3rd service

[Rockbox]

Hi.
My Leon is due a service soon and I was thinking of taking it to the local vw dealership as it's a lot closer to me approx 10 mile round trip as apposed to 60 mile nearest seat dealer.
I would expect that they use the same parts oil and filters the mechanics I guess do the same training and the price is the same £175.
My main concern is when that are supposed to plug you car into the computer to check for updates and safety stuff is it the same software and will a vw computer pick up any seat problems.

Thanks.

 

[DEAN0]

The computer they use will connect directly to the central VAG computer in Germany.
Any updates will be logged by chassis number so they should get done just like a SEAT dealer would do them

 

[eltawater]

The only things I would caution you about depends on whether you own your car and whether you have an eye on resale value or manufacturer goodwill out of warranty.

Sometimes it helps to say you have full Seat service history.

I found it a bit more shaky when trading my old mk2 in as i had a mix of Seat and Skoda service history.

 

[Adrian300]

VW machines wont have access to Seat servers unfortunately, a VW dealer only has the VW licence. I have worked at vw skoda and audi in aftersales and every vag brand is the same. The service will carried out will be the same though.

The only thing i would add is if you plan to keep your car after its warranty period. If anything goes wrong and you are after any sort of goodwill from the brand (SEAT UK) you wont qualify as the 1st criteria to meet is a full main dealer service history according to manual and in this instance SEAT. You get goodwill upto 5 yrs old. Seat UK may offer it, if you kick up a big enough fuss but its not guaranteed. I have previously only had 1 case where they have offered if where a customer took a vw to an audi main dealer for a service. This is due to different pots that the money goes to and comes out of.

Hth

Adrian

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[black_sheep]

VW machines wont have access to Seat servers unfortunately, a VW dealer only has the VW licence. I have worked at vw skoda and audi in aftersales and every vag brand is the same. The service will carried out will be the same though.

The only thing i would add is if you plan to keep your car after its warranty period. If anything goes wrong and you are after any sort of goodwill from the brand (SEAT UK) you wont qualify as the 1st criteria to meet is a full main dealer service history according to manual and in this instance SEAT. You get goodwill upto 5 yrs old. Seat UK may offer it, if you kick up a big enough fuss but its not guaranteed. I have previously only had 1 case where they have offered if where a customer took a vw to an audi main dealer for a service. This is due to different pots that the money goes to and comes out of.

Hth

Adrian

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^ This.

One strange point though is that any of the VAG dealers in Germany can see what is on file, including servicing and repairs from UK, but the UK system struggles to see what has been done by a franchised dealer in a different part of the country.

They also have express service centres for all of the VAG brands either attached or separate to the main dealer.

 

[The Daily Meme]

VW machines wont have access to Seat servers unfortunately, a VW dealer only has the VW licence. I have worked at vw skoda and audi in aftersales and every vag brand is the same. The service will carried out will be the same though.

The only thing i would add is if you plan to keep your car after its warranty period. If anything goes wrong and you are after any sort of goodwill from the brand (SEAT UK) you wont qualify as the 1st criteria to meet is a full main dealer service history according to manual and in this instance SEAT. You get goodwill upto 5 yrs old. Seat UK may offer it, if you kick up a big enough fuss but its not guaranteed. I have previously only had 1 case where they have offered if where a customer took a vw to an audi main dealer for a service. This is due to different pots that the money goes to and comes out of.

Hth

Adrian

Sent from my GM1913 using Tapatalk

Wouldn't that depend on what other franchises that dealership is part of? Take Marshalls for example. they have franchises in nearly every major car brand. Infact they have Seat, Skoda, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Nissan, Hundaiand Peugeot on the same indusrial estate in Cambridge

Edit: Just seen they also have Suzuki

In addition to that, they also have a Lockheed "garage" there. They service the C-130 Hercules at Marshalls Airfield

 

[Adrian300]

Unfortunately no as goodwill comes from brand uk. In this case Seat UK. As mentioned before this was my previous job. There is 3 types of goodwill, factory goodwill, customer service goodwill (Seat UK). And the dealer themselves.

The company i worked for was Sytner who are one of the largest and had nearly all premium brands. But each dealer has their own pots of money and accounts. Even if a customer took their Seat 1 mile down the Road to either VW or Audi for one if their services you wouldnt get any goodwill from factory. And 99.9% u wouldnt get any from Seat UK. Bearing in mind Sytner owned all 3 in Huddersfield until few months ago selling Seat to Pentagon group.

I am just wanting to clarify the criterias and to make people aware as it isnt something VAG promote or advertise regarding the goodwill criteria.

So back to applying for goodwill... If a car is 4 years old and eg turbo has failed. I would check service history and then check on the system with the codes and it comes back with any goodwill from factory. E.g. if system comes back as 50% parts and labour goodwill. As a dealer if the customer is loyal and had all maintanence work done with us 9 times outta 10 we would help. So we could contribute 15% and customer services (Seat UK) would match that. So total goodwill would be 80% leaving customer with 20% of the total bill.

Something else to bear in mind is, it is always better to even pay 1% of the total bill as you get the 2 yr warranty on the job. If its 100% goodwill and the same part fails again it wont be covered, unless its a workmanship issue. Then the dealer themselves have to rectify.

Does this make sense lol??

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[RUM4MO]

I'd think also it will be due to each marque's official importer into UK, some of the official importers of individual car marques into UK for privately owned, VW AG currently own VW UK but that was not always the owner, Tiny Rolland used to own the company that imported VW vehicles into UK, I can't comment for any other VW Group brand importers into UK.

 

[Rockbox]

Thanks for the responses I'm not to sure as to what I'm going to do with the car new Leon out soon might chop it in for one of them I do quite like the new golf so not sure yet might get a 3year old cupra.
I do own the car it has dealer history so I might just go and have a day out at a seat dealer.
Thanks again.

 

[cupra14]

This reads like VAG actively do things against the best interests of car owners - hardly likely to encourage people to buy! Even the perception they behave as indicated is liable to put people off.

 

[Yern]

^ This.

One strange point though is that any of the VAG dealers in Germany can see what is on file, including servicing and repairs from UK, but the UK system struggles to see what has been done by a franchised dealer in a different part of the country.

Can we stop this happening after Brexit?

 

[BoomerBoom]

This reads like VAG actively do things against the best interests of car owners - hardly likely to encourage people to buy! Even the perception they behave as indicated is liable to put people off.

It's the same as every other commercial interest, insurance renewal is a great example, they don't care about customers they just want as much of your money for as little effort as possible.

Best to treat them the same, shop around on line and ignore dealers - get the cheapest lease (which is usually less than the depreciation you'd lose if you bought it) do the absolute minimum flexi service at an independent then hand it back and repeat.

 

[cupra14]

That's one way but for me the next time I want a car it will be a negative against VAG (and any other maker I find behaves as badly).

 

[RUM4MO]

That's one way but for me the next time I want a car it will be a negative against VAG (and any other maker I find behaves as badly).

Trouble is, you are normally buying a new car from an official dealer for that brand, it is up to them to "see you okay" if things go wrong, typically they are so commercially orientated that unless they can be 100% certain that the UK based marque importer will refund them all monies spent in sorting things out, then they will just not do anything FOC, similarly the UK based marque importer will do likewise with the marque brand - same with anything, you would need to be paying well over the odds so that the local official dealer had a fat wad of cash from each sale to put aside to cover any/all unfortunate spend required due to failure outside the official warranty period.

 

[cupra14]

With the state of the car market, maybe some more will go broke and the rest will improve their attitude

Handing a car back is one way to really concentrate their minds I think...