Returning lease, service question

[Pookie123]

Hi all,

Returning my Touareg in July, oil inspection has just come up and VW want to charge me £750 carry this out. Can you go to an independent dealer to be serviced?

VWFS website seems a bit vague… “ It is your responsibility as the hirer to ensure the vehicle is serviced at the manufacturer's recommended intervals by an authorised Volkswagen Retailer or Volkswagen approved repairer”.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any advice would be appreciated.

[blue_haddock]

Under block exemption rules as long as its done with OE parts to the OE schedule it should be ok.

However some lease companies do stipulate it has to be a franchised dealer do the service.

[Auto810graphy]

Check the damage matrix but I think it’s cheaper to hand back overdue as from memory the no service history penalty is only £500, that’s if they spot it and charge you.

[Mark V GTD]

I’ve returned a VWFS vehicle early to avoid the service charges. They charge 50% of the outstanding amount. So in the last few months can be cheaper to just hand it back and get a new one.

[240Cup]

What about if the service light rather annoyingly comes on (flexible/long life servicing intervals) a few weeks before hand back and at the recorded mileage it is 'theoretically' due the full monty (plugs etc) but an oil change inspection would ostensibly count as 'a service' and also turn the light off?

[Mark V GTD]

So long as the car isn’t saying ‘service now’ you are ok at the point of hand back.

[Rough101]

blue_haddock said:

Under block exemption rules as long as its done with OE parts to the OE schedule it should be ok.

However some lease companies do stipulate it has to be a franchised dealer do the service.

For warranty yes, but not if it’s in the lease T&C’s,

[Pookie123]

Thanks for the reply’s. It has come up on the dash hence me needing to get it done. Just can’t work out if I can go to an independent as long as it’s official parts and stamp the book.

[Rough101]

Pookie123 said:

Thanks for the reply’s. It has come up on the dash hence me needing to get it done. Just can’t work out if I can go to an independent as long as it’s official parts and stamp the book.

I think VWFS want it back with a full dealer history so it’s easier to punt as a used car.

I had this with Mercedes Benz a few years ago, one offer I had to use the network for servicing, the other, slightly cheaper I didn’t. In the end I too, the former and a service plan.

Different finance companies have different requirements, I’d check out the difference in cost in your case, it might not be that much.

[IJWS15]

Read the lease terms, that is what matters.

You should have kept an eye on miles to service over the last month or so if you didn’t want to pay for it.

I don’t lease anymore as they are getting too expensive, probably because the lease companies are recovering the cost of all the fiddles that people pull in the lease.