Just brought my car in for an oil service. Had a couple of 'service due' notifications on the app, so priced it up and booked it in, less than £200 the cost. Sit down at the desk, they try to say its £478 !! The car is still under warranty and she's trying to add all sorts of filters. So I go back on the app, point out what is needed, and my quote is still less than half hers. Which I said I won't pay. They've never done this before, but this was just them trying to rip me off and they can **** right off. They'll take ages now too.
Down here a couple of years ago , Hendy bought the ŠKODA Dealerships . First thing they did was up the Advisory level on tyre depth by 1 MM . I asked the service person if anyone questioned this , and he said very quietly “ far more people just pay for new tyres , mostly older people “ he said it disgusted him and he had applied for a job outside the motor industry .
I have the same issue with Audi. They keep trying to badger me into changing my tyres when the tread depth is 3mm. The last time I asked the service receptionist why, she told me that the police change there’s at 3mm. She wasn’t overly impressed when I mentioned that I don’t spend all day in high speed pursuit of crooks as most of them are Audi employees!
This is why they call them car stealerships. These people must have targets to meet to 'upsell'. I've never owned a new car or bought one from a dealership under warranty. I've always used an independent garage, so I know what I'm paying for. I guess if a car is still under warranty then you're obliged to use the dealership for servicing ? I don't know.
I don’t think you have to use a main dealer anymore. TBH, I don’t fall for all the superficial demands so I get what I pay for and the Audi dealership is convenient.
first car I got new was a sportage in 2013. They said I needed main dealer for the warranty. But as long as you keep all receipts and use authorised spares, they hold the warranty. It’s just a little more work on your side, but save £££
I wenet to BMW with this one as they've never tried ripping me off previously, and have always been really fairly priced, plus health check and valet etc. This time though, was expecting to spend less than £200, got quoted £485 (pretty much laughed at her) showed her my quote on the MyBMW app. She said we should be able to honour that, but you really do need this filter as well. I said if they don't honour what my service schedule says, I won't have it done. They did, but I've logged my dissatisfaction. Hope it was a one off. I've got his current car for another three years, hopefully, but I will go somewhere else for small services like this.
