Minor service oil change

[andyasjl]

Just a quick question on the skoda minor Service, do they replace the engine oil or top it up?

I cant work out the invoice cost breakdown, but obviously see a filter and sump plug on it, so assuming it’s a full refill...

Ta ,

[classic]

They drain it, renew the oil filter, and refill with new oil. 

 

Edited 16 December, 2018 by classic

[Guest]

Invoice reads it costs £1.28 for a 1/10th of a litre of longlife oil and they used 47 10ths (4.7 litres) - total value £14.10. Bargain.  Seems perfectly clear to me. 

 

I can see why you thought it was a top up - it's so vague. I'm sure it'll mean something to somebody and I'm equally sure that if you were to ask three different people at the garage what it means, you'll get three different answers.

 

BTW - was £115 the final bill. Even if ex-vat, seems reasonable for a minor service at Skoda dealer.

Edited 16 December, 2018 by Guest

[teescom09]

5 hours ago, andyasjl said:

Just a quick question on the skoda minor Service, do they replace the engine oil or top it up?

I cant work out the invoice cost breakdown, but obviously see a filter and sump plug on it, so assuming it’s a full refill...

Ta ,

They are supposed to, but pays to mark stuff up. Unfortunately thats were we are. Been ripped off a few times with massive service omissions, especially by Mitsubishi irt valve clearances etc, the dealer I used never did them and it's an extra £250 charge with many parts.  I recently got charged for plugs in my VRS with a the 40k main service; they never touched them, it went back for plugs the next day! 

 

I hope they asked you if they could add and charged you for that screen wash? It's one of the most regular rip offs, small but makes them a lot. I have always got it back, I make a point of the reservoir being full and they still put it on!!! 

[edbostan]

That would confuse me too. My sump full of Castrol Edge came to £59.56  (3.9 Litres) at my last service

[teescom09]

7 minutes ago, edbostan said:

That would confuse me too. My sump full of Castrol Edge came to £59.56  (3.9 Litres) at my last service

Wow thats severe! 

 

Just checked mine and it was £33, VW bulk oil and that was for 4.4 litres. The servicing is a standard cost less whatever a dealer is prepared to give you. How can they charge £60 for oil. Unless you asked them to?

 

Come on folks stop being so soft and gullible, they will take you to the cleaners! 

Edited 16 December, 2018 by teescom09

[Ootohere]

Too 'Simply Clever'  to just charge by the Litres as they did as in 4.7 X 1 litres.  or the Units they went to that were 0.5 litres to a Unit.

 

If they were any more clear they would be 'nebulous!'.

[ahenners]

41 minutes ago, teescom09 said:

Wow thats severe! 

 

Just checked mine and it was £33, VW bulk oil and that was for 4.4 litres. The servicing is a standard cost less whatever a dealer is prepared to give you. How can they charge £60 for oil. Unless you asked them to?

 

Come on folks stop being so soft and gullible, they will take you to the cleaners! 

 

If only an oil and filter change is carried out, then pricing should be £99 Inc vat. (assuming fixed regime and 3+ years old, though a good dealer will often apply to newer vehicles too). The minor service is priced at an extra £70 for not much at all.

 

As the pricing is flat over models and engines, some customers get a better deal than others. My VRS TSI takes 5.7L but I pay the same as another customer requiring 4.4L.

[teescom09]

2 minutes ago, ahenners said:

 

If only an oil and filter change is carried out, then pricing should be £99 Inc vat. (assuming fixed regime and 3+ years old, though a good dealer will often apply to newer vehicles too). The minor service is priced at an extra £70 for not much at all.

 

As the pricing is flat over models and engines, some customers get a better deal than others. My VRS TSI takes 5.7L but I pay the same as another customer requiring 4.4L.

They only charged me for 4.4 litres of bulk last time:

 

40k = 279.00 oil (4.4l @ £33.00)  and filter, air filter, pollen filter + plugs eventually

30k = £159 - no oil on list! Includes filter and drain plug

20k = £159 - 5.9 litres! of Shell Helix 0w 30 at £47.20

10k = £89.00 - 5 litres of Quantum longlife 3 at £35.00. I got a discount on this service as they corruptly changed my longlife servicing to fixed without my permission on delivery. The car was coded as longlife from factory.

 

Certainly no consistency on individual items or type of oil used, they just vary the labour cost to match the menu service  cost! 

 

 

 

[ahenners]

1 minute ago, teescom09 said:

They only charged me for 4.4 litres of bulk last time:

 

40k = 279.00 oil (4.4l @ £33.00)  and filter, air filter, pollen filter + plugs eventually

30k = £159 - no oil on list! Includes filter and drain plug

20k = £159 - 5.9 litres! of Shell Helix 0w 30 at £47.20

10k = £89.00 - 5 litres of Quantum longlife 3 at £35.00. I got a discount on this service as they corruptly changed my longlife servicing to fixed without my permission on delivery. The car was coded as longlife from factory.

 

Certainly no consistency on individual items or type of oil used, they just vary the labour cost to match the menu service  cost! 

 

 

 

 

Consistently inconsistent and about as clear as mud!

[skidpan]

In the past I have had 2 experiences where the cost of a service has been lower than expected.

 

First was a Kia, £50 saving. Found out that was because the dealer had used Ford semi synth spec oil and not the correct Kia specified C3 5w 30 fully synthetic oil. Told us it would have cost £50 extra for the correct oil. After a "discussion" he agreed to change the oil whilst we watched for the correct stuff at no cost.

 

Next was a Nissan. £20 saving. the dealer had used 10w40 mineral instead of 5w30 semi synth on an engine known to have potential issues if the wrong oil was used. After a discussion in a showroom that was rapidly filling he agreed to refill with the correct stuff.

 

There is normally a good reason for cheap. beware.

[rum4mo]

I "love" the inconsistency, I seem to remember trusting the "fill" volume quoted on a previous service as a good starting point - needed to drain at least 1/2 a litre back out, but yes, no two services quoting the same volume of oil being charged for, that is for Audi, VW and SEAT, so a common issue/scam.

 

On the issue of mark up, which they are quite entitle to add in, I asked for copy of the job sheet for my wife's Polo as it was on a prepaid 3 year 3 service + MOT package, the prices were included for charging to accounts from the workshop and that meant a minor service, instead of being roughly £136 was only roughly £70 when "self to self" rates used.

[SashaGrace]

The invoice I get from Skoda is much clearer than that when it comes to services. My vRS is now on 98k and is going in for a £99 oil change on the 31st because I cba lying on my back in the cold and wet doing it with parts that cost about £50 from TPS, the other £50 I’m spending to have them do it so I can drink all their coffee, eat all their biscuits and rag around a hire car for the morning is worth it to me. The extra £70 odd for the minor service (which in real terms is just the air filter) is ridiculous. I’ll be ordering one of those from TPS tomorrow and I’ll do the fuel filter too because it should be done now on the minor/major and so on service schedule. The Octy is actually due the major service this time but it’s £279 for oil, oil/air/fuel/cabin filters and a whole load of visual checks that don’t need doing! Mine will be all sorted for under the price of a minor service. With the magic 100k beckoning it’s not worth paying Skoda to stick to the schedule, I’ll still have the car correctly maintained, but I’ll be doing more of it myself and just keep the electronic stamp in the book going for the next owner. 

[rum4mo]

How did they manage to give over 75% discount on the oil?? 10% discount on parts is normal with servicing though.

[Madmax889]

5 minutes ago, SashaGrace said:

The invoice I get from Skoda is much clearer than that when it comes to services. My vRS is now on 98k and is going in for a £99 oil change on the 31st because I cba lying on my back in the cold and wet doing it with parts that cost about £50 from TPS, the other £50 I’m spending to have them do it so I can drink all their coffee, eat all their biscuits and rag around a hire car for the morning is worth it to me. The extra £70 odd for the minor service (which in real terms is just the air filter) is ridiculous. I’ll be ordering one of those from TPS tomorrow and I’ll do the fuel filter too because it should be done now on the minor/major and so on service schedule. The Octy is actually due the major service this time but it’s £279 for oil, oil/air/fuel/cabin filters and a whole load of visual checks that don’t need doing! Mine will be all sorted for under the price of a minor service. With the magic 100k beckoning it’s not worth paying Skoda to stick to the schedule, I’ll still have the car correctly maintained, but I’ll be doing more of it myself and just keep the electronic stamp in the book going for the next owner. 

Major service here @ my local VW is £429 

you guys should be thankful it’s a lot lot cheaper lol lol lol lol 

[Madmax889]

3 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

How did they manage to give over 75% discount on the oil?? 10% discount on parts is normal with servicing though.

Retail I believe it’s like £8.99 per litre for Time & Distance but I bet they only pay around £2 per litre 

[rum4mo]

54 minutes ago, Madmax889 said:

Retail I believe it’s like £8.99 per litre for Time & Distance but I bet they only pay around £2 per litre 

 

Same car group (VW Group), I have list prices for fixed time and distance oil for the past 2 services for my wife's 2015 Polo and for 5W 40 Platinum VW dealer is quoting list price of £11.30 per litre in August 2017 and list price of £12.50 per litre in late July 2018, which ties in with the quoted price of £12.80 above and in both cases the dealer was only allowing a discount of just under 33% discount.

 

I do agree that as they will be buying in bulk the litre price will be very low to them, but the bill shown above is serious discount by any margins - unless some funny business was done by my VW dealer with the "self to self" charging showing only almost 33% discount.

[Guest]

I see people complaining about differnet amounts of oil used and did they ask about screenwash (implying it's an expensive extra).

 

If a garage gives you a fixed price then it doesn't matter if they add 1 lire or 1000 litres of oil, if the oil costs 10p or £10 a litre, and it doesn't matter if an ounce of screen wash is more expensive than an ounce of gold - it's fixed price.

 

Never seen this for years but what used to happen whenever I traded a car in against a new car was I'd get a price for my trade-in, a price for the new car and I'd pay the difference. But whenever I received the invoice, the price of the new car had changed, the trade-in price was significantly different, there were extras listed I hadn't even requested, but most importantly, the changeover figure remained the same.  I was told garages did this for various reasons - to suit the taxman, their accountant, to meet manufacturer promotion targets etc.   As long as the changeover was what I agreed, I really couldn't care less how they work out their figures. I'd be surprised if servicing is any different - if the price is what I agreed to pay and the service is carried out to the manufacturer's recommendation, a garage can list anything they want on my receipt. That's not a rip off as far as I'm concerned.

 

Now paying £429 from VW or £500 from Audi for EXACTLY the same service on the same engine!   Now that definitely is a rip off.  ( I used to have my VW's + Audi serviced by Skoda .  Cars were sold with a full VAG service history).

Edited 16 December, 2018 by Guest

[andyasjl]

Sorry for delay in replying, been driving south down the A1 and now stuck in traffic as M11 shut, cars are upside down!! Waiting for chopper to land....  Anyway was a pre paid fixed service  total £139 so hoping oil was changed, just invoice didn’t make any sense to me

[Madmax889]

1 hour ago, rum4mo said:

 

Same car group (VW Group), I have list prices for fixed time and distance oil for the past 2 services for my wife's 2015 Polo and for 5W 40 Platinum VW dealer is quoting list price of £11.30 per litre in August 2017 and list price of £12.50 per litre in late July 2018, which ties in with the quoted price of £12.80 above and in both cases the dealer was only allowing a discount of just under 33% discount.

 

I do agree that as they will be buying in bulk the litre price will be very low to them, but the bill shown above is serious discount by any margins - unless some funny business was done by my VW dealer with the "self to self" charging showing only almost 33% discount.

That’s only if they are part of the fixed price servicing.  As not all are.  

[rum4mo]

Surely any/all "self to self" charging would be carried out at rates that would not be subject to any of the VW Group "fixed price servicing" - remember I said a few posts earlier that all this servicing was done as part of a prepaid dealer service package.

[rum4mo]

28 minutes ago, andyasjl said:

Sorry for delay in replying, been driving south down the A1 and now stuck in traffic as M11 shut, cars are upside down!! Waiting for chopper to land....  Anyway was a pre paid fixed service  total £139 so hoping oil was changed, just invoice didn’t make any sense to me

 

Now the unit cost of oil, or at least the indicated price charged makes more sense and that is what I would have expected it have been showed on my prepaid VW dealer servicing package, although the total cost of 2 minor, 1 major and an MOT was only something like £350 bought on the day the car was bought.

 

If it was the cold weather that was the root cause of that problem maybe to be expected, I've just dropped 50Kg of salt onto the sides of my driveway so that the Postie etc does not fall over, the rest remains like an ice flow, oh bother bother!! (winter tyres will mean getting up that and the estate road will not present any problems as long as no one else is out failing to make headway!)

[xman]

Platinum oil is cheap budget 502.00/505.01 oil that is around £2.50 per litre or less in bulk. It really shouldn't be used in modern Skodas,  504/507 spec oil should be used as a minimum, its not a great deal more expensive.

 

Anyone with platinum in their engine must now use the fixed regime as its not suitable for variable/long life regime.

 

Maximum parts cost to a dealer for an oil/filter change is under £15, remember they reclaim input VAT. Time can be as little as 15-20mins.

 

Its a bread and butter cash cow, even more so if they stick a 10 min inspection on it and charge up to £179.

[classic]

It is a cash cow, but they are running a business.

[andyasjl]

Just now, classic said:

It is a cash cow, but they are running a business.

But hopefully not trying to do expensive work that doesn’t need doing, like my discs brakes, don’t know if it’s because my partner takes the car in for the services........?