I have to agree with the majority.
Cardiff VW are a bunch of crooks - £345 for the second longlife service. And they didn't change the pollen filter or top up the windscreen fluid, but still charged for it.
Service indicator flashed when I was in France this month - I popped into the 'local' VW main dealer over there - what a difference - the name on the garage signage was the chap I was speaking to, his wife was the receptionist and the service techs were his sons.
I asked for a longlife service (4th one, so equivalent to 2nd) price - €150 was the reply - I asked any chance of being done the next day - he was full - I saw the booking in sheet - he then made the decision to 'fit' me in as long as I was there with car at 2pm.
I was. Service was done while I waited - in the car park - enjoyed the 2 hours or so reading my book - the showroom was literally a rack of windscreen wipers and a table with 4 chairs. No coffee machine or fluff!
I wandered in to the service bays and watched the garage owner and one of his sons for a while working on my car and several others.
When I was reading my book - he came over - he was apologising that he'd have to charge me €50 extra for some bits for the aircon service - eh, thats an extra £100 on its own in the UK - in France its part of the regular service apparently?!?
So all told - €202.15 for a 4th Longlife service including the aircon - thats with some of the filters costing 2-3 times the amount they do here in the UK!!
The breakdown of costs....
Labour was about £30 an hour - £110 for Cardiff VW last time I asked
Air filter was about £18 - UK VW charge about £7
Compared to the equivalent UK cost based on my 2nd service 2 years ago - I'll be hoping that the service indicator flashes up just before or during next years holidays in France!!
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