Hi

A friend has bought a new VW (i know...) the dealer before he let her go tried to sale her the "Fixed cost maintenance" pack at £225: From the VW site:

"The plan can be bought for a one-off price of £225 from a participating Volkswagen retailer

For Golf and Golf Estate models:

12 months/10,000 miles - Oil Service

24 months/20,000 miles - Interval Service (including oil change)

36 months/30,000 miles - Inspection Service (including oil change) and brake fluid change"

The skoda chap never talked about this, do they offer such a deal? or if they do is it worth it???

James.

Yes they do!

Is it worth it? Ask me in three years time!

They are not fixed, one off payments, but paid monthly and depend on your predicted annual mileage.

Come in three levels, if I can remember them correctly.

1. Regular servicing

2. Servicing and maintenance, excluding tyres ( and glass?)

3. Including exclusion in 2.

On a precited annual mileage of around 8K i decided that the tyres option would be expensive, so opted for 2. I am paying about £14 a month.

As I said, I will only know if I did the right thing in 2011!!

Yes they do!

Is it worth it? Ask me in three years time!

They are not fixed, one off payments, but paid monthly and depend on your predicted annual mileage.

Come in three levels, if I can remember them correctly.

1. Regular servicing

2. Servicing and maintenance, excluding tyres ( and glass?)

3. Including exclusion in 2.

On a precited annual mileage of around 8K i decided that the tyres option would be expensive, so opted for 2. I am paying about £14 a month.

As I said, I will only know if I did the right thing in 2011!!

So that's £168 a year and £504 by the time 3 years is up for the same deal that I would have got with a VW badge at £225...:thumbdwn: guess VAG have to give something back for been ripped off by the VW badge in the 1st place....

James.

Never knew about this, another well advertised service there then.

I chose this 2 and a half years ago and unless you're the sort of person who can't budget then it's quite expensive, especially the tyres. And you have to take their choice of tyres (Continental) and they only replace when they're literally illegal. They pay the dealers minimum for the servicing and I doubt half the work gets done to be honest, and the second most common thing you hear is "They wouldn't authorise us to do the work".

I have had this plan for both my octavias (so for about 5 years now) I would recommend it. I went for the top option and paid around £30 a month. Considering I have had the plans for 2 vrs's I have more than saved the money I paid on the tyres I have had. Over 3 years I got through 3 sets of front tyres and 2 sets of rear so a total of 10 tyres. It assume £100 a tyre fitted as a minimum then that is £1000 of tyres for £1080 of payment. So on that basis it only cost me £80 for 3 services, quite a bargain. Some of the comments above I think speak more of the dealer than the plan as I have found the services have been carried out to a high standard and any claims I have made have been sorted quickly. I have never been told that thy would not authorise the work. On the tyre front they replace them when they are needed. I have just had some changed now and they where replaced once the wear indicators were level with the tread (so above the absolute legal minimum).

One thing I would say is that the quality of your local dealer will greatly change the worth of the plan as a rubbish dealer will probably make the plan more hassle than it is worth.

The cost of the VW plan sounds very good as I paid around £400 for a similar plan on my wifes new toyota verso.

Thought, if you opt for a service plan, make sure that you are on fixed servicing, not variable!!

I agree with Obadiah. I am on fixed servicing and the plan cost no more compared to being on variable.

If I was on fixed servicing I would be in every 8-9 weeks

I have had this plan for both my octavias (so for about 5 years now) I would recommend it. I went for the top option and paid around £30 a month. Considering I have had the plans for 2 vrs's I have more than saved the money I paid on the tyres I have had. Over 3 years I got through 3 sets of front tyres and 2 sets of rear so a total of 10 tyres. It assume £100 a tyre fitted as a minimum then that is £1000 of tyres for £1080 of payment.

If you're heavy on tyres then it probably is a good deal. I got 40,000 miles out my first set of fronts and they only replaced the rears because one went out of round at 60,000 mles and I was offered the other at cost price. So on an 80,000 miles/3 year service plan I had 6 tyres and I was paying £38 per month for the full package on a Fabia vRS. The Continental's they fit are £119 Incl. fitting from BlackCircles.com so I got £600-ish worth of tyres and basically nothing else major really went wrong with it so I paid about £95 for each 10,000 mile service. And I do mean the absolute basic service. It's not a maintenance plan, it's pre-paid services and warranty work.

I have never been told that thy would not authorise the work. On the tyre front they replace them when they are needed. I have just had some changed now and they where replaced once the wear indicators were level with the tread (so above the absolute legal minimum).

The biggest issue I had with that was where I asked the technician if there is 10,000 miles worth of life left on the brakes pads and he's said, "No, about 3,000 miles" and I've asked him to replace them, but he's refused as they wouldn't authorise the work until it absolutely has to be done. Unfortunately the insurance company (VAG Finance) don't seem to appreciate that people don't want to go back to the dealer between services as that's a major inconveience if you're working and you need the car. And most Skoda dealers charge for loan cars in one way or another.

And on 4 occasions I've taken a car with borderline tyres in to a Skoda dealer to be told that they're not allowed to replace them because they don't do Continental. Or that I have to go to National Tyres and the nearest one is 30 miles away in Great Yarmouth (but I could pay a bit extra and they would bring a van to my home or workplace).

I find that REALLY annoying.

One thing I would say is that the quality of your local dealer will greatly change the worth of the plan as a rubbish dealer will probably make the plan more hassle than it is worth.

Agreed, see above - but even the best dealers can't do work if VAG Finance won't authorise it because the parts aren't absolutely worn out.

The cost of the VW plan sounds very good as I paid around £400 for a similar plan on my wifes new toyota verso.

Do check whether you are paying finance charges on the service plan, as what VAG usually do is sell you the plan for £1000 and then add that to the finance package, at which point you actually end up spending £1100 over the 3 years etc...

It's not a maintenance plan, it's pre-paid services and warranty work.

Sorry, but i have to disagree. The middle option, which I have taken out, is called 'Service AND Maintenance Plan'

There are two pages of things which are covered, including such minor things as battery, bulbs, hoses, key batteries, wiper blades, etc, etc.

Mine has certainly not been added to the finance package - not that I have one, but was set up separately, using a monthly Direct Debit.

I thought I might revive this thread as I have just had a poor experience regarding a Fixed Cost Maintenance agreement.

A year ago I bought my Octavia and took out an agreement to cover the cost of service and maintenance, paying by monthly installments. My car was set up, at my insistence, for fixed interval servicing as I cover only about 10,000miles annually. The salesman at the time recommended that for the agreement I bump up the expected annual mileage "to be on the safe side" and I opted to put down my expected mileage as 12,000. Subsequently the local dealer closed down and a new Skoda dealer started up.

Yesterday I took my car to the local Skoda Dealer for servicing as the warning had been boinging away at me. The dealer asked Skoda for authorisation which was refused. Apparently as my predicted annual mileage was 12,000, the agreement only covered variable interval servicing.

SkodaAuto Finance have told me that I cannot alter the agreement and that I have the choice of waiting until the variable interval service is due or cancelling the current agreement and taking out another with a lower predicted mileage.

I am currently chasing the parent company of the dealer that mis-sold me the agreement and I am cancelling the agreement with SkodaAuto Finance. I am not a happy bunny as the saying goes as I appear to have lost a year's worth of payments.

If I get my car serviced by an independent VAG registered specialist, APS in Brackley has been recommended, how will my warranty be affected? Does anyone here know the answer?

Under block exemption rules a manufacturer cannot insist that you use one of their dealers for servicing. Using an independant will not invalidate your warranty, providing that they adhere to the service schedule and use parts of equivalent quality. However, once the car is out of warranty, Skoda will take into account whether or not the car has full dealer service history when granting good will payments for repairs.

Thanks fordfan for that reply.

It confirms what I suppose I thought. A bit of plus and minus as with most things. I'll wait and see if my approach to the dealer's parent company produces any positive result.

I hope that others will check their agreements to see if they are really what they thought they bought.