Worth maintaining dealer service history?

[Pheo]

Buying a 55 Plate Seat Leon TDI 2.0 Sport at the moment. Just wondering if it is worth maintaining the dealer service history - which is full at the moement. Its due for a cambelt change at the moment, and it'd be about £300 at a normal garage, £450 at the main dealer.

Planning to keep the car for approx 3-4 years...

Thanks for your thoughts...

[J500ANT]

Haggle with them.

[Vic20]

Definitely worth maintaining dealer history for any car that's newer than 5 or 6 years. If you have any repair claim against the company, they will only consider goodwill if if's been fully dealer maintained to the schedule specified.

[bazking69]

Save your money and find a good Indy or VAG specialist to maintain it for the next few years.
The value of FMDSH over FSH will be nominal by the time you come to sell the car in a few years.

[skymaster]

What I do is have all the large services done by a specialist, when it needs any other work I also get them to do it (brakes etc etc). But once a year I call the Audi main dealer and ask them for the best possible deal on a basic lube service. which gets me a stamp in the book... I like to get the oil changed twice a year anyway... For an older car they can usually be persuaded to do a cheaper deal... often on the hope they can 'up sell' you some other work... Also gets checked for any recalls etc etc...

So when I come to sell it it will have a full set of Audi stamps in the book. It wont affect the value much... but will add to it's saleability.

[Colonial]

I've seen the monkeys at my local dealer (who are helpful it has to be said) and I would never trust my car with them.

I take it to a good indy - as does a friend with an Audi RS4 cab which is still under warranty.

[Pheo]

Cheers guys.

Have discovered several local independents. Will be going there I think. Dealer prices are nothing short of extortionate!

[caiss4]

Don't give up on the main dealers. I've just come up to the 3rd service for my Audi at 6 years old. First thoughts were it's well outside warranty so let's go independent. Phoned around and had quotes ranging from £350 to £470 for a service and brake fluid change; an indy was the cheapest.

Did a bit of haggling with the supplying dealer and got everything for £300 (an S4 needs a rude amount of oil that accounts for about a third of the cost!)

I just got the impression that in the current climate the main dealers are up for a haggle. This of course is no reflection on the quality of the guys with the spanners but to date this particular dealer hasn't caused me any concern.

[Jeffmaniac]

I have a 2001 Polo GTI with fvwsh.

Took my car into the local VW dealership as car had full vwsh when I bought it this year.

I asked for a full service with air con top up and was going to cost about £300.

Got a call the same day saying that they had found over £1000 of problems with the car saying the car was un-roadworthy... keep in mind the car had just had a new MOT a few weeks previous.

I asked to be shown around the car pointing out all of the problems. All of the problems were negligable like a new exhaust for £400 that had a small hole that some exhaust sealer would have sorted and new windscreen wipers that had been replaced the week before!

Will never trust a stealership again!

[Raven Flyer]

I'd prefer an Indy full service history every time. Main Dealer technicians are normally on minimum wage and the good ones leave and go to the Indies.