Supply own oil for a price price service for VW service

[RC1]

I expect the answer is no but has anyone done it and is there a reduction in the fixed price? Im thinking of getting the oil myself from my local TPS but not sure if they allow it and if they do whether it makes economic sense given that they prob don't have much margin on the stuff themselves anyways

[KungFuPanda]

Surely with fixed priced servicing, the price is pretty reasonable anyway and the margins will be low. So if you bring your own oil, the savings will be negligible?

Audi are offering to do a major service on an S6 with ten platinum spark plugs for £375 all in. The plugs alone are around £80 on EBay.

[Chippo1]

Had a service recently and the bill showed oil as a costed item , £90 for 5 litres of Castrol Edge Professional , despite what they say it's a standard spec Castrol oil and can be had for as little as £40 , I went ballistic about the price. Clearly a dealer ship will buy the stuff in 45 gallon drums for considerably less than even £45 for 5 litres .


I asked and it was fine to supply own oil and the bill be reduced by £90

The bar stewards also tried to charge for agreed warranty item .

So carefully check your. Invoice to !

Edited by Chippo1 on Friday 21st November 19:49

[CarlT]

Chippo1 said:

Had a service recently and the bill showed oil as a costed item , £90 for 5 litres of Castrol Edge Professional , despite what they say it's a standard spec Castrol oil and can be had for as little as £40 , I went ballistic about the price. Clearly a dealer ship will buy the stuff in 45 gallon drums for considerably less than even £45 for 5 litres .


I asked and it was fine to supply own oil and the bill be reduced by £90

The bar stewards also tried to charge for agreed warranty item .

So carefully check your. Invoice to !

Edited by Chippo1 on Friday 21st November 19:49

Of course they will buy it cheaper, they are a business and need to make a profit you know...

[J12KJR]

CarlT said:

Of course they will buy it cheaper, they are a business and need to make a profit you know...

I think we all appreciate they are there to make a profit but 100% plus does take the rise.
Also if the Seat garage that service my Leon are anything to go by they don't even manage to actually have the level at the max mark on the dipstick after a service anyway.

[Chippo1]

Did I not realise that , I already said that even fro. Other retailers there is a mark up of 100%, then clearly if you take into account buying in bulk containers the mark up is more than 100% , considerably more.

If you list these things on an invoice as separate items then you must expect to have the prices questioned when it is fairly obvious the charge is to say the least high .

I would any one who is in the least bit savvy and worldly wise would question this sort of thing , but maybe not those taken in by the glass and steel edifice that purports to be the average Audi dealer , marketing over substance that lots fall for .

[Patch1875]

Huge margins in bulk oil for dealers when I was in the trade we sold Mobil 1 for 7 quid a litre, we paid £1.

[Sheepshanks]

Chippo1 said:

Had a service recently and the bill showed oil as a costed item , £90 for 5 litres of Castrol Edge Professional , despite what they say it's a standard spec Castrol oil and can be had for as little as £40 , I went ballistic about the price. Clearly a dealer ship will buy the stuff in 45 gallon drums for considerably less than even £45 for 5 litres .


I asked and it was fine to supply own oil and the bill be reduced by £90

I've never considered it on our VAG cars, but when I got my Merc, the dealer suggested it, and reading Merc forums it seems common. On first service it reduced the bill by slightly over £100.

From a business POV it seems weird to me that they'll chuck away the profit on the oil - they didn't even make an oil disposal charge.

These days I negotiate a price up front for servicing and try not to look at the individual line item pricing on the invoice - I don't care how they arrive at the total as long as it's the same as we agreed.