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What is it with Audi dealers?


shao_khan
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I've been ringing around for quotes for second AVS. I asked all of them if there is anything else likely at 2yrs / 35k miles to need doing.

Northampton Audi - £409

Anything else? - Dunno we'll let you knwo when we got your car.

Wayside Audi - £387

Anything Else - Brake Fluid £85, Aircon service £170, Probably brakes @ Front £297, will advisee and give options if you book.

Bedford Audi £397 (same dealer group as northampton!)

Anything Else - not sure Mr Khan.

Waysides answer was great - it means I am now prepared for almost £1k in services costs as worst case (still gunna ring some more places) but Bedford and Northampton - imagine booking in for £400 and being told it needs another £600 worth of work doing, these places should have some idea of what is likely to have worn on a 2yr old 35k miles car - it isnt rocket science, i'm fairly sure cars will have similar requirements (obviously to extremes) but they wouldnt even give suggestions - that kind of service sucks.

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Oh and Just spoke to Inde tech - a new place opened by some of the old techs from Audi dealer.

Service - £135

Brake Fluid Change - £45

Front Brakes - Labour £25 plus pads if I supply some green stuff or £75 with pads.

So over Wayside thats everything Audi recommend for less than the wayside service cost alone......

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When I asked about a 120K service at York Audi, the bloke said it would be £280 but then muttered that it "looks a bit cheap, I am sure it should be about £100 more than that". Then he mentioned a cambelt change (already done, to his disappointment).

An independent specialist quoted "about £260 or so", which I am afraid isn't accurate enough for me.

Local garage is going to do it for £175 inc all the filters, plugs etc. though I suspect they will try to get away with using cheaper oil so I may supply my own.

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Franchise dealers in my experience are pretty much the same, rubbish. No clear pricing policy, no consistency from one franchise to another on costs and a licence to print money.

God knows what my 2nd AVS is going to cost, I dread to think! EEK2.GIF

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[ QUOTE ]

Franchise dealers in my experience are pretty much the same, rubbish. No clear pricing policy, no consistency from one franchise to another on costs and a licence to print money.

God knows what my 2nd AVS is going to cost, I dread to think! EEK2.GIF

[/ QUOTE ]

What do you mean by 'rubbish'?

And when you say 'no consistency on costs from one franchise to another', do you mean consistency between different manufacturers?

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[ QUOTE ]

Franchise dealers in my experience are pretty much the same, rubbish. No clear pricing policy, no consistency from one franchise to another on costs and a licence to print money.

God knows what my 2nd AVS is going to cost, I dread to think! EEK2.GIF

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Nope, wholeheartedly disagree there. You would be surprised just how much competition is out there.....one may have to travel slightly out of one's realm though!! smirk.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Franchise dealers in my experience are pretty much the same, rubbish. No clear pricing policy, no consistency from one franchise to another on costs and a licence to print money.

God knows what my 2nd AVS is going to cost, I dread to think! EEK2.GIF

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What do you mean by 'rubbish'?

And when you say 'no consistency on costs from one franchise to another', do you mean consistency between different manufacturers?

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I meant same manufacturer, different franchises. And as for 'rubbish' for my first AVS one garage quoted me a price, another in the same franchise group 5 miles away from the original quoted me a different price, and the third couldn't even verify what was in the first AVS schedule and what was done as courtesy (washer fluid fill up for example) and what was chargeable.

JD, I did eventually go futher afield, back to the dealer I bought my car from in fact and you know how far away that is! And they were cheaper than our 'local friendly' franchise.

I can understand to a certain limit differing prices because of regional variation and labour rates, but when some cannot identify what needs to be done per car on a particular service when indeed the inforamtion can be in front of them on a screen, it makes you wonder. It can even be the difefrence between whether you get tyour car cleaned / valeted on some services by some garages and not with others.

It certainly does not promote uniformity of a brand even though they are to 'appear' uniform.

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Just ordered a merc CLS, three franchised local dealers all of whom I had previously bought Mercs from were absolutely RUBBISH. Mercedes Benz Direct garage 100 miles away from home was the business. No wonder MBUK tried to get rid of the whole lot of them a few years ago. My local Audi dealer on the other hand has been fantastic with my A3 no problems and one service just over £100.00.

Kam

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Can I just say, Slough Audi delivered my car, shiney, clean, undamaged, free key ring, free mints, decent discount, tank of fuel..... excellent.

Even a spare bottle of oil int the boot......

cant fault 'em, well done!! (tell you abput service in a few months)

169144-ok.gif

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The pricing policy varies because of the Centre area and their oveheads. A Centre in Mayfair for example will obviously be paying allot more for their Council Tax and to pay for their staff to come into Central London via Public Transport. Whereas my Centre in Ipswich is currently in a developing area of Ipswich, but they charge allot less as they don't have to really incentivise (sp?) the people to work there. A Centre in London will typically charge £120 plus VAT an hour whereas my Centre charges £80 plus VAT per hour.

The reason the servicing is so expensive is because Block Exemption and Audi UK stated a couple of years back every Centre needed to order around £20000 worth of Workshop tools (W12 engine crane etc) to keep our approvals. We're also in the middle of having a cruise control and Special Q7 ramp fitted which means MAJOR investment. That cost has to be lost somewhere, like in any other business...

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[ QUOTE ]

The pricing policy varies because of the Centre area and their oveheads. A Centre in Mayfair for example will obviously be paying allot more for their Council Tax and to pay for their staff to come into Central London via Public Transport. Whereas my Centre in Ipswich is currently in a developing area of Ipswich, but they charge allot less as they don't have to really incentivise (sp?) the people to work there. A Centre in London will typically charge £120 plus VAT an hour whereas my Centre charges £80 plus VAT per hour.

The reason the servicing is so expensive is because Block Exemption and Audi UK stated a couple of years back every Centre needed to order around £20000 worth of Workshop tools (W12 engine crane etc) to keep our approvals. We're also in the middle of having a cruise control and Special Q7 ramp fitted which means MAJOR investment. That cost has to be lost somewhere, like in any other business...

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Plus, when you ring round for quotes on servicing, some dealers like to try and squeeze more out of you than others. Just like when you get quotes from plumbers, electricians etc. You can't really blame them, its an open market.

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[ QUOTE ]

The pricing policy varies because of the Centre area and their oveheads. A Centre in Mayfair for example will obviously be paying allot more for their Council Tax and to pay for their staff to come into Central London via Public Transport. Whereas my Centre in Ipswich is currently in a developing area of Ipswich, but they charge allot less as they don't have to really incentivise (sp?) the people to work there. A Centre in London will typically charge £120 plus VAT an hour whereas my Centre charges £80 plus VAT per hour.

The reason the servicing is so expensive is because Block Exemption and Audi UK stated a couple of years back every Centre needed to order around £20000 worth of Workshop tools (W12 engine crane etc) to keep our approvals. We're also in the middle of having a cruise control and Special Q7 ramp fitted which means MAJOR investment. That cost has to be lost somewhere, like in any other business...

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Like I said Nelson, I understand all these things and take them into consideration and am not afraid of trvaelling an extra 100 or so miles to get the best rate for my AVS service; what grinds on me is the level of consistencey of information a clear pricing policy and a schedule of works which with some franchises is non existent or 'not available', hence my analogy 'a licence to print money'.

I imagine with all manufacturers there is a mandate given to franchises that stipulates what is required with various service schedules dependent on variant of car but this is not made available to the consumer.

In most other retail based sectors some description of what is received for your money is required, yet it is not when it comes to things like car servicing. And when a franchise cannot tell you what is involved in a service that worries me even more.

If I phoned you and wanted to book in my car for it's AVS and you gave the option of breaking down what was involved in the service schedule and unit cost, that would give me confidence. But this is not offered and hence my dissatisfaction. And it is not just aimed at Audi as per my original post.

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............The reason the servicing is so expensive is because Block Exemption and Audi UK stated a couple of years back every Centre needed to order around £20000 worth of Workshop tools.......

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But surely £20k is about what most service departments take in a day??

I take it you meant £200k's worth?

There is a discussion on the BMW forum at the moment about this and a few members are getting their cars serviced abroad, Germany, Belgium, France etc.

German dealers charge €50 for a brake fluid change (£35?) compared with ours charging £90, €140 to change front or rears brake pads and discs compared to our dealers charging nearly £200 (although I am sure I got a quote of nearly £300 from Audi on the A6 from memory).

So a long weekend away with full service and a few other bits done, along with travel and hotel still costs less than UK main dealers charge plus you get a couple days away too. 169144-ok.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

............The reason the servicing is so expensive is because Block Exemption and Audi UK stated a couple of years back every Centre needed to order around £20000 worth of Workshop tools.......

[/ QUOTE ]

But surely £20k is about what most service departments take in a day??

There is a discussion on the BMW forum at the moment about this and a few members are getting their cars serviced abroad, Germany, Belgium, France etc.

German dealers charge €50 for a brake fluid change (£35?) compared with ours charging £90, €140 to change front or rears brake pads and discs compared to our dealers charging nearly £200 (although I am sure I got a quote of nearly £300 from Audi on the A6 from memory).

So a long weekend away with full service and a few other bits done, along with travel and hotel still costs less than UK main dealers charge plus you get a couple days away too. 169144-ok.gif

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No, I doubt they take £20k a day. And remember there is a difference between turnover and profit anyway!

Return on investment at the end of the year, at an average new car dealer in the UK will be around 1%. If they're lucky. So it really doesn't matter how much business it does per day, costs are high and profit margins are absolutely tiny.

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I know the Norwich VW service department aims for a net profit of around 10% a year, and they have an average of 40 cars booked in a day, I would guess that the average bill would be in the region of £200??

So 40x200x5x52 = approx. £2m a year in turnover, with a net profit in the region of £200,000 for the year.

So if they have to spend £200k on new kit every 5 years so what, the rest of Europe does too and they don't have the silly prices we have. Wages in Germany are slightly higher, property is around the same, maybe a little less. Audi and BMW are seen as a more prestigious brand over here than over there, maybe that has something to do with it?

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I get what you are saying, but my father in law had an independant garage and it cost him around £20k a year keeping up with the latest diagnostic equipment alone, for an Audi main dealer to have to buy £200k worth of kit every few years is something that is budgeted for.

Explain why an independant can charge around 35% of main dealer prices?

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[ QUOTE ]

I know the Norwich VW service department aims for a net profit of around 10% a year, and they have an average of 40 cars booked in a day, I would guess that the average bill would be in the region of £200??

So 40x200x5x52 = approx. £2m a year in turnover, with a net profit in the region of £200,000 for the year.

So if they have to spend £200k on new kit every 5 years so what, the rest of Europe does too and they don't have the silly prices we have. Wages in Germany are slightly higher, property is around the same, maybe a little less. Audi and BMW are seen as a more prestigious brand over here than over there, maybe that has something to do with it?

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But bear in mind the new/used car sales dept, along with all the costs for stocking charges of cars, cleaning dept, wages, overage stock, franchise requirements and utilities.

So even IF the service dept achieved 10% margin, it would get diluted by the crippling costs of running the rest of the dealership. So, 1% it is.

If you don't like prices, and the fact they vary from place to place then fine. Shop around. But to believe garages are 'printing money' is both narrow-minded and none of your concern.

I never hear people complaining about the revenue generated by a high end fashion shop or succesful fast food franchise.

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[ QUOTE ]

But bear in mind the new/used car sales dept, along with all the costs for stocking charges of cars, cleaning dept, wages, overage stock, franchise requirements and utilities.

So even IF the service dept achieved 10% margin, it would get diluted by the crippling costs of running the rest of the dealership. So, 1% it is.

If you don't like prices, and the fact they vary from place to place then fine. Shop around. But to believe garages are 'printing money' is both narrow-minded and none of your concern.

I never hear people complaining about the revenue generated by a high end fashion shop or succesful fast food franchise.

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I never said garages are 'printing money'. The only thing I commented on is Nelson said that they are now charging high prices because they had to spend £20k or £200k on tools. And why is it none of my concern? I am the fecker paying for the service, if I pay for a service of course it is my concern? If you buy something do you look at the bill or do you just say it isn't really your concern so best just to pay it??? suicide.gif

Robinsons Audi told me, when I was trying for discount on a new sportback, that the service department is run as a completely different company, if I wanted the armrest retrofitting sales would get billed by service, and I would have to pay full whack for it including labour rate, I could haggle with service but as far as sales was concerned as they could afford it. grin.gif

Do you two both work in service or something, you both seem a little defensive for some reason??

Oh, and I own a clothes shop btw and eveyone always complains we earn too much. grin.gif

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