Audi Service - Dealer or not

Django x2 said:
How can we evidence this? Well, my local Audi dealer wanted to charge my friend £675 for his 2nd A5 service at 36k miles. He recalls being told that the servicing got cheaper as the car aged, so you can imagine he was pretty miffed. This, for an oil, filter, fuel filter, and, wait for it, gearbox oil change. An auto box, needing it's fluid changed at 36k miles? One more reason to avoid Audi, but I digress.

I pointed him towards a local Audi Indy, managed and run by two ex Audi Master Techs. Their price? £400. a quick ring back to the dealer saw them drop their price to £450 inc. Miraculous!! Perhaps this is how the dealers new £14m showroom is being funded. By the numerous suckers who truly, genuinely believe that FDSH is the only thing worth having.......
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Obviously you don't understand that some gearboxes do have to have their oil changed at a time interval because of the way they are engineered, even some Ford's have to and it's not cheap with S-Tronic gearboxes. The current a3 8v's I believe even have to as well. If you don't then you will risk a breakdown and a totally invalid warranty. It's your choice...
 
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For a new car I would just pay it and get the 'official' stamp.
Sure they are bending you over hard, but for at least the first few I would get it done through Audi , then choose whoever after that.
 
Django x2 said:
There are some here who swear blind that a full dealer service history is the only thing that will allow them to buy a used car because it somehow 110% guarantees that their car is 120% better than everyone else's. Quite frankly, they're retarded, clearly not short of cash, but very short of brain cells, and actually have no idea that Troy and Jerome, two year 10 students on work experience, will be the guys changing their oil whilst taking selfies in the drivers seat to "big up the crew, init"....
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You obviously don't quite understand the importance of the dealer service history. It's not that it guarantees a car is any more or less looked after than the next one, without the dealer history. But that it can play a big part in any goodwill payments potentially to be made outside of warranty. As in, if you don't have dealer history, you might get sweet FA.

You might still get nothing with dealer history, but you have a substantially increased chance of something if you do have it in place.

As for the OP's predicament, I would try to negotiate the best deal possible for an Audi service. At the end of the day, the A7 isn't a cheap car, and you could, potentially at least, end up trying to shift it on while it is still worth good money. I personally wouldn't buy a car like this that didn't even have at least the first service done by Audi. But ideally, I'd prefer to have them all done by Audi for the possibility of goodwill payments as I mentioned earlier.

Of course, I'm quite sure your local indy is very good. I know mine is. And I take my second car to him almost exclusively as a result. But I wouldn't dream of taking the 5 series to him so soon, but then I did get the 5 year service plan when I bought that one. But even when that's finished (which will be soon due to the mileage restriction), I would still likely be taking it to BMW until it's approximately 5 years old / 100k, after which point, it would be indy / do it myself.
 
xs2man said:
You obviously don't quite understand the importance of the dealer service history. It's not that it guarantees a car is any more or less looked after than the next one, without the dealer history. But that it can play a big part in any goodwill payments potentially to be made outside of warranty. As in, if you don't have dealer history, you might get sweet FA.
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This. They cant invalidate you new car warranty but you wont get any goodwill at if the car has been serviced outside of the dealer network at anytime time its life.

Ring around four of five dealers as they will always price match and the initial prices can vary massively.
 
Django x2 said:
This, for an oil, filter, fuel filter, and, wait for it, gearbox oil change. An auto box, needing it's fluid changed at 36k miles? One more reason to avoid Audi, but I digress.
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It's not an automatic box, it will be an S-Tronic which is a twin clutch automated manual. The pedantry matters here because whilst you'd be right to turn your nose up at changing the oil on a conventional autobox at 36k the S-tronic is a completely different piece of kit and *does* require regular gearbox fluid changes.
 
On a car of that age I wouldn't do a service at anything but a dealer, for warranty and resale value reasons. I would haggle for a better price though as it is possible.
 
fartingspartan said:
Thanks All - I will see if I can drive a hard bargain on the phone and see how far i get..

<snip>

Hey ho,I will see how I get on
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OP - I just saw add in today's Telegraph for this

It’s called the Audi Service Price Match. And it’s really simple. Get a quote from any provider for a service, repairs, maintenance or new tyres. If it includes Audi Genuine Parts, we guarantee you won’t pay a penny more for the same job at Audi. And that includes parts and labour. Our expertise, at local garage prices.

We will price match any like-for like written quote, using Audi Genuine Parts from any garage/repairer within a 15 mile radius of your Audi Authorised Repairer. Audi parts have a two year parts and labour warranty on parts fitted (excluding wear and tear items).
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Django x2 said:
There are some here who swear blind that a full dealer service history is the only thing that will allow them to buy a used car because it somehow 110% guarantees that their car is 120% better than everyone else's. Quite frankly, they're retarded, clearly not short of cash, but very short of brain cells, and actually have no idea that Troy and Jerome, two year 10 students on work experience, will be the guys changing their oil whilst taking selfies in the drivers seat to "big up the crew, init"....
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I did work experience in a VW garage 15 years ago, serviced quite a few new cars which were just oil + filters, dread to think what people paid for it!
 
Dandle said:
This. They cant invalidate you new car warranty but you wont get any goodwill at if the car has been serviced outside of the dealer network at anytime time its life.
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Sorry to say that is a complete myth.

I had my pistons and conrods replaced by the dealer at no cost to me (2010 A5 2.0TFSI). My last 2 full services were completed by independents who proved they follow Audi best practices.
 
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