VW Service Plan, worth it?!

Arthur_Willcox

I have bought a Volkswagen Up! and have had it for just under 3 weeks now.

I received pricing for the car services:
10,000miles/1st year,
20,000/2nd year,
30,000/3rd years {whichever comes first}

However I received one a quote for a fixed priced "service and maintenance" plan.
These plans are based on mileage and come in three types:
-Service
-Service + Maintenance
-Service + Maintenance + Tyres

I will give you the standard pricing and my quote as follows:

Service Prices:
10,000miles/1st year:
-Oil change Service £184.75
total: £185.75
20,000/2nd year:
-Interval Service £242.35
-Replace Pollen Filter £27.68
-Air Conditioning service £79.00
total: £349.03
30,000/3rd years
-Inspection & Oil change £384.12
-MOT £54.85
-Replace brake fluid £66.37
total: £449.97

Over 3 years that means a grand total of £983.75

Fixed cost service and maintenance plan:
NOTE: For this plan, I had to decide my annual mileage. My mileage was set at 12,000. I think you have it serviced every year at your set mileage as opposed to every 10,000. Correct me if I am wrong.**

Service: yes
Maintenance: yes
Tires: no

Contract Period: 36 months
Number of Payments: 36
Annual Mileage: 12,000 miles
Total Contract Mileage: 36,000 miles

Total Monthly Installment: £19.31
(x36) total: £695.16

Personally, I only think I need the Service (oil change every year etc) considering its a brand new car, if anything else goes horribly wrong, it is still under warranty (with some exceptions).

What are you opinions? Any anyone get/not get a service plan on a new car?

1) **Is this correct?
2) Can I get it serviced cheaper elsewhere by a dealer that uses genuine VW parts and the VW service stamp so that my warranty is not affected?

Thank you.

Arthur_Willcox

I've have also read up about the Block Exemption Regulations.

Do you think an independent garage would be better?
(VAT registered, stamp in my service book and genuine part receipts)

flashg67

I can't see how the service interval can change based on your ownchosen mileage - what if you did 30k per annum? Most VW's can be set on 'fixed' annual/10k service, or 'variable' regime which uses higher spec oil and takes into account journey types/driving style etc - usually better for high mileage/business users, but doesn't make that much difference over the life of the car.

You can't just decide to have oil changes done - if it needs an inspection service, you'll need it done, along with the additional filters as and when they're due, or you could run into warranty problems.

A specialist will undoubtedly be cheaper but you could miss out on any updated/technical bulletins that the dealer check every time they service your car.

Bear in mind if you keep the car after the warranty expires, VW won't help with any goodwill if you don't have full dealer servicing.

I have a service plan with my Hyundai and found it convenient in that I'm rubbish at saving, so I get no shocks at service time, but not so good now my office has moved and I'm tied to the original dealer, now 20+ miles away!