Hi All Hope you can help  - I have a 1.4 tsi Estate - 61 plate

I've done 85,000 mainly motorway miles in it and it is due for a (major)service - Fixed price of £260 at local skoda garage. 

 

The car runs fine although

 

Probably needs new brake pads on the front as they came up on MOT recently. 

Air con needs sorting
Rear wiper motor has gone (I've seen the other similar posts)

 

I'm not looking to sell it anytime soon - and it has not been serviced since about 65000 miles - 

 

Given the car is out of warranty - I'm trying to decide wether to use Skoda or find a local independent - 

 

Any opinions?  

 

Thanks - 

 

Charlie. 

 

Find yourself a good independent as I always do. I save shed loads of money with the hourly labour rate at an independent garage compared with a main dealer. I also intend to keep my car quite a few years, so I have it serviced at the garage every 12k miles and change the oil and filter again myself in between. The weekend before last, after the garage informed me there was a bit of wear in the front brake discs, I saved even more money and fitted new discs and pads myself. What you can't do yourself, have an independent sort out. Then use the independent to service the vehicle if you want to keep up a full service history. If I keep a car into really high mileage, I then do all the servicing myself. At the moment my car is on 42k miles.

Can you tell yet, I love a good independent garage. It's not as if main Skoda dealer mechanics have magic spanners and superman powers! The only reason to use a main dealer, is if you think in the future you will get less for your car without main dealer stamps in the book. I have always kept my cars in such good condition, never had a problem selling them and getting a good price when I sold them privately.

A hard decision to make, but for me over decades of driving, I have always stayed away from main dealers and their high inflated prices.

Our three VAG vehicles have all been serviced at an independant from their second service.

 

Shark Performance do all ours.

 

Lee

Mine go back to Skoda dealerships until they are 5 years old. If you ever need "goodwill" from Skoda then that almost certainly requires you to have been loyal to them.

As it turns out, at 4 years 7 months my car is about to go in for the P2015 error code which could mean a new inlet manifold. If it is, I'm hoping I can get some goodwill from Skoda UK towards the cost of the repair, something I wouldn't be able to do without a full Skoda service history.

Finally - when I did shop around, the saving of £20 - £30 from an independent garage over a Skoda main dealership just wasn't worth it.

3rd Service on the Passat was over £250 cheaper at Shark than Rainworth Skoda. 

The £249 service is a rip off.

 

It is the £139 oil and oil filter service but adds the air and fuel filters. However these are only fitted "if required", which given Skoda's service intervals is unlikely (normally every 3 years or 60,000 miles).

 

A good independent is worth his weight in gold, but in my experience the good independents can get away with charging a bit of a premium. People get so obsessed with saving money they just assume independents are better and overlook the main dealers.

 

Perhaps it is just where I am located but not many independents offer a substantial saving over Skoda's fixed price servicing...

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed

Thanks all - I'll ring around a few local independent places ans see what they quote  - I am not desperate for a skoda stamp - so will see what they say - 

 

I drive a fair bit for work - so any recommendations near Norwich, March, or Bishops Stortford?

 

Thanks again - 

 

Charlie. 

Thanks all - I'll ring around a few local independent places ans see what they quote - I am not desperate for a skoda stamp - so will see what they say -

I drive a fair bit for work - so any recommendations near Norwich, March, or Bishops Stortford?

Thanks again -

Charlie.

Try Beebies in March. Bob and his son have been around for ages and I've only heard good things.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  As it turns out, at 4 years 7 months my car is about to go in for the P2015 error code which could mean a new inlet manifold. If it is, I'm hoping I can get some goodwill from Skoda UK towards the cost of the repair, something I wouldn't be able to do without a full Skoda service history.  .  .  .  . 

 

 

I had to have a new inlet manifold last year when my vRS was 5 years and 2 months old, having covered circa 62k miles, at a cost of £660.  After some discussions with Skoda Customer Services and the benefit of a full Skoda service history, I managed to get 50% of the cost of the manifold work refunded.

I had to have a new inlet manifold last year when my vRS was 5 years and 2 months old, having covered circa 62k miles, at a cost of £660.  After some discussions with Skoda Customer Services and the benefit of a full Skoda service history, I managed to get 50% of the cost of the manifold work refunded.

That's encouraging.

My car is going in on Monday/Tuesday next week to confirm diagnosis, I'll see what Skoda UK have to offer if it's the manifold I require.