New to Audi A3 Owner...Advice

[wrightyred]

Hello All

I am new to the Audi family and need a bit of advice from experienced owners....I have owned several lower priced cars and taken them to my local (back street ) garage for servicing .I have had my Audi A3 Diesel 1.6 (15 plate)  since April 19 and it is ready for its first service . I will be looking at selling on in 3 years time due to high milage that I drive so the ask is,  do I get it serviced from a main dealer or still continue with my back street garage who still stamps the book ? The advice i am looking for is the resell value as is it more to sell an 7 year old audi with servicing stamps or 7 year old audi with dealer stamps ??

 

Cheers

 

Wrightyred

[Magnet]

Hello Steven,

Service history ‘sells’ newish cars. Mileage and above all, condition, sells 7 year old vehicles. 

Working out your economics is important, and you must consider your perceived increase in value by having main dealer service history against the additional (considerable?) dealer service costs involved during your ownership. 

Please accept this as only a personal viewpoint, but I have never considered full  dealer   service history to be king. After all, how do we rate a vehicle which has been well cared for - by its owner - and serviced (with evidence) by the local garage, compared with one which the owner has simply used and passed into a main dealer for half a day every so often? 

If I were mine:- I would look after it on a day to day basis, entrust it’s servicing to a trusted ( in caps) local garage, but most importantly insist that they only use quality parts. For your part, ensure you keep every invoice for all (in caps) service and repair expenditure on the car. A stamp in a service book doesn’t really tell you much! 

Pending other replies, it’s over to you Steven to do some economics homework, so you can make a considered decision once you receive other replies. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[wrightyred]

Thanks for your info Gareth , I think the second hand car industry has changed a lot  trade in goes to price itself against we buy any car site ... my last car sold for £300 more than quoted Online towards my Audi . So i am in new territory as due to me driving 20 K -24K a year I just spent £10,000 on a 15 plate . Is there a good second hand market for 7 year old Audi A3 with 90 K mileage or one it reaches a certain age it just another trade in . ( we buy any car) ? 
 

wrightyred 

[Magnet]

Hello Steven,

I would agree with you to some extent that the secondhand car trade has changed, but in reality, very little, and as always, has been driven by the availability of used cars filtering down from the new car retail. Change - the profit margins on new car sales is now nowhere near much as they were say some 30 years ago, so the dealer has to find other incentives to try to encourage you to do business with them. Cash they just don’t won’t anymore, finance (with commission back to them) they certainly do want. Selling you maintenance plans is almost a must, as is GAP insurance etc etc. - all with paid back commissions. PCPs of course is where the margins are. 

Back to your situation Steven :- reading your post points me to (what I believe) to the fact that you have bought a 3 year old diesel with no service history ‘.......ready for its first service...’. Irrespective of where it is (properly) serviced, I think the greatest influence on its three-year-on trade-in-value will have little to do with its service history, but everything to do with government policy in regard to its continued (justified?) anti-diesel campaign - so service history important??

Trade values and We Buy Any Car?    CAP guide is the vehicle trade value bible. OK, appreciate you had £300 over book for your last car, but this may just have something to do with the price you bought at being slightly inflated to attract a higher part ex. deal. It is possible to be highly influenced by the price offered for the vehicle being part exchanged rather than the all important ‘cost-to-change figure’. Another older than me sales trick! 

Above all, the vehicle needs to be cared for mechanically and bodily, and if it were mine, my view (personal one obviously) re servicing still stands, but I would not be running the car to Audi’s Longlife schedule where the oil gets changed every c18K miles, but investing in a 12K oil and filter change using only quality oil and filters. 

Not sure if this helps or confuses more. 

Perhaps you could let us know what you decide on, since this might help others in similar situations.

Kind regards,

Gareth.