Comments on: Is main dealer servicing cost effective?

By: Jad Smith

Jad Smith — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:43:21 +0000

The real news is that VW will be bringing back the Phaeton after it pulled the model out of its U.S. lineup due to poor sales.

By: MR I JOGEE

MR I JOGEE — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:50:34 +0000

This is a very misleading and ill informed article!

Firstly, I am part garage owner of a small Independent BMW & MINI specialists in West Yorkshire.

Some important points to note (conveniently omiited!):

1.Public awareness of Block Exemption Regulations?????
2.The general public has had enough of the exorbitant main agent labour rates, we maintain cars within the warranty period, using OE or OE equivilent parts at often 50 percent of the dealer quoted price & all work is completed by trained, time served technicians!
Our workshop runs at capacity, whilst local dealers are struggling….
3.We have invested £s thousands in dealer / main agent level hardware, software with regular updates for ALL makes & models.
4. The current climate is showing already how defunct the current manufacturer / dealer business model is fast becoming…the public have been conned far too long on new car prices and general maintenence costs.
5. Used car prices are INCREASING , many cases without service book stamps!

By: Ben Boffin

Ben Boffin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:06:29 +0000

The whole engine management /abs/service/airbag light is cash cow for the manufacturers and main dealers, these lights are there to cause concern for the driver, aggro for non franchise dealers and profit for the main dealers with continually updating cheap software thats made extremely expensive or impossible for anyone outside to gain access to. I can tell you that it doesn’t need to be complicated to fix reset or diagnose but it is made this way in order to bring in money. Components such as ABS units are made to send out fault pulses even if there’s nothing fundamentally wrong. I should know I was an technical engineer for a well known manufacturer of electronic car components.

By: steve walsh

steve walsh — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:36:41 +0000

There is some good points here,`with regard to german cars i took a volkswagen touran in to a vw dealer when the abs light wouldnt go out,i was told it would cost mor than £1000 for a new unit,is this right or could an independant get one far cheaper? otherwise iam going into the abs unit business!!!