Golf 5 GTI needs a service, but at what cost??

[Poison]

Hi guys

I just called VW Gold Coast to find out how much to budget for my 30,000km service on the 1st of June.

I'm extremely shocked at the price quoted of $550 for a standard 30k service, unless I have something else that needs doing.

What the hell costs $550!!!!

Which brings me to my questions:
1) Is this the right price for a service?
2) What's included in a 30,000 service?
3) Is there somewhere I can take the car to be serviced cheaper?
4) If the answer to 3 is Yes, will this affect my warranty?

Would appreciate any help you can give. I think this is ridiculous!!

[anthony_VWJET]

Thats not too bad, i paid 600 for my 30k service..

[TDIESEL]

Hi guys

I just called VW Gold Coast to find out how much to budget for my 30,000km service on the 1st of June.

I'm extremely shocked at the price quoted of $550 for a standard 30k service, unless I have something else that needs doing.

What the hell costs $550!!!!

Which brings me to my questions:
1) Is this the right price for a service?
2) What's included in a 30,000 service?
3) Is there somewhere I can take the car to be serviced cheaper?
4) If the answer to 3 is Yes, will this affect my warranty?

Would appreciate any help you can give. I think this is ridiculous!!

Answer to 3 is yes. Anywhere that does logbook servicing. It won't affect your warranty at all.

You can potentially halve the price quoted but at the end of the day it depends on whether you see your car as a mass manufactured form of transport or one that requires "specialist tuning" by "professional service technicians".

[STV4SYT]

Answer to 3 is yes. Anywhere that does logbook servicing. It won't affect your warranty at all.

You can potentially halve the price quoted but at the end of the day it depends on whether you see your car as a mass manufactured form of transport or one that requires "specialist tuning" by "professional service technicians".

It wont affect your warranty, but and this is coming directly from a mate who works in VW service, If you come in with a warranty issue outside of warranty and have always been serviced by VW and especially them, then they are a lot more likely to be able to do something. If there is even 1 Ultratune or similar stamp in the log book then your chances are pretty limited.

[Poison]

Answer to 3 is yes. Anywhere that does logbook servicing. It won't affect your warranty at all.

You can potentially halve the price quoted but at the end of the day it depends on whether you see your car as a mass manufactured form of transport or one that requires "specialist tuning" by "professional service technicians".

So I guess the "professional service technicians" is the reason they feel the need to rip the public off by charging so much for a service.

That's why I wanted to know what's involved in the service. I can understand if they're changing the timing belt and all the fluids and rotating wheels and doing a service on the gearbox and all that.... it just seems like a lot of money - that's a whole week's salary!!

[PhilMart]

A little off post .. but .. always ask for a quote when you book the car in. If you don't then they will usually bump the price up. They generally give a better price if you have a chance of backing out during the phone call.

[isaw]

My 30k was done at austral, and I haggled for cost price as I was buying the car from them. Cost was ~300, and they say $395 for a std service (oil/filters) and a check over. It should be about another 100 to get the brake fluid flushed (approx done every 2 years)

If you ever coe to bris, Mike webber @ prestigeperformance.com.au will do the lot for about $300

[HiTorque]

Hi guys

I just called VW Gold Coast to find out how much to budget for my 30,000km service on the 1st of June.

I'm extremely shocked at the price quoted of $550 for a standard 30k service, unless I have something else that needs doing.

What the hell costs $550!!!!

Which brings me to my questions:
1) Is this the right price for a service?
2) What's included in a 30,000 service?
3) Is there somewhere I can take the car to be serviced cheaper?
4) If the answer to 3 is Yes, will this affect my warranty?

Would appreciate any help you can give. I think this is ridiculous!!

I found this terrifying - service costs were quoted to me late 2004 when I took mkV for a drive - all in the range $250-380 for the first 100K km. Now 60K was $770+ last year, and then I will have to swallow somehow $1,500+ for 120K km service (there was a thread on vwvortex: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4374157)
At the same time I had to get new parts for EGR system after my warranty expired and that cost (total $1,600+) was shared 50/50 with the dealer just because I used them for all services. It's a catch 22. I wanted this car to keep as long as it goes, but the cost of service becomes a serious issue. If I sell it and buy low service cost e.g. Commodore it would cost me more at trade-in price...

[HiTorque]

A little off post .. but .. always ask for a quote when you book the car in. If you don't then they will usually bump the price up. They generally give a better price if you have a chance of backing out during the phone call.

... and ask to write the quoted price on paperwork, otherwise you drop the car and tell service guy - I was quoted $300, and he says - when? who told you that? sorry mate, this will be at least $420 - I had this discussion ones..

[Maverick]

So I guess the "professional service technicians" is the reason they feel the need to rip the public off by charging so much for a service.

That's why I wanted to know what's involved in the service. I can understand if they're changing the timing belt and all the fluids and rotating wheels and doing a service on the gearbox and all that.... it just seems like a lot of money - that's a whole week's salary!!

Maybe you brought the wrong car then, did you really expect it to be ultra cheap to service? It's a $45K+ performance car and not a small Japanese econo box.

Most cars still require a service every six months/10k and they're around $200-250 for a basic service with $30 of oil. Depending on the oil they're using in the GTI it would cost you $80-100 to buy it.

Ring around the other VW dealers, Highway is not that far away and will be cheaper then that and they have loan cars available (which is something you don't get with non dealer servicing generally). Call back this dealer and say you've been quoted $X at this dealer and can they match and see what happens.

There's another dealer on the NSW side of the coast isn't there?

And of course consider resale value and that VW/the dealer will be more likely to help out when you're out of warranty if you have a service history with VW.

[Pharkus]

I've got another one for you all.

30,000km/2 year service coming up now for my R32 and I have been quoted about $700. Haven't been back home to check what additional extras this includes for the R32 but I spoke with the service tech when booking and was advised that some part was due to flushing the Haldex with new fluid and to flush out the brake fluid.

Question is, does anyone else have any quotes (and dealerships) that would do this cheaper?

Just wanted to make sure this is around the ball park of what I should expect. Only done about 17,000km's over the 2 years.

Finally, not fussed about paying a little (not extravagantly more) for the "service" as in the following:
- BIG BOLD WRITING on service sheet to "DO NOT WASH MY CAR"
- And to park it inside in the service shed well away from other car doors opening

Yes I am anal about my car, but proud to be so and if you see the condition it is in you will attest to that paying off!

[wannabe_GTI]

Maybe you brought the wrong car then, did you really expect it to be ultra cheap to service? It's a $45K+ performance car and not a small Japanese econo box.

Most cars still require a service every six months/10k and they're around $200-250 for a basic service with $30 of oil. Depending on the oil they're using in the GTI it would cost you $80-100 to buy it.

Ring around the other VW dealers, Highway is not that far away and will be cheaper then that and they have loan cars available (which is something you don't get with non dealer servicing generally). Call back this dealer and say you've been quoted $X at this dealer and can they match and see what happens.

There's another dealer on the NSW side of the coast isn't there?

And of course consider resale value and that VW/the dealer will be more likely to help out when you're out of warranty if you have a service history with VW.

I agree 100%. I don't mean to be rude but no one should be surprised when servicing their car. When you buy a car, the first things people should be checking is - how much to insure it and how much to to service it. All euro cars cost more to service. If you don't like the 30k service you'll need to sit down when you get quoted for a major service.

As Maverick said you need to remember when you want to sell the car (could be soon or years away) a lot of people ask if its been serviced at the dealer - I know I always do. I guess you pay a couple of thousand more over the life of the car, but you'll get a couple of thousand more when you sell it (from my experience of buying and selling).

I just had my 30k service done on my Golf GTI a month ago, 95% of the work done on the invoice was 'check ...'. So in short, virtually nothing was changed from memory apart from oil filter and some other little thing, most of it was them checking stuff. I honestly do understand where your coming from, its a rip off but it comes with the badge.

[brad]

Question is, does anyone else have any quotes (and dealerships) that would do this cheaper?

Might help if you didn't have your location as "Earth".

I agree 100%. I don't mean to be rude but no one should be surprised when servicing their car. When you buy a car, the first things people should be checking is - how much to insure it and how much to to service it. All euro cars cost more to service. .

I asked my dealership about service costs when I bought the car. Got it in writing and the prices seemed realistic. What they charge is about 25% more. When I questioned it, they replied that prices change and the figures quoted were an estimate rather than a quote.


To the OP: Not sure about a GTI but on the Skoda the 30,000km is an oil service plus a Pollen Filter & a few extra checks including intake inspection. Most likely they will want to flush the brake fluid too.
I was quoted $424.74 for all that but when I picked the car up it was only $270.35.

That makes my total service costs ~$450 for 30,000km / 14 months ownership which I think is fairly reasonable.

[Pharkus]

I did check the cost when purchasing and really the price is what it is. But it doesn't hurt to ask if there is any cheaper. I'm in Melbourne.

And the reason for asking really is that we are looking at potentially purchasing our third car from this dealership and I understand that the servicing is where they should be making most of their margin (correct me if I'm wrong).

Therefore, I would like to be looked after seeing as we will be having all three cars serviced there. Otherwise, prices being equal any other VW dealership, I will take both my business and servicing of my car elsewhere.

[Nathan_B]

My 30km service was $440

My 60k service (tommorow) is quoted around $1,400 which is expected due to being a major and most of the car is worked on incl the DSG service.