Servicing dealer or specialist?

[mikealpha60]

Just wondering what the consensus is on here regarding where you prefer to take you car when services are due.

I've previously owned a VAG vehicle and kept to dealer servicing until warranty expired then went to a local VAG specialist. I understand that these days sticking to dealers isn't as important as long as the servicing agent uses official VAG parts to comply with any warranty requirements should they crop up.

In my opinion VAG specialists (if you find the right one) offer the greatest service and in my case charge a lot less.

Dealers are way too expensive and don't offer the levels of customer care we'd appreciate.

The only problem is if you come to sell your car through the dealer the dealer stamps can count towards a stronger resale value (but don't know how true that is in reality). Secondly some folks out there may lack confidence if they find no dealer stamps too.

Personally if i saw specialist stamps throughout I would trust them more than the dealers.

Opinions appreciated.....

[Chungster]

depends on the dealer. i will not get it serviced by certain dealers cos i know the mechanics they have are numpties.

the main dealer i bought from and use for servicing is tops. so i will stick with them till warranty expires. I'm on a SMT plan anyway so need to use a VW dealer.

however i know a good inde garage too which i'll use for any non servicing work.

[Grampa]

Going on the experiences of 'buying' the car (it's on contract hire, so I didn't really buy it) I would much rather go back to the supplying dealer - they were head and shoulders above the local place. Trouble is they're 210 miles away compared to 12 miles away, so I will most likely reluctantly go to the local place. Were there a local specialist, then I would undoubtedly use those.

As to service history for future buyers - when I bought my daughter's Mini, I asked the seller if it had full BMW service history.

"Better than that he said," and produced the a service book full of stamps from a AC Schnitzer specialist. That was more than good enough for me.

[maisbitt]

When negotiating buying my Roc and trading in a Golf GT Sport TDI 170, I was just asked if the Golf had full service history, they didn't ask where the service was done (it had only needed 1 service) and so it had no impact on the part-ex price where the servicing had been done.

The service itself had been done at a Nissan dealer for £115, as opposed to the £199 that my local VW dealer had wanted. I don't even think the VW dealer got to see the service book until handover of the Golf and collection of the Roc.

I personally think the "it'll affect the used value if you don't get your services done by us" line is a scare tactic, they know that VW can't insist that the servicing is done at a VW dealer, so they try other means to coerce you into letting them service the car you bought from them.

Not having a VW service history might affect what certain people will pay privately for the car in the future, but from my experience, it has no effect on part ex value at a VW dealer, nor the value of the stickered price they'll apply to your part-ex when they sell it.

[wigit]

if the likes of APS, JKM, VWR,AMD tunred up in the book i would be more content it had been looked after properly, if VW diagnostic computer doesn't say no VW seem to lose their way and not result to mechanics