bits were in the boot. I paid the bill and went to see the car. They had cleaned the car inside and out and put all the rubbish that was in the car in a sack on the back seat. In the boot was a box which contained either the replaced parts or the packing for the items that had been replaced but were too messy to put in the boot, for example the oil filter. True to their word they had used original VW parts and as I was looking through the box the mechanic who did the work came over. He spent 15 minutes explaining what he had done showed me the old cambelt pointed out the slight edge rubbing on one side and so on. Turned out he used to work at the VW dealership I would have taken the car to and that he left there as the Seat dealer was only a couple a minutes from where he lived. He had spent quite some time, he said setting the injector timing after changing the belt and that this was the only job he had been booked to all day as the service manager was keen that a good job was done.
Since having the work done I have put 700 miles on the car and it drives like a dream much smoother than before and quieter too, cruised down to Devon at the weekend and it was a pleasure to do so.
In terms of customer service and satisfaction I am deeply impressed, I have never had the Passat returned from a service at the VW dealership where I have understood exactly what has been done or with such a noticeable feeling that the car has been serviced. Given they kept their word on all points gave me a Leon for the day and charged less than the VW place wanted my car is going back to this Seat dealer when work is needed. As the Passat is out of warranty now and I don't want the 3rd year at £505 I don't really care that it will be a Seat rather than VW stamp in the book.
As ever
Mark
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When I lived in Cambridge in 1994 I used a very good VW specialist. They were very close to the VW main dealer, on the other side of the road. They may not be there anymore but I used them several times. I will have a look through my receipts tonight and see if I can find the name.
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Kam
The garage I used in Cambridge was:
Cowley Road Garage
72 Cowley Road
Cambridge
CB4 4DN
Tel: 01223-425600
However this was back in 1994, so the phone number may have changed. Infact the garage may even have closed. They don't advertise as being VW/Audi specialists but they always had a lot of the cars there. I was always pleased with their work.
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Google comes up with them !
Cowley Road Garage
72 Cowley Road, Cambridge.
Tel: 01223 425600
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I have a November 1999 VW Bora and use National for basic servicing - I can't even buy the stuff at trade for the prices it charges.
An oil and filter change with the correct Duckhams semi-synthetic oil is £15 with the special voucher and the staff took half-an-hour to do the job very thoroughly. They also gave me some oil for topping up purposes (unlike my previous two Jettas which used no oil whatsoever); the Bora does use some in general use. I bought and changed the air filter myself as, in this case, it was less.
Last week I had the MOT done - again very thorough - which cost just a few pence over £20 with the half price voucher offer (you'll find them in national newspaper adverts).
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I had the first service for my Audi a couple of months ago. 300 quid for changing the oil!Bear in mind that this didn't even include changing the brake fluid which I have to do next summer.
And another thing. My car is on variable servicing. After I had the car for a couple of days it reckoned it would need servicing after about 12.5K miles. After I had it serviced it thought about it for a couple of days and hey presto the next service will be needed after about another 12.5K miles. And this after a gentle long distance drive. So much for variable servicing (up to 20K/24 months)!
PS they did pick up and return the car and it was valetted to an extremely high standard so wasn't all bad.
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It should explain in the manual how to reset the computer so it will indicate approximately when the next service is due - or at least it does in my Bora manual. I reset it after the oil and filter change at National.
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Agree with you on this. You cannot beat National for value when it comes to oil changes. Used them myself when my old Merc needed just an oil change every 6k between the 12k main services. You cannot do it yourself cheaper and they stamp your book
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My days of using ramps on my driveway and doing my own servicing and oil changes bit the dust in the last decade when I discovered it could be done for the same, or lower, cost at the quick fit outlets.
Not only can you watch the work being done and ensure that it is right your service manual, as you rightly state, is stamped.
I've always had access to the trade motor factors but, even now, a can of quality semi-synthetic oil costs virtually the same as an oil and filter change under National's voucher offer...:-)
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Cowley Road Garage - it is still alive! Fixed my VW Passat (cambelt + parking brake motor) and paid only 2/3 of the VW dealer quote! Great service, recommended!
www.cowleyroadgarage.co.uk/
Cowley Road Garage
72 Cowley Road, Cambridge.
Tel: 01223 425600
Edited by Dmitry on 10/08/2016 at 17:45
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Such a shame dealers are so hit and miss. I was lucky with my Skoda Superb 130PD. My local dealer was a well established family run business, he and his son were there every day. I extended my warranty to 5 years so was locked into main dealer servicing on the extended mileage regime. Services popped up anytime between 18K and 20K miles( every 7 to 9 months with my mileage). Still used them after the warranty ran out. Always got to speak to the technician, who was happy to chat about the car. Now moved to Kent and found a lovely highly recommended local indie. Happy with him too. Seems like the move to Seat was inspired. It makes you want to use those sort of garages to ensure they stay in business. As usual the whole thing is a lottery and you need to do the homework.
Cheers Concrete
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Hi Mark,
Can you confirm which Passat you have as in your original post you say it is a 2001 VW PD with 55k and just out of warranty??
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Hi Mark, Can you confirm which Passat you have as in your original post you say it is a 2001 VW PD with 55k and just out of warranty??
This thread is almost 13 years old!!!
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Original post was from 2003...
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