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Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: ExeNS on 10 February 2021, 12:50
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This is something I'll need to decide later this year, so I'm interested to hear the opinion of the forum.
The car is a 63 plate manual pp, 60k miles and it's had 8 main dealer services stamped up. I've been using a local VW group specialist for my previous car, who I think have been doing a decent job (VWS Exeter, would be pleased to hear opinions if any local forum members have different feedback). I expect I will probably take it to them when the time comes, as I think the car is a little old now for the full main dealer history to have a real effect on resale, but keen to hear thoughts.
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I’d be using the independent VW specialist.
As you’ve said, a full VW dealer service history won’t make a difference to resale value, and if you’ve found a good, trusted independent, there’s a good chance they’ll do a better job of maintaining your car than the VW dealer would - and charge less too.
Car looks great by the way (just seen your other discussion thread with photos). Enjoy it! :smiley:
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Have a look at an indie but check the main dealer prices vs them.... some people who claim to be indie VW can be just as expensive...
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Have a look at an indie but check the main dealer prices vs them.... some people who claim to be indie VW can be just as expensive...
^^
Very well known vw group indie in the Midlands charged almost exactly the same as main dealer when i used them for my Seat.
Whoever you use will make no difference to value, as long as there’s evidence the car has been properly maintained.
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I would echo everyone else's comments. If you're keeping the car for a good while, you'll get little benefit from the full VW history at resale time.
As Fred says though, always pricecheck the indie against main dealers, sometimes there's not much in it.
And always keep your own record of any work done, whether at an indie or not.
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I’ve known Matt Smith of Volkscraft in Exeter since forever (and worked with his dad too once upon a time!) and can vouch for them as a really good indie (and REVO dealer too :whistle: ), but they’re very busy due to their excellent reputation. A friend of mine has his Mk5 in there almost every other month getting something done to it. They use all OEM parts and have great knowledge of performance VW/Audi/SEAT/Skoda cars. They’re not cheap but they’re good, very good.
But if you wish to keep VW history then VW Exeter will charge lower rates to match.
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Very good point there raised by Exonian. Always check with the indie if they are using genuine OEM parts.
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I'd pay more at a good indie rather than go to VW. Trust is worth a premium.
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Worth checking out a VW Commercial Vehicles garage if you have one near, you still get a VW stamp but in my experience their hourly rate is lower as they don't pay for fancy showrooms, they've always been very down to earth and have helped with getting parts replaced under goodwill.
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Little off topic sorry :wink: what mileage do ye allow between service as book a little confusing?
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Little off topic sorry :wink: what mileage do ye allow between service as book a little confusing?
It will depend on whether your car is set to time/distance servicing regime or longlife servicing regime. You can see when your next service is due by going into the settings submenu on the MIB screen.
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Thanks all for your thoughts - trusted indie it is!
Thanks Exonian for the recommendation too, I hadn't come across Volkscraft before so will definitely check them out when the time comes.
Little off topic sorry :wink: what mileage do ye allow between service as book a little confusing?
I'll be going for 10k miles or 1 year. I tend to do about 8k miles a year, so expect it will be annual for me.
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Little off topic sorry :wink: what mileage do ye allow between service as book a little confusing?
On my mk5 it seems like it's every 3k miles, on the mk7 I do every 5-6k miles.
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Should be quite clear from the service book but failing that, just look at the car itself, it will tell you how long until the next service.
It's definitely not 5 or 6k...I've had Ducatis with a longer service interval than that and a volkswagen is definitely not a temperamental Italian superbike.
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In my mind using a local garage is as good or better than a VW one. First of all they don't massively over charge you and often the mechanics have more experience. Dealer often have apprentices that get given the smaller/simple jobs VS experiment mechanics at a local garage.
Another thing and I don't know how common this is or if it's just certain manufacturers. A relative of mine was told by his mechanic that the Peugeot dealer doesn't use genuine parts once the car is out of warranty, but he will order genuine parts from them. Sure enough, he called the garage up and asked if they use genuine parts for repairs once the cars out of warranty. The woman on the phone confirmed that they use 'as good as genuine' parts once it's out of warranty. Sounds like a cost cutting thing to me to make their profits bigger
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With Peugeot I'd doubt very much if you could say that any parts are "genuine". They are infamous for swapping suppliers and even versions of parts as cars are slapped together on the assembly line.
I've never seen so much craziness as trying to find replacement parts for a Peugeot.
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Should be quite clear from the service book but failing that, just look at the car itself, it will tell you how long until the next service.
It's definitely not 5 or 6k...I've had Ducatis with a longer service interval than that and a volkswagen is definitely not a temperamental Italian superbike.
I'm not saying everyone has to do 5/6K servicing, I just do it as I like fresh oil in the car. I think last year my car had 4 oil changes :whistle:
Every 10k is suitable for most people, I just don't understand people doing 20k servicing...
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20k servicing is for high mileage.... its the long life service interval and its the standard one set on all Mk7 golfs. Its 20k or every 12 months, whichever comes soonest (mine actually is currently b!tching about a service in 20 days despite me having done about 2k since last service!)
And the oil used for long life is the same one as is used for the low mileage annual interval.
If you are someone using a car for 20k miles a year (which I am), you aren't keeping it forever (unless you are nuts) and during its limited life with you its not going to cause any issues and even if it does, VW warranty will cover it.
On average, UK cars have a 10 year life...and will be built with this in mind.
You just have to think about it like that.
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Every 10k is suitable for most people, I just don't understand people doing 20k servicing...
If the oil is suitable then there is nothing wrong with longlife servicing. I had a new Audi A4 in 2003, ran it on the variable servicing which worked out at about 20 month intervals (or about 14k miles). I sold the car in 2015 to a friend who is still using it. Not sure on current mileage but well over 100k by now.
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Every 10k is suitable for most people, I just don't understand people doing 20k servicing...
If the oil is suitable then there is nothing wrong with longlife servicing. I had a new Audi A4 in 2003, ran it on the variable servicing which worked out at about 20 month intervals (or about 14k miles). I sold the car in 2015 to a friend who is still using it. Not sure on current mileage but well over 100k by now.
Agreed, use the correct oil and service as soon as the car tells you to. Should be fine.
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The other thing to mention is that the vehicle is designed to work like this.... and servicing is literally an oil change and general visual inspection.
Modern fully synthetic oils aren't like some 1980's product, they are stable and good for a very much longer time - hence VW saying you don't need to replace that often.
The rest of the "service" you used to do in the 20th century was also as a result of poorly designed parts and what we now see as inferior chemical technology.
Time has moved on, save your hand wringing for some classic car built by communists in Birmingham (assuming they weren't on strike that week) that sits in a puddle of oil in your garage and refuses to start without you spraying into the carb with WD40.
Its not mechanical insensitivity, its just modern cars vs old ones.
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20k servicing is for high mileage.... its the long life service interval and its the standard one set on all Mk7 golfs. Its 20k or every 12 months, whichever comes soonest (mine actually is currently b!tching about a service in 20 days despite me having done about 2k since last service!)
And the oil used for long life is the same one as is used for the low mileage annual interval.
If you are someone using a car for 20k miles a year (which I am), you aren't keeping it forever (unless you are nuts) and during its limited life with you its not going to cause any issues and even if it does, VW warranty will cover it.
On average, UK cars have a 10 year life...and will be built with this in mind.
You just have to think about it like that.
Fairly sure the flexible servicing is up to 18k miles or 2 years. Whichever comes first. Although the service light can come on sooner depending on how it's been driven.
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Fairly sure the flexible servicing is up to 18k miles or 2 years. Whichever comes first. Although the service light can come on sooner depending on how it's been driven.
It could be, I don't really know. I just go by the computer telling me when it thinks it needs a service!
Thinking about it, I've had the car almost 4 years and it definitely has had 3 services (2 were on the service pack and I had to pay for the last one) and is due the 4th one in 20 days.
All except the last 12 months, its had 20k on the clock each year.
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The other thing to mention is that the vehicle is designed to work like this.... and servicing is literally an oil change and general visual inspection.
Modern fully synthetic oils aren't like some 1980's product, they are stable and good for a very much longer time - hence VW saying you don't need to replace that often.
The rest of the "service" you used to do in the 20th century was also as a result of poorly designed parts and what we now see as inferior chemical technology.
Time has moved on, save your hand wringing for some classic car built by communists in Birmingham (assuming they weren't on strike that week) that sits in a puddle of oil in your garage and refuses to start without you spraying into the carb with WD40.
Its not mechanical insensitivity, its just modern cars vs old ones.
I understand where you're coming from but I always buy a car in the view that it will last me a long time so I see shorter service intervals as good maintenance for the long term.
But while we can say the people that designed the engine know best, time and time again manufacturers have built cars in ways that aren't durable (haldex filter springs to mind).
Cars are designed to last 10 years with the exception of land cruisers etc which are built for 25 years which also have a service interval of every 5k miles/6 months :wink:
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Are cars really only designed to last 10 years? I know many owners change their cars for a brand new replacement every three years or more frequently and that’s what car manufacturers want us to do, but I see quite a few pre-2011 registered cars on the roads around where I live.
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Are cars really only designed to last 10 years? I know many owners change their cars for a brand new replacement every three years or more frequently and that’s what car manufacturers want us to do, but I see quite a few pre-2011 registered cars on the roads around where I live.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/
That's a bit more than 10 years, i slightly exagerated but not a lot really.
Makes you think though doesn't it. Expensive purchase, turned into razor blades in a blink of an eye.
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Are cars really only designed to last 10 years? I know many owners change their cars for a brand new replacement every three years or more frequently and that’s what car manufacturers want us to do, but I see quite a few pre-2011 registered cars on the roads around where I live.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/
That's a bit more than 10 years, i slightly exagerated but not a lot really.
Makes you think though doesn't it. Expensive purchase, turned into razor blades in a blink of an eye.
"Built to last 10 years" is probably a deceiving term, really it's 10 years or so when they start requiring more maintenance, eg shocks starting to wear out. Plenty of good cars that will last much longer Honda Accord springs to mind.
It's probably worse for us in the UK as we have a real fear of high mileage cars eg 70-90k, but in Germany they're hitting 200k.
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If Germans don't mind being stranded somewhere with a broken car its probably a reflection of their usage of cars or something.
In the UK we lack credible alternative transportation mechanisms other than your car.
Other than poor students, nobody runs a banger here. Actually that's not true, there was a guy from my work who used to buy five hundred quid cars and run them until they broke. He was convinced that it was cheaper than even buying 3/4 year old cars. Maybe he was right, but all I can tell you was that very often he failed to get to work on time if at all.
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Ive ran a leon mk1 for 16 years. Never let me down. :undecided:
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If Germans don't mind being stranded somewhere with a broken car its probably a reflection of their usage of cars or something.
In the UK we lack credible alternative transportation mechanisms other than your car.
Other than poor students, nobody runs a banger here. Actually that's not true, there was a guy from my work who used to buy five hundred quid cars and run them until they broke. He was convinced that it was cheaper than even buying 3/4 year old cars. Maybe he was right, but all I can tell you was that very often he failed to get to work on time if at all.
I would view it as they are a lot more competent in regular car maintenance and don't see the requirement for changing a car every 3/4 years.
There's plenty of bangers about , it's just they don't look like bangers, I regularly drive sub-£2k cars with 100k+ on them and they don't look or drive like one at all.
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Cars can run a lot longer than they do. If the will is there to maintain them.
Just replace the bits that need replacing and keep running them.
I’ve run many cars to high mileage and none of them I would describe as unreliable as they got older.
It’s the unloved older cars that become unreliable.
Quite interesting to check the MOT/ tax history of your old cars to see how long they survived
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My OH's Lupo turns 18 in April, we've had it from new and admittedly it's not done many miles nor has it many 'features' to go wrong but it has been extremely reliable. The only significant failure was the pedal box which VW built in a weakness so that you wouldn't damage your feet in an accident but unfortunately years of depressing the clutch pedal breaks the spot welds... Otherwise, amazing car! Definitely wouldn't call it an old banger :laugh:
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We had a 18 year old Ford for some time here.
Had it from 3 years old.
Really low mileage added to it (maybe sub 3k a year) and only replaced tyres, wipers...I had the mass air blow up on me a couple of years before we got rid of it. When the person who bought it from us drove away one of the cooling pipes let go about 2 miles up the road. Typical.
It was just a matter of time before stuff started failing though, not through use but just through age.
Who knows what else would have started rotting to bits.
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Mileage never feels relevant as a measure on it's own, it's what those miles were that counts. I'd much rather buy a car with 100k miles on it if those were mostly on the motorway, than one with 20k miles if those were mostly in the city.
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Are the people not using VW using specialists or just their local backstreet garage?
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I get the long life oil technology, but servicing is, or should be more that just an oil change.
How many people going 2 years between services get under their cars and check for split cv gators for example? A stick could pierce one on the way home from collecting it when brand new. That could be 2 years of grease escaping and being replaced with dust and grit forming a grinding paste on the end of the driveshaft.
Servicing used to refer to preventative maintenance, nowadays it's just a case of fitting a few parts and changing fluids.