Got a bit of a dilemma over servicing. 

 

My 2009 VRS has done 68000 miles and is due a major service. It'll be £249 from the main dealer. It has had main dealer services it's whole life. I've had the car for just over a year and plan on keeping it at least another 3, possibly 5 years. 

 

There is an alternative:

 

My best mates uncle owns a garage and always sends any VAG work to a friend of his who worked for VW for 20 years and is now semi-retired and just doing bits and bobs for people. My best mate has been sending his 2 old Audi's direct to this bloke for a while now as he does a really good quality job for about half the price of a normal garage. 

 

Should I get this bloke to do the service (for probably around £90)? It might end up not looking very good on the service history, but I'll know a good job has been done. Will it drop the resale value when I come to sell it (which will probably at around 7-9 years old with around 100k on the clock)?

 

Opinions?

Edited 28 December, 201312 yr by kristmace

Get your mate to do it with genuine parts. Does he have VW diagnostics ??

Get your mate to do it with genuine parts. Does he have VW diagnostics ??

 

Yeah, he has VCDS and he always uses genuine parts. 

My car had dealer services whilst it was under warranty & to be honest what they did or rather didnt do for the money means id use a trusted independent every time. I service & repair my own cars anyway when out of warranty so i just keep the invoices for parts used & fill in the service book accordingly. Dealer didnt even take wheels off for major service let alone take brake pads out & clean them up etc & brake fluid was dirty when i replaced it at 5 years (should of been changed at 3 years by dealer. 

As long as you get a receipt and a stamp in the book don't worry too much. To be honest at that sort of age and mileage it won't be worth much anyway when you come to sell so you can't lose too much value...

I'd say go for the VW mate. Always get mine done by an independant garage by a guy who worked for skoda for 25 years. Does a LOT more in a service than skoda would. (even get brakes taken apart and calipers cleaned up/runners for the pads). Can even have it serviced while I wait (or make him a tea!) All for a lot less than the main dealer. As long as a car has a stamped service history I dont think it matters too much who stamped it, as long as it was done by someone who knows what they are doing.

I've had mine serviced by indys since the warranty was up.  If he'll stamp the book and do it properly I'd give him your business.

On the flip-side - I'll only have a full-set of Skoda stamps in my service book.

Dealers will give me "top dollar" on the car at trade-in time and should I require any goodwill, should something go wrong outside of warranty, I have a much, much higher chance of something being done if I show that the vehicle was serviced by their own network.

The difference in price between a main dealer and VAT registered independent is pretty minimal, so not a great deal to be saved.

As the OP's is an 09 TDI CR I'd say go with the independent at that age & mileage. If it had been a TSI then IMHO would be worth continuing with main dealer servicing given that many of the chain tensioner failures on this forum relate to 2009/2010 model TSI's. Then in the event that the worst happened, however remote anyone viewed the possibility, there would at least be some basis from which to argue a for a goodwill contribution even though well past warranty period.