£30 charge for Courtesy car!!!!

[vegit8]

My Karoq is due its first service next week.

I always ask for a courtesy car, due to the distance of the dealer from my home.

Today I had a call from someone at the dealer to check that all was good for Monday.

I was reminded to bring my D/Licence and that there would be a £30 charge for a collision and damage waiver.

 

I have never been charged for this before and questioned it.

The lady said I should have been made aware when I booked the car in.

I said I had not.

 

I was then put on hold and after a few minutes wait was told that the charge would be 'waived'.

 

Now... my view is that dealers will have a highly specc'd insurance policy that would almost equate to any driver in any car.

We don't get charged for test drives for example.

 

This charge just smacks of a money grabbing exercise. £30 x 50 weeks x 5 days = £7500 (for each courtesy car they have).

Not bad income if you can get it.

 

Grrrr

[SurreyJohn]

I was asked similar two or three years ago, at the time it was £12 or £15.   But had an option of zero but with the £zero option had to accept a £1000 excess if it was damaged.

 

Since then have opted for while you wait as have had no job over 2 hours, and it would take me over 30 minutes each way to go home.

 

The courtesy cars were nearly always lowish spec Fabia with mpi engines and manual transmission, even if your car was a high spec auto

 

Edited 29 September, 2022 by SurreyJohn

[CJJE]

This presumably depends on your dealer, but from the sound of it you may not have a choice where you live. 

 

On my last two trips to my preferred dealer (one of three within 20 miles or so - although two are the same franchise) I was given a Karoq and a Kamiq. Admittedly both were fairly low trim levels and one was a manual gearbox, but they both served to get me home and later back to the dealers. I noted that both had dashcams fitted to detect any mad driving! 

 

There was no mention of any charge for the cars,

 

Chris

[smipx]

Mine is the same - £20 I think for a courtesy car at a routine service now.  They waived it for me this time round as a goodwill gesture.  All of the authorised repairers/service shops pledge to be able to offer you a free lift back home or to your local place of work (if within 10 miles) and drop the car back to you at that location all for free. They don't like doing it tough so don't be surprised if the charge for a courtesy car simply evaporates when you say you want all of that 🙂  Problem is that you will probably be hanging around for ages waiting for the courtesy lift so if its a scheduled service then its probably just easier and less stressful to get it booked in for 9am and tell them you will wait.  If you are lucky you might get it back by midday 🙂

 

This is a screen print from Skoda's website:

 

 

Some of the dealers (e.g. a certian Seat dealer about 20 miles from me) even offered to take me all the way home and drive the car back to me at completion for free - all part of the service of this small independent (but authorised service agent) for all VAG cars.  The 10 miles is the minimum and anything above that varies from dealer to dealer I expect.

 

In addition to this, If you have a factory warranty still or an extended package like the All-in-one with them, and the car is in for a warranty claim then, as long as you go via Skoda Assist, you are entitled to a free hire car for a few days and then the repairing garage apparently has to provide a courtesy car free of charge for you after that (I was told this by Skoda Assist).

 

It surprised me because it was initially going to take at least 1-2 weeks to fix my wifes car (as the window motor failed under warranty) when she called the garage direct. On the call they made no mention of using Skoda Assist to get a free hire car. They did not even suggest calling Skoda Assist (which in hindsight was pretty poor of them - I guess they knew it was not going to be to their advantage for her to do so). They would not offer a free courtesy car on the phone to her.  We both said "B*gger that for a game of soldiers" and we called Skoda Assist (as the car was not safe to leave with the window down and non-operational). They came to our house within 30 minutes, diagnosed the fault, taped up the window hole (it was raining) and then followed us to the garage. We left the car with the service centre (who looked very "po faced") about the whole situation. They also treated the Skoda Assist man like dirt which also surprised me (but not him by all accounts). The Skoda assist man gave us a free lift back home (as the hire car was not available until the following morning).  The hire car was delivered to our home address.   Due to engaging with the stealership in this manner the repair went from 1-2 weeks (with no car) to under 48 hours.  It's funny how the repair was done in under 48 hours when the garage knew they were going to have to supply a free loaner car for anyting above the 48 hours.   Lesson Learned! 

 

I had a long chat with the Skoda Assist man on the way home and he did say that some of the service centres are good like this, some are bad and some are just plain ugly (mine apparently was the latter of the three - the worst he had ever seen were his precise words).  Skoda Assist were exemplary 10/10 🙂

 

Edited 29 September, 2022 by smipx

[Routemaster1461]

Have a look at your own insurance policy. Mine covers a courtesy car with the same excess as my own car(s).

[Gomezz]

I'm very lucky, a service advisor lives in the village and leaves his car at my house, goes to work in mine gets the work done and brings it back after work.

Works well for both of us.

[ApertureS]

Any and all of my local skoda charge between £15 and £25 a day for the car, even for warranty work!

[kodiaqsportline]

5 hours ago, Routemaster1461 said:

Have a look at your own insurance policy. Mine covers a courtesy car with the same excess as my own car(s).

 

It used to be commonplace on my policies but was withdrawn many years ago.

 

As for charges. Before I left the rat race in 2000, I used to take a courtesy car for work commitments. I was never charged for it. Ever since then there's always been a charge if I wanted a car. It's certainly not a Skoda thing, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Ford, VW, SEAT, Renault have been all the same - they all wanted at least £10 a day to cover insurance. 

Edited 29 September, 2022 by kodiaqsportline

[Routemaster1461]

I haven't had to have a courtesy car from Skoda yet as the only visits were 'while you wait', (problem with a usb c socket and an oil change service). We have had several cars from a different manufacturer, and I don't recall (cetainly not recently) where there was a charge. One agent has obviously had problems with people using the cars and not topping up with fuel, so thay had instigated a £5 charge to cover fuel, before the latest price increases, but no charge if you put some in and gave them the receipt.

[smipx]

15 hours ago, ApertureS said:

Any and all of my local skoda charge between £15 and £25 a day for the car, even for warranty work!

I think they will do if you go direct but if you can justify (are allowed) to call skoda assist (if the car is not driveable/leaveable outside/unsafe/at risk) AND it is a warranty item (this will be confirmed by Skoda Assist on the visit) then you are entitled to 48 hours hire car and then, my understanding from Skoda Assist is, the repairing garage will provide you with a car with the cost covered by the warranty. If the repairing garage say they don't have a car available (and you are at the end of your 48 hours hire period), I was told by Skoda Assist to call Skoda UK / Skoda Assit back and that the either the Skoda warranty will extend the hire period or compel the garage to provide a car at no additional cost (until the warranty repair is completed). they will then magically find a car for you and you should not pay. 

 

All of this is, obviously, irrelevant for a standard service or standard non-warranty repair. 

Edited 30 September, 2022 by smipx

[don_kiddik]

I had a fault with mine the day I set off on my annual holidays, Skoda assist were brilliant and followed me back to local dealer and told them the problem, they then got me a courtesy car (VW Tiguan) while mine had to be repaired (alternator problem due to cracked pipe on manifold which leaked oil into alternator electrics), delivered to my door and then put 850 miles on it during my 2 weeks holiday. The dealers were not very impressed as they said no cars available. Glad that Skoda Assist helped solve the problem. No doubt the dealership would have been charged for the car hire; I didn't care!

[kenfowler3966]

My new Karoq broke down on day 2 in Aug 20 with a flat battery. AA got it going. It did it again a few days later so AA got it started again and accompanied me back to D M Keith in York. It was there a week until fixed. I was given a loan car with no charge. Indeed it even came with a full tank of fuel which I used for several work trips and had to put 5lt in to get it back to the garage and it arrived with zero range left. I was not charged for the fuel either!

[BoxerBoy]

“They” don’t love us.

 

And we don’t have to love them.

[fsec]

Just took the car in for a service at Mervyn Stewarts Skida main dealer in Belfast this morning. I had booked a courtesy car which I assumed would be something basic like a spartan Fabia which would do me, no problem. Instead I got a 21 reg Karoq for free. No charge. I was only asked to top up any fuel I used which is about £2.50 for doing a 12 mile round trip to work. Very happy to put in £5 worth of petrol 😁

 

 

[smipx]

It does seem to vary wildly and I also expect it depends where the car came from originally. I have also found that it is good to get one service desk contact that you get on well with and stick with them. Always ask for them by name when the phone is answered and wait for a call back from them if they are busy. They have discretion on the charges and a good relationship with one person (who will also get to know you) is worth its weight in gold.

[Routemaster1461]

On 29/09/2022 at 11:43, CJJE said:

I noted that both had dashcams fitted to detect any mad driving! 

 

This is interesting! I had a car that I fitted with a dashcam and when I took it into the agent they unplugged the dashcam, presumably to protect the workshop staff or so you can't see how they drive your car. It may also be under GDPR rules. Also, the staff of a Gatwick carpark also unplugged a dashcam, presumably again so they can't see what they do with your car. I did notice shortly after I left and plugged it in again. It was a good job as I hasd a serious accident on the way back and wrote the car off. If they hadn't unplugged the dascam, or if I hadn't pluued it in, then I probably woudn't have had the crash. Note, I now have a car with a built-in dashcam which can't be turned off.

 

As for loan cars with dashcam, are they protecting their car from you as a driver, or are they protecting you? Could you unplug it claiming GDPR rights?

[KenONeill]

GDPR only applies to identifiable personal data. It doesn't apply to a dashcam unless the driver has to enter their name and/or address into the camera before making a journey.