Well, today my 2.5TDi had it's 4th year annual service done at around 48.5k miles. Including the brake fluid change I paid over £350 at our local Skoda dealer. Skoda's aren't as cheap to get serviced as they were, obviously. In November I paid £600 to a supposed VAG specialist garage for a cam belt and water pump change that they got badly wrong. Hence I've paid about a grand to service the car the last 6 weeks or so. It's a nice motor but they didn't used to be this dear to service did they? I'm not going to go back to the "VAG specialist" but the franchised dealer is getting expensive. I have a 07 Fabia VRs that needs 1st MOT/3 year service in April 2010 and I'm feeling in a bit of a quandary where to take the thing now to get good quality servicing at a good rate. I live between Manchester and Chester, not exactly spoiled for options, I feel.

Edited 30 December, 200916 yr by Fred Bloggs

expect to pay top rates if you go to main stealers simple as that really if you silly enough to pay there £60+ an hour then more fool you

go to someone like a site sponsor on here like unit 18 etc etc and they will prob half the bill and all these guys are x master technician that not only do it for a job but because they are enthusiats unlike joe bloggs who dont care about your car in the main dealer

stop getting stung by the stealers there is no need to

Awesome are in that neck of the woods!

I won't name the supposed VAG indy specialist folk who made a complete horlicks of the cam belt and water pump. If anyone wants to know I'll only name them by PM. But they are a sponsor here, and I won't go near them again.

Yes, I guess it is the labour rates that have increased. I've used this Skoda dealer for 8 years now and this is the first time I have felt it was too expensive. It leaves me in a bit of a quandary but I'll have to look for another place to take the VRs to and the Superb in 12 months time.

Edited 30 December, 200916 yr by Fred Bloggs

I run an independent garage and what we have noticed in the last year or so is the "add ons" are getting priced at silly money to compensate the loss of revenue main dealers have been seeing.

For instance,when we are doing a service,we remove the wheels a a matter of course so we can clean and lubricate the brakes,main dealers tend to do a visual check only on brakes,the amount of cars we have to literally bash the wheels off are crazy. SO when the brake fluid requires changing we already have the wheels off and with our bleeding machine allowing 1 man bleeding all we charge for is the brake fluid. This will amount to 4/6 quid on a service bill.

I know for a fact the local VW dealer adds 75 quid on top of the service bill for this procedure to be carried out.

We are 45 per hour and the local dealer is on 90 per hour so again,you work it out how fast you can get to your final invoice total.

As for the cam belt change,at the moment we cant even nor do we try to compete with the dealer as they have a blanket price for cam belt changes. They have been running a campaign for about 10 months now.£250.00 for any petrol and £299.00 for any diesel car,all in to include vat. We actually have sent some customers to the dealer as i do not work for nothing and my customers think i am great by being so honest with them.

Absolutely fair response.

It's time people realised that the glass palaces, pot plants and coffee have to be paid for. It's even more sobering when you look around the back at lunchtime and see the calibre of people that some Main Dealers are employing. Nobody who runs their own business would consider employing people like that if they wanted to survive.

Find a good independent, foster a working relationship with him, be reasonable and give him a steady flow of work and your car will be in infinitely better shape for less outlay.

My Superb still shows a few scars from Main Dealer "attention" - I'd like to get my hands on the guy at Rainworth Motors who thought it would be a good idea to put a trolley jack under the fuel pipe shield under the front of the RH sill. (One previous owner vehicle exclusively "serviced" by them).

I hope the guy in the other thread managed to find a good independent in Mansfield - I wonder why he needed to look?....

rotodiesel.

Edited 10 January, 201016 yr by rotodiesel

To be honest , £350 for a major service at a main dealer on a V6 engine isn't that much different to any other dealer or to prices from six or seven years back.

When my Mk1 octavia was on fixed servicing it was about £110 for the 10k and 30k , £220 for the 20k and about £250 for the 40k which was in 2005.

Given that it's five years later and a larger capacity engine it doesn't seem that bad - it's no worse than a lot of other mainstream makes , and Skoda haven't be *much* cheaper than that since the days of the Felicia when most of the dealers were small independents

I won't name the supposed VAG indy specialist folk who made a complete horlicks of the cam belt and water pump. If anyone wants to know I'll only name them by PM. But they are a sponsor here, and I won't go near them again.

Yes, I guess it is the labour rates that have increased. I've used this Skoda dealer for 8 years now and this is the first time I have felt it was too expensive. It leaves me in a bit of a quandary but I'll have to look for another place to take the VRs to and the Superb in 12 months time.

You don't have to name the garage, but what happened for you to have such a strong opinion? And why didn't you sort it out with them if it was that bad? :S

I did "sort it with them". But, having your previously fault free car recovered on a trailer within 15 minutes of leaving the indy workshop because it lost all its coolant after the cam belt change and then finding out that it had been returned to you with two MOT failure type faults previously not present after being fixed might tend to put you off that indy workshop. I also found the next day that the recovery onto the trailer by winch had scratched the front valance paintwork but by then I was too frigged off to complain about that.