Oil change A4

[Stanley Nowak]

I bought an A4 last year and it’s telling me an oil change is due soon . Mileage only 1100. Shocked at cost quoted by dealer £255 but they told me I could get it done anywhere as long as they can update vehicle records remotely ? 
Anyone able to comment on this ?

Stanley 

[Magnet]

Hello Stanley,

Many thanks for being in touch with the forum.

I would guess that the car is either one year old or possibly nearer 18 months old. - could you let us know Stanley? 

If it is one year old then it’s almost certainly set on an annual service schedule. If around 18 months old then (incorrectly for your low mileage) it’s been set on a Longlife service. 
 

Irrespective, it’s due for servicing, and although it may seem unnecessary at such a very low mileage, it must  be appreciated that the car has had a comparatively hard mechanical life due to its use - unless this mileage has been covered in substantial mileage journeys at very irregular intervals. If not, the car is likely to have have covered short trips where it will barely have got up to optimism operating conditions. 
 

Reference cost of service:- It may be considered that £255 is a high price to pay for a service, but no doubt you have invested a not-insubstantial amount in this car, and to now scrimp on its maintenance, may not make economic sense in the longer term. 

Saving money by having it serviced away from Audi? Yes, possible, if the servicing garage is VAT registered and provide you with an invoice showing Audi approved parts/oil have been used - and as they tell you - they have the computer facility to input the servicing detail into the VAG database - no service book to stamp now. 
Independents are likely to be equipped to do this, but what will be your saving over Audi, and will that saving be worthwhile if you have to get into a debate about a warranty claim.

I think if this were mine Stanley, I would be biting the bullet and getting it serviced at Audi, particularly since the car will not have depreciated to any degree comparable to what you would have expected when you bought it, so there’s a bonus there. 
 

Ongoing? I would think that Audi will set this on an annual service plan ( if not already so), so if it’s bad news, the same service will be required this time next year, if your usage remains the same. 
Hope some of this helps,

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stanley Nowak]

46 minutes ago, Magnet said:

Hello Stanley,

Many thanks for being in touch with the forum.

I would guess that the car is either one year old or possibly nearer 18 months old. - could you let us know Stanley? 

If it is one year old then it’s almost certainly set on an annual service schedule. If around 18 months old then (incorrectly for your low mileage) it’s been set on a Longlife service. 
 

Irrespective, it’s due for servicing, and although it may seem unnecessary at such a very low mileage, it must  be appreciated that the car has had a comparatively hard mechanical life due to its use - unless this mileage has been covered in substantial mileage journeys at very irregular intervals. If not, the car is likely to have have covered short trips where it will barely have got up to optimism operating conditions. 
 

Reference cost of service:- It may be considered that £255 is a high price to pay for a service, but no doubt you have invested a not-insubstantial amount in this car, and to now scrimp on its maintenance, may not make economic sense in the longer term. 

Saving money by having it serviced away from Audi? Yes, possible, if the servicing garage is VAT registered and provide you with an invoice showing Audi approved parts/oil have been used - and as they tell you - they have the computer facility to input the servicing detail into the VAG database - no service book to stamp now. 
Independents are likely to be equipped to do this, but what will be your saving over Audi, and will that saving be worthwhile if you have to get into a debate about a warranty claim.

I think if this were mine Stanley, I would be biting the bullet and getting it serviced at Audi, particularly since the car will not have depreciated to any degree comparable to what you would have expected when you bought it, so there’s a bonus there. 
 

Ongoing? I would think that Audi will set this on an annual service plan ( if not already so), so if it’s bad news, the same service will be required this time next year, if your usage remains the same. 
Hope some of this helps,

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Thanks 

The message specifically says oil change only . It says next oil change 11000 miles and next service 18000 or Aug 22 . Woman in garage clearly said 255 oil change only . Better ring garage and speak to service director . It’s had its free courtesy check 

[Magnet]

Hello Stanley,

Can you confirm that your car has covered one thousand one hundred miles only? Just a little confused with your now reference to oil change due at 11k miles. 
Can you confirm exactly how many months old the car now is? 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Obasa]

Hello Stanley,

The service is not based on the mileage that you had conducted in the car. It is the overall mileage that the car has done, therefore the data records built within the car memory will advise you when the next oil and service is due regardless of the mileage that you have personally done. The price quoted, I suspect its for the oil change and service as no dealer could justify just an oil change at the cost of £255. Oil changes on their own are no more than £50 or less depending on where you go

[Magnet]

Hello Olumide,

Apologies for a different opinion, but I would think it would be impossible to have an oil and filter change (with Audi approved ‘parts’) on a c one year old within-warranty A4 to satisfy the warrant conditions (and recording that oil and filter change on the Audi database) for £50 or less. 
It would be reasonable to expect that the dealer charge for the oil alone would amount to that, without the cost of the filter, and the labour charge, plus of course the dreaded VAT. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Obasa]

Hello Gareth,

No apology required. 😉

I am struggling to see how an oil and filter change could be so expensive without the inclusion of a full service. I only had my Audi A5 serviced on 15 November 2021 and the full service included the oil and filter change at the Audi dealers (all approved Audi parts) and it did not cost anywhere near £255. Something appears to be unjust here. 🤔

[Magnet]

Many thank Olumide. 
I agree with you regarding the quoted cost appearing high for a ‘simple’ oil and filter change. However, without the original poster supplying us with the requested detail of exactly how old this car is ( and what has been its servicing history to date) then we must assume (for this to make sense) that the quoted price is for a ‘service’. 
Would VAG agree to do a simple oil and filter change for a vehicle still under warranty - if the service schedule requires a ‘full’ service at that time, and if they did, would the anticipated cost be £50 or less? 
 

Perhaps Stanley could come back with the answers to the earlier questions.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Stanley Nowak]

Hello all and thanks for your advice 

Confusingly Audi call a service an oil change on the display so £235 is now understandable 

My car was registered Sept 2020 and currently has only 1100 miles so  am not taking chances with the warranty 

[Magnet]

Thanks for the clarification Stanley,

Your additional information now makes sense of the issue. 
It would appear that your servicing requirement is set on an annual service basis ( you must have told them what your annual anticipated mileage would be -?). 
You will get the same servicing notification again at this time next year. 
Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Obasa]

As I suspected it is an annual service including an oil change, hence the cost given. An annual service would be required regardless of the mileage conducted, it would be a re-occurring service period.

[Magnet]

As I mentioned earlier, I believe the dealer will set the required service schedule dependent on the anticipated annual mileage. 
For low mileage use the servicing alert will be set at a repeating annual basis,

However, on higher mileage use, it will be set on a Longlife schedule, which monitors use and ‘driving style’, and can work out at services being necessary around 18k miles, or 18 months. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

Hi I think someone is living in a parallel universe, went in to my local garage to book my car in for the engine mounts and ran smack bang into an argument between my mate and a customer who had bought in an Audi Q5 TFSI 2018 for a service at 42k she was told the bill was £350.00 and was acusing them of robbing her as the dealer had quoted £250, my mate rang the dealers who told him that was for the oil service only and a full service with filters was £750, she cleared off and phoned the dealers and then came back full of apologies and a wad of cash, I had a chuckle looking at the old air filter with the date 2018 on it the spark plugs were all burnt up with blow by around the porcelain, moral of the story ask what you actually get for £250.00, do the maths, about £40.00 for the parts and the rest is labour and VAT.

Steve.