Dealers or independent garage for servicing?

gaffer1986

Active Member
My car's service light has come on for only the second time on my 2014 Leon FR 1.4 TSI with nearly 37,000 miles on the clock.

Been quoted by the main dealer £279 inc VAT, which includes oil, air filter and spark plugs.

Sounds mega expensive to me, I've had my car serviced with them for ages but starting to get fed up with cost considering I could do the work so easily myself.

Does anyone recommend using an independent over the main dealer? Or does it need a special computer to reset the long life service interval? Also would my warranty be affected?

Thanking any responses in advanced!

Richard
 

DEAN0

Old Git
Feb 1, 2006
5,288
300
Preston - UK
My car's service light has come on for only the second time on my 2014 Leon FR 1.4 TSI with nearly 37,000 miles on the clock.

Been quoted by the main dealer £279 inc VAT, which includes oil, air filter and spark plugs.

Sounds mega expensive to me, I've had my car serviced with them for ages but starting to get fed up with cost considering I could do the work so easily myself.

Does anyone recommend using an independent over the main dealer? Or does it need a special computer to reset the long life service interval? Also would my warranty be affected?

Thanking any responses in advanced!

Richard

Legally - you can use any VAT registered independent as long as they use approved parts.
Your warranty would still be valid.

However

IF you had an issue just outside warranty - it would be looked upon move favourably with dealer service history.

Also

You extend the breakdown cover by another year with an official dealer service.

And don't forget that the three year warranty is 2 years seat and 1 year dealer based
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
On our last car, a Mazda6, I did virtually all of the servicing myself from the start. Dealer servicing charges are very inflated and doing your own will save you a lot of money in the long run.

The caveat is that you need to be competent to do the work and accept that warranty issues might be tricky. I was blessed in that I never had any. I've owned a few Japanese cars so felt it was worth the risk.

I'll probably be getting the Seat serviced at the dealer's for a while ;0)
 

JMAC

Active Member
Feb 18, 2015
652
3
Legally - you can use any VAT registered independent as long as they use approved parts.
Your warranty would still be valid.

However

IF you had an issue just outside warranty - it would be looked upon move favourably with dealer service history.

Also

You extend the breakdown cover by another year with an official dealer service.

And don't forget that the three year warranty is 2 years seat and 1 year dealer based


Not sure I'd agree with it helping your case with problems just outside of warranty - Seat are incapable of sorting out problems when your car is well within warranty. The less I have to deal with their dealer network, the better.

Back to the OP - independent specialist gets my vote. Less than half the price of the dealer service costs and IME they seem more competent, e.g; they are proper mechanics rather than 'technicians' (read "if there's no fault code then I don't know what to do").
 

gaffer1986

Active Member
Well I've had a quote from a local independent and they're charging £330 inc VAT which is even more!

My car has the 5 year 90K warranty from new, not sure if that's SEAT or the dealer?

Does anyone recommend a good independent that would do if for less in the north Essex south Suffolk area?

I think the £229 price is for second year, not long life plan.
 

marty_34

Active Member
Apr 21, 2012
1,183
2
TEESSIDE
ask the dealer for your loyalty discount if you used them for a while

as per previous comments Seat are sometimes incapable of doing things right....hence i sold mine 2 weeks ago
 

tommy918

Active Member
Mar 4, 2011
174
0
North London
Hi gaffer have you tried amd in essex i took my mk2 lcr there for all its servicing and work they are very good.I will be taking my mk3 there as well for any work and servicing.
 

niggle

Rollin' on 17s, baby!
Jan 28, 2014
459
3
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Legally - you can use any VAT registered independent as long as they use approved parts.
Your warranty would still be valid.

However

IF you had an issue just outside warranty - it would be looked upon move favourably with dealer service history.
^ This. I approached our local Skoda franchise to perform the 1st annual service on our Leon as the dealership has a very good reputation. They advised me that whilst they would certainly appreciate our business we would be better off using the SEAT dealer network if we were planning to keep the car for more than three years and expecting goodwill from SEAT in the event of a premature failure.
 

gaffer1986

Active Member
I was quoted by a local VW specialist £230 including VAT. I will pay the extra £50 and go the dealer as not a big enough saving to warrant using someone else.

Also when I had my brakes replaced the mechanic said both my front shock absorbers are leaking oil so hopefully they will get this done under warranty also.

Thanks for your replies.
 

JDandCoke

Full Member
Apr 28, 2015
97
0
Colchester
I was quoted by a local VW specialist £230 including VAT. I will pay the extra £50 and go the dealer as not a big enough saving to warrant using someone else.

Also when I had my brakes replaced the mechanic said both my front shock absorbers are leaking oil so hopefully they will get this done under warranty also.

Thanks for your replies.

Hi gaffer
I presume you are using the dealer up Bergholt Road. Do they provide a good service? Any problems with them? They will be my local dealer when I get my new Leon soon. The next nearest ones are Ipswich or Braintree.
 

verbal_kint

Active Member
Apr 15, 2010
639
31
North West Kent
It's not as simple as dealer or indy. In the main I would go with indy as they have more to lose from poor customer service. But I have experienced some shocking service from both types such as all wheel nuts only hand tight and a £2400 quote I got fixed for £300.
When you do find a good one it is well worth staying with them.

I deal with garages throughout the south east and would use perhaps a handful on my car.

Unfortunately near you I can only echo that I have heard good things about AMD.
 
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