What's your experience with dealers?

[itavaltalainen]

Just had the first service on my car and was less than impressed with service from the dealer I went to (Listers VW Worcester)....

Normal major service was carried out ok as far as I can tell but bit annoyed with them...

Told them radio was not remembering which song it played (mp3), i.e. would not continue if you stopped, locked car and got back in again or would go to radio when it was on mp3.... unfortunately intermittent issue.... they said the fault memory was empty (when isn't it?!) and did not even update the firmware, despite the fact that this issue must be known to them already (sure there's a TPI somewhere since I heard a few people complaining about the discover media doing this)....

Secondly (actually the bigger issue), they refused to give me a courtesy car despite one being available because I don't have a UK licence..... Even phoned their service manager and they said it's their policy to only give courtesy cars to UK driving licence holders - but I could get my own (fully comp!) insurance for the courtesy car, then it'd be OK. Yeah right....
Never mind that the courtesy car would have been a VW Up! and I drive a fully spec'd Golf GT estate (just shy of 30k£ list price). With my old car, a CR-V, Startin Honda gave me a courtesy car with no issues whatsoever and made sure to give me an equal model....

Anyone else have experiences like this? I find that VW garages vary more than any other marques.... some of them seem to be fairly arrogant, some others (usually the smaller ones) seem better? What's your experience?
Might even turn my back on VW after this car (after owning quite a few of them!).

After this episode phoned South Hereford VW - who seemed much nicer and said it was no issue to drive one of their cars as long as I have a licence that allows me to drive in the UK... so I shall be taking my car there for service from now on. Hoping they'll also fix the DM issue on next service (which is only in about 4-5 months as I do 40k+ miles a year, so Listers will loose out on the estimated 1500£ service costs for the remainder of the lease over the next 2 years)...
 

[Jimble]

Dealers vary massively, Hereford have told you it's no problem to use their courtesy car so take it to them, i'll bet there is more than one Honda dealership that would say the same as Listers? does it really matter what courtesy car they have? It's only for a few hours, what you drive makes no difference as they can't always have a high spec car to loan out, i'll take anything if it means i don't need to catch the bus!!

[itavaltalainen]

I will take it to Hereford the next time

Was p'd off because Listers would not give me ANY car because I have an Finnish (full licence, EU type, allows me to drive in UK) and not UK licence.... and their service guy saying they won't change it thou he said they recently had problems with more and more people turning up with EU licences

The Up would have been OK in this case, but due to nature of my job I may need a loan car the same size as mine. In the past I usually phoned dealers before service (arranged by lease company) and told them that I am ok with a small car or that I need an estate depending if I had a job for the day or not.

PS: This is the first dealership that had an issue with me having an EU licence..... and I went to a fair few for test drives when choosing my current car (not Listers thou).

[Gordor]

I guess looking at your mileage, you're not even in the office one day a week when you can use the collect and return service?

[itavaltalainen]

Nope, usually out 5 days a week.... and not just round the corner either

Despite all this I do love the car - goes like hell

[Gordor]

Yep....I love it too. It's soon much better than the A4 I had before. Have you read the : Topic: GTD acceleration responsiveness? I swear it makes a big difference to the car switching modes when on the go.

[itavaltalainen]

Yes, did read that.... for most my driving am happy with engine in 'normal' mode (and suspension on comfort).

Do get sport mode out in Cumbria and Wales thou 

[TheCarMadDad]

May I ask a quick question about your Finnish license, I'm not being rude just very interested... Can you drive in the UK on your Finnish license forever, or will there come a time where you would have to take a UK test? I always thought people could only drive on a non-UK license for a limited time? cheers

[itavaltalainen]

Am not offended in any way

You can drive with any EU licence:

a) for 3 years after moving to the UK or
b) until you're 70
whichever is longer.... so in my case another few decades!

After that you have to change it, but even for that wouldn't need to do a test as long as I swap it before I'm 70.
 
Obviously if it expires before you're here for 3 years or before you're 70 then you'd have to change it before it expires or do a test.

Why don't I change it?
Because I don't have to, it would cost me money and if I get a driving ban in the UK I can still drive in the rest of Europe cos they can't take it away (not that I'm planning on getting banned, have never even had any points on my licence in any country but good to know I could go back in case things went tits up). Another benefit is I don't have to tell the DVLA (or it's Finnish equivalent) when I'm moving as there is no address on the licence.

[TheCarMadDad]

thanks