End of car guarantee advice needed, service and first MOT

Hintza

Do not risk your warranty for 1 service. Follow the rules of the game as set out in the service schedule (and use VW)

If I was happy with the council MOT station I might take it there, where you get the MOT done is unimportant. Just get the MOT before the service then.

Once the car is out of warranty you can take it where you like.

I would also consider changing the cambelt we had a Golf (2000 model) that had the cambelt fail at 33,000 miles and at 37 months. This I would have done by the small garage after service and MOT is out the way.

Lady_K

steve-L wrote: »

You need to check the guarantee.
If you use the local guy and he recommends changing something then I presume you would have to go back to the VW dealer to get this done and then they might or might not get it under warranty?

Most likely, there will not be anything major (but you never know)...

In future you will probably use the local guy so....

Its swings and roundabouts. If you pay the extra now then you might get some pre-emptive work done free.....

Overal, its a bit of a double negative.... in that your hoping they find something to repair whilst under warranty but the best situation is nothing to repair.

When you say if she pays the extra now do you mean the big service from VW that costs £279 + mot for £49 totalling £328 or the small service from VW for £139.00 + mot for £49 totaling £188 ?
As both VW ones are both extra than the local garage at £140 for both but even though its cheaper at the local its the big service there.

Its sounding like it might be better to stick to VW for both this time around but the £328 one is a lot compared to the regular service they do at 3yrs. Dont know if it matters or not but she doesnt have that many miles on her clock for 3 years, she is covered on her insurance for 7000 a year.

Hintza

Its a VW Polo, would a cam belt problem show up in a service or mot?
I think no matter where she has her service or mot the man at the local garage wouldnt mind checking the cam belt and advising her on that, he doesnt do jobs unless they are needed.

oldagetraveller

I wouldn't accept the first quote from the VW place either. That's too much for an intermediate service. Even Toyota dealers charge a fixed £119 for a similar size car.
Why not 'phone VW and see if they'll match the independent's £130? If VW come out with warranty validity clap trap then remind them of the block exemption whereby you are not obliged to use them to maintain the warranty.
Although after writing the above I do admit to using main dealers within warranty period to save any potential claim problems plus a possible "goodwill" contribution post warranty!
Cambelts are not normally a routine service item and would not be checked. The recommended renewal interval should be in the service book which came with the car. Usually x miles/y years whichever comes soonest. The VW service dep't should know this too.

Lady_K

I did ring a 2nd not quite so convenient VW garage yesterday for a quote and they said £100.93 for the service (small 3 yr one) and the same as the other VW garage for the mot £49 so thats £38 cheaper making it £149,93 in total. I was already planning to call the other one back to see if they might match it as its a fair difference in price and I know she would prefer to use the one she bought the car from and has had her services at since as the man there has been ok too.
Oddly enough it was the other way around last year, her usual vw garage was cheaper than the other one. Her usual VW garage has better reviews and ratings than the cheaper one too.

oldagetraveller

Lady_K wrote: »

I did ring a 2nd not quite so convenient VW garage yesterday for a quote and they said £100.93 for the service (small 3 yr one) and the same as the other VW garage for the mot £49 so thats £38 cheaper making it £149,93 in total. I was already planning to call the other one back to see if they might match it as its a fair difference in price and I know she would prefer to use the one she bought the car from and has had her services at since as the man there has been ok too.
Oddly enough it was the other way around last year, her usual vw garage was cheaper than the other one. Her usual VW garage has better reviews and ratings than the cheaper one too.

Good idea. I'd bet if they'll not price match totally they will more than likely reduce their price.
I've done it in the past with Vauxhall and Toyota (before they introduced fixed price servicing)and successfully obtained price matches even though the cheaper dealers were up to 20 miles away.:)

Lady_K

Phoned the VW garage and they agreed to match the cheaper VW garage and knocked off £38.03 from the service price so with the MOT at £49 they will be doing both for £149.97 collect and return for free.

Next year she will most likely use the local garage but she would rather have the book filled in by VW this time seeing as she has gone to them since it was new.

Thanks for everyones advice, much appreciated

hethmar

We had the three year service deal with VW when we bought our VW Golf in September 2009 - it was £250 for the three years, so a decent saving.

Got our car MOTd and serviced at the same time in August at VW and had a rear light unit replaced under warranty at that time.

I then let the warranty lapse. 3 weeks later and the car started playing up. To cut a long story short - it is on here as it was a traumatic time - they reckoned it could be a £5k job. After a lot of faffing, it was found to be something less serious and it cost £1k this was now 8 weeks after the warranty had run out but VW and the main dealer stumped up for the costs.

I did then think of extending the VW warranty but there were so many get outs in it that Ive now gone for Warranty Direct who seem to cover a lot more including electrics.

They have two scales, with your local independant garage or the VW Main dealer. I got a quote for the indy but a few days later they rang and offered the same price but with the VW main dealer. It works out about a fiver a week for three years cover and I think its worth it for the peace of mind. Something for you to think about at this time.

Lady_K

Thats really useful to know and something worth looking into before it runs out. It never occurred to me to extend the warranty. She doesnt have that many miles on the clock for 3 years probably around 20 or less if that makes any difference.

Do you mean yours cost around £720 for the three years?

espresso

hethmar wrote: »

To cut a long story short - it is on here as it was a traumatic time - they reckoned it could be a £5k job. After a lot of faffing, it was found to be something less serious and it cost £1k

So what failed on a 3 year old Golf that cost £1K to rectify then?

hethmar

Seeing as you ask so nicely

Well, as I said, a long thread on here elsewhere. The car went into limp mode with no code faults showing. VW main dealer says they can smell petrol in the diesel engine and also see "swarf". They originally reckoned we had misfuelled the car, ruined the engine and it would be down to us at a cost of over £5k. We were naturally horrified and knew we hadnt filled up with petrol but they said may be the pump was contaminated. They send off sample to analysts. Three weeks later and independent fuel analysts tell them no contamination in fuel whatsover and "swarf" is not metallic.

Still no joy on codes and car still in limp mode. Workshop manager decides to drive the car. It packs up on him, immediately get car back to main dealer garage and woo hoo, code actually registers. I am told it was the exhaust gas recirculation cooler unit. VW paid all parts and 75% labour charges (I take it they also paid for the independent analysing) Main dealer stumped up for the rest.