servicing a skoda octavia, approximate costs?

[bobski]

I think the problem with warranty & the service required to keep it, is that people feel that they are being taken for a ride as a captive audience. I use local guys for minor services if I can and haven't had any problems (other than them replacing wiper rubbers without asking and trying to charge me for it).

But its partly our fault, service centres now employ customer service reps as well as mechanics, so I suppose as people's expectations for service other than just fixing the damn thing grows, so does the price of a service. I don't really care if I'm greeted by a customer service rep and given rolls royce treatment. I just want to drop the car off, list the problems and get out of there. I just need a basket to throw some keys at...

On the other hand though, I'm a programmer/network admin who has worked in customer service oriented businesses and I was always happy to have a sales droid between me and the public

I do far less K's than I used to now, so $300 a year in service doesn't bother me too much, but when I used to do over 30k, and the intervals were 10000k's, it used to bother me a lot And thats another point too. 15k services mean that service costs go up to cover the lack of visits...

(No disrespect to sales droids - I was a helpdesk droid once )

[woofy]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned here before, but the service managers these days at dealers also get commission, and it's not unusual for them to make more commission than the best sales guy out the front. When every car sold is a new reoccuring source of income the service bit of dealers is big $$$ The best reoccurance is getting another car from the same dealer, so it all adds up over time.

[brad]

i used to get commission on accessories sold when i was Service Advisor at a Ford dealership - not a car escaped without a set of mudflaps, weathershields, headlight protectors & bonnet protector. I wouldn't say it was a big commission but it probably gave me an extra weeks pay in a month. That was in the '80s though - I'm sure things have got worse since then.

[K1W1]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned here before, but the service managers these days at dealers also get commission,

It's only been that way since the 1970's it's certainly not anything new.

[woofy]

I think what is new, is that noone in the public knew about it, it came out publically not that long ago...I certainly didn't and I have family who are mechanics at dealerships and a friend of mines Dad ran the Holden Service at Toowoomba, his uncle ran the BMW, and the third brother the Toyota. I asked him about it a few years ago as he never mentioned it at school, and he said it was kept quiet.

[K1W1]

It's not some secret with a funny handshake.
These are commercial businesses and the department managers (service, spare parts, after market, finance, new and used sales) all have targets for both sales and profitability and receive bonuses on achieving those targets. It's been that way since Adam was a boy in most city dealerships everybody knows that the sale guys work on commission and grind them into submission then they blindly go and buy spare parts or services where the real profit is made.
It's exactly the same as probably 95% of businesses and certainly 100% of successful ones where the business relies on sales of products or services. In places like Harvey Norman you now have the situation where you may have two or three businesses within one shop (IT, whitegoods and brown goods each with a different franchisee) the same happens now in large franchise motor vehicle dealerships. The various departments are virtually businesses with businesses.
It your family were running a BMW dealership they know about it. BMW have been using this system for so long it's not funny.

[brad]

At Goodyear i was on monthly, quarterly & yearly bonuses for running the workshop & flogging tyres. It had the potential to add 50% to my income but generally I managed +30%.
The next place I was at, i got paid a commission on every wheel alignment I did. The more I could push through, the more I got paid but any rework was in my own time. Fantastic incentive to do the job properly, be organised & not take days off.

[woofy]

I think you two are missing the main point, its not a secret in the industry, both of you have been in it, so it will be old hat to you. It is certainly not common knowledge outside and what my friend was saying was it has always happened, but his Dad told him not to mention it. About 6 yrs ago it became knowledge within a lot of car forums once they appeared on the net, but really wasn't known or discussed really before that. If I took a wild stab in the dark I would say 80% or more of the general public would have NFI. Everyone knows sales people are on commission, but beyond that they would never expect it.

[brad]

I never kept it a secret from anyone. Even used to tell my customers that by fitting "sales target item X" this month, they would be helping me make my bonus.

[woofy]

I always suspected that a company was giving tyre places an incentive, never thought about it being comission based. If I had a dollar for every time I wanted a particular tyre fitted and they would then tell me how great another one was, and try and convince me to get it. It must work though cause pretty much everyone I know besides me, goes in with a quote for one tyre and comes out with something entirely different.

A girl at work booked in to get some Yokos a month ago and came back with Pirellis even after finalising the price etc. They are crap tyres too, so she'll find out the hard way why she should have got the Yokos.

[brad]

I always suspected that a company was giving tyre places an incentive, never thought about it being comission based. If I had a dollar for every time I wanted a particular tyre fitted and they would then tell me how great another one was, and try and convince me to get it. It must work though cause pretty much everyone I know besides me, goes in with a quote for one tyre and comes out with something entirely different.

A girl at work booked in to get some Yokos a month ago and came back with Pirellis even after finalising the price etc. They are crap tyres too, so she'll find out the hard way why she should have got the Yokos.

Yep, either based on excessive stock levels, profit level or bonus scheme. Glad I'm out of it - too cut throat & mercinary.

Only last year i lined up some decent Pirellis (or Michelins?) for Dad's car for $120 each & and he came home with entry level Hankooks for $95. I wasn't happy but in the context of an 81yo in an Accord that does 10,000km a year it wasn't really an issue.

[K1W1]

Yep, either based on excessive stock levels, profit level or bonus scheme. Glad I'm out of it - too cut throat & mercinary.

Show me a business that involves selling products or services that's any different.

[woofy]

Well any company that makes and sells its own stuff works on entirely different priciples, companies that sell multiple brands work that way. I work in the life science industry for a direct company, our commission is based solely on total growth for the year.

A friend works in the same industry but with a distributor of several brands, they get comission based on total sales, ie a % of all sales...If only mine worked like that, I have twice the total sales of anyone and the workload to match it, but unless I increase it X percent on the previous year, which was 8% during the main bit of GFC, really fair, so nothing for me last year even with 5% growth. He also gets perks for selling certain brands though, I know he got cash incentives from the brands themselves and also had a holiday in Europe. We don't get that, but also won't direct people to certain things we sell, all 3000 items have an equal chance. In the US though my equivalents do have targets based on certain products which changes as they are launched.

[MarksVRS]

Which Penrite?
I supplied my own oil for the 15k service because the dealer wanted $110 & I could get 502.00 for $30. He didn't mind. By the 30k service he'd gone to Valvoline & dropped his price to something more reasonable.

Hi Brad,
I have "Synthetic Performance HPR 0" SAE 0W-40. Meets API SM/CF standards. Among other things, says it is recommended where manufacturer specifications BMW LL-04, VW 507 and MB 228.51 are listed in the owner manual.

Actually I had a look on their website and noticed the HPR 0 is now superseded although it still meets Skoda/VW requirements for both fixed and variable service intervals.

[PassatB6]

From this discussion its obvious you can't rely on Service managers to give you objective information about what needs to be done on your vehicle. That is quite disturbing.