Mk3 103tsi - Almost 1 year on and first service due

[Gerrycan]

Only 11k on the clock and it will be a couple of weeks early but I want to get the annual service done before some upcoming travel commitments.

Anyway when purchased there was a lot of publicity about the capped price servicing and I got a copy of their pricing at that time.
Re-reading it there are lots of caveats about how the offer can be subject to change or just dropped entirely at any time which of course were not mentioned in any article that covered the press release.

When I rang the local dealer for an appointment and spoke to the young lady who handles bookings I asked for confirmation of price on my car.
She went on-line to Skoda and said it would be $386.
I was a bit shocked and asked about the capped price servicing cost of $269 that was on my paperwork, but she claimed not to know anything about capped price servicing.

I contacted the salesman and he said it should be the $269 price.

I did a quick Google and got the following link: Capped Price Service - Å*KODA
This site clarifies that capped price servicing costs are determined and fixed at the beginning of the year for the whole year.
The web page offers input fields to identify the model and service required and then provides a current quote.
In my case it is $284, which for the first service is basically an oil and filter change. The online quote specifically omits pollen filter and brake fluid changes from capped price servicing but they are not due anyway for this one.

Interesting that neither of the dealer contacts knew the actual details of Skoda capped price servicing.

The VW capped price service for the similar powered Golf wagon is $414.00. Web site Golf Wagon Capped Price Servicing | Volkswagen Australia

Appointment is next week so I will let you know how it goes.

[Antiplastix]

I went to my local mechanic, that doesn't have a spotty 16 year old apprentice. I supplied the VW 507 oil and he charged me $140. No brainer I think.

[Dzl_Dubba]

1 year and only 11k! I'm at almost 17k and only 8 months old.

[Gerrycan]

1 year and only 11k! I'm at almost 17k and only 8 months old.

What can I say, we ride bikes, you know the ones with pedals.

In fact I put the bike in the back of the car for the service drop-off and then cycle back in after. Only 12km each way.

[hobbie2k]

Is that with Solitaire?

My wife is on track to hit 30k by the end of her first year. Her part-time job is within walking distance and my daughter's school is across the street... I have no idea how she manages it...

...and I thought US$95 to service my mkV Jetta 2.0T was outrageous.

[Reichter]

Watching to see how this goes. I barely drive mine because i cycle to work. 300km in 1 month. Still on original tank of fuel. Lol

[Gerrycan]

Is that with Solitaire?

My wife is on track to hit 30k by the end of her first year. Her part-time job is within walking distance and my daughter's school is across the street... I have no idea how she manages it...

...and I thought US$95 to service my mkV Jetta 2.0T was outrageous.

Yes Solitaire service at Mile End.
First service so I'll suck it up and pay up but you may have noticed that everything is more expensive in Australia.
Certainly would be going elsewhere if I were charged the Golf rate.
I guess they have got to pay for the mechanic, the clinically clean workshop, the receptionists (plural), all the office infrastructure, admin and computers and the all the bosses, accountants and their company cars etc. oh and the oil and filter.

It is a bit like making contributions to charities, you would be lucky if 10% of your donation actually reaches the intended recipient.

So if your wife has travelled 30k and lets say at an average of 45kph then she has spent 666 hours in the car, which is getting on for a month driving day and night.
Take the keys away

[brad]

Buy a new cabin filter off ebay for <$20 and replace it.

I know the book says every 2 years but it's $20 well spent.

[Gerrycan]

Buy a new cabin filter off ebay for <$20 and replace it.

I know the book says every 2 years but it's $20 well spent.

The quote specifically omits the Pollen filter for vehicles with "Climatronic" Air Conditioning (24mthly) @ $54
Since my car has basic air conditioning I am not even sure it has a filter so I'll go have a look first.

A good point though, when I had to remove the fan motor in my Mk2 to get to the parking ticket that was rattling around down there, I was appalled at the state of the filter supposedly replaced a couple of months before.

[Martin]

The Pollen filter is a funny one, sometimes I only get 6 months out of it before the "old socks" smell starts, other times I can get 9~10 months - but I certainly would not get 2 years out of a pollen filter (daily 1 hour drive each way to work) - I suspect using re-circulation is a factor

Like Brad I buy the pollen filter off eBay (~$15 plus postage) - they come from UK - I buy 5 at time for postage reasons

The two biggest rip offs with factory servicing are the optional injector cleaning for $69 and aircon sanitation for $99 - all the dealers are doing this
The injector cleaning is nothing more than putting $10 of product into your tank
The aircon sanitation can be done at home for $25 using an autoglym product

[Gerrycan]

I avoid using recirculation as much as possible for that very reason. Its not the filter that worries me but the possible build up on the condenser.
The killer for any car is smoking in the car. I had a friend who bought a 2nd hand Merc E class.
A great car except it was owned by a smoker and despite spending a quote a lot of money was never able to get rid of it completely. Present in the leather and the air-con.
Humidity is relatively low anyway in Adelaide so it is not often required.

I expect them to try and add the expensive additions during the pre-service interview.

I had a quick look for the 'pollen' filter but it appears that unlike the mk2 where you go in underneath the glove box on the mk3 you have to remove the glove box.
I just found a video on Youtube so will probably try tomorrow now.
Useful for accessing the fusebox as well.

[Timbris93]

I used my regular mechanic not just because he's over a hundred dollars cheaper than the Skoda dealership, it's also got a lot to do with the fact that the dealership ****ed me around and treated me like **** the moment i drove the car off the lot.

[Gerrycan]

The car's first service took place yesterday.
Early drop off and I asked them to look for faults related to the cold start hesitancy I occasionally experience (I was not optimistic and they did not find anything).
I noticed the paperwork referenced the $269 capped price figure so the young lady who took my booking over the phone did the right thing.
Went to pick it up in the evening and of course forgot my glasses so I was not sure I believed my eyes when I saw the $450(ish) pricing on the invoice (so they had ignored the note).
The guy serving me was pleasant enough and said he had just priced it off the Skoda website and even showed me a printout which was of similar appearance to my one I had got off the web just with much higher prices.
I told him to wait while I went to my car and picked up MY printed quote which was then viewed with some surprise by him and the colleague he shared it with.
To be fair he did not quibble at all but just asked me to help myself to a coffee while he re-priced the invoice to match my quote.

Afterwards we went out to the car and to his horror it had not been washed, but I said that was ok because I had forgot to ask them NOT to wash it.
He had a little difficulty understanding that, so he got the 'dangers of using sponges to wash cars' lecture (poor bugger). I did add it was more of a problem for Asian built cars as they had softer paint. He understood that as he said he did a short stint at Suzuki and while they were generally reliable vehicles they had all sorts of problems with their water based paintwork.

Once I got home and got my glasses on I could see that the price included injector cleaner, a top up of genuine 'special' VAG/Skoda window washer (It smells good and is a bit of a standing joke between my wife and I). Only other work done was top up of coolant (250cc?), adjustment of windscreen sprayers and tyre pressures.

The car felt very skittish on the way home, with vague light steering. I checked the tyre pressures and they were at 42psi on the back and 39psi on the front.
For me the correct pressure with these tyres for general use is 36psi all around. It just gives a better ride, better straight line stability and a slightly heavier feel to the steering.
If I were putting a heavy load in the back then I would increase pressures accordingly but otherwise I really do not know why they do this.
They test drove it for 7 km to achieve 20kph and 10 l/100 averages. So that was quite reasonable.

Tyre wear for 17 inch Dunlop Maxx Sports is even but seems fairly heavy considering I have done only 11k km. I should get to 25k km if I rotate them front/rear.
This is considering my general driving makes Miss Daisy's chauffeur look like a hoon and someone in the UK with a vRS has got 80k km on the same brand????

So the lessons for others who might use the dealers for their servicing is:
a) Go to the website and get the true capped price for your car printed off.
b) Confirm the price when booking (apparently not all dealers are part of the capped price scheme?)
c) Leave a copy of your expected service pricing with them when you leave the car.
d) Clarify whether you want them to clean the car or not when you leave it.
e) DO NOT PRESS the cappuccino option on the fully automated Saeco machine in the waiting room, it does not use real milk just some sweet powdery abomination of a substitute.


Just when I thought I had done ok pricewise, I received a call from Skoda Australia this morning offering me a free service which I was now unable to take up. Doh!
Now going to ring Skoda Service and tell them they might want to tidy up their web sites and make the dealers aware of Skoda capped price servicing policy and rates.

Apart from the pricing fiasco I have no real complaints (unless you count the fortuitous non-cleaning and I was offered a 'make-up' clean at my convenience).

UPDATE:
Spoke to Skoda Assist and advise them of my experience and they said it was more probable that it was not a web site issue but just people putting in the wrong parameters. Despite them having the car details in front of them. Mk 2 service is $384, so goodness knows what model or service was chosen to get well over $450?
Capped price servicing costs are updated every 6 months as well, apparently.
My details were taken and will be passed on.

[ian]

My Tiguan 130KW diesel is due in 4 months and I have a singed agreement for 6 years at $333 per year ill see if they try to pull a swifty when its serviced ?

[Gerrycan]

My Tiguan 130KW diesel is due in 4 months and I have a singed agreement for 6 years at $333 per year ill see if they try to pull a swifty when its serviced ?

You might want to check the small print on the agreement but is it with the dealer or VW?