Hi all,

Not strictly a Skoda question, but you all seem pretty car knowledgeable so I thought I would throw it on here "among friends"!!

My wife's MKV Golf GTI is coming up for 4 years/29000 miles old. The service light popped on recently and VW say that as well as a service (and pollen filter change, brake fluid change, new spark plugs etc) it needs the cam belt replacing. Total bill £1069, £600 of which is for the cam belt installation.

I have found a local VW specialist who will do the same thing for about£800 (£400 for the cam belt) using original VW parts.

I have always used dealerships for servicing etc in the belief that it is necessary for warranty and improves resale value, but for an out of warranty car which we intend to hang on to for several years more, is there any real benefit in going to the dealer? Does Full Dealer Service History still carry a premium on resale or do people just look for a car serviced regularly?

Well, come p/x time I've always had rubbish money offered so IMHO, its not worth it other than warranty. In fact the workmanship might be better at the indy. I would firstly, phone around the dealers to get the price down. Then use the indy quote against the dealer, I'm sure you can ask them to knock £100 or so off.

Depending where you are based, you maybe able to get the cambelt done a lot cheaper still, Unit 18 are based close to the midlands and its well worth sending a PM to Lummox.

I take it you have got a price from a Skoda dealer? Worth a shot. They recently beat an independents price I got for variable service, cam belt change and MOT. Dealer quoted £500 all in.

When getting quotes for cam belt changes it is worth ascertaining exactly what parts they will be replacing. Some only replace the belt itself to shave the price, but IIRC there are a number of other parts that should also be replaced (tensioners etc)

If the water pump is on the same belt as the timing make sure they replace that with the timing belt, part is cheap, labour is cheap if you're replacing the timing belt anyway and a failure in this pump is one way you can total the whole engine.