Booked my car in for a major service here in Munich. Main dealer, and it’s Germany so it’s going to be pricey, ok. The service was 305 €, pollen filter and something else was another 75 € so that makes it a pretty expensive service, £300 ish – ok whatever.

Just called me and they had to change the transmission fluid, it’s a DSG auto gearbox, and this has pushed the price up to 680 €!

I’m absolutely fuming!

Apparently the fluid and filter was over 200 € and the LABOUR CHARGE alone was 93 €! How the hell can you charge that much to replace fluid?!

Is it always like this with DSGs or are they taking the piss? I mean I know main dealers are expensive but I had no idea DSG gearboxes were this difficult to change the oil.

Is it better or worse than being rogered by the bins around the back of C&A?

That’s a couple of days wages for an IT contractor isn’t it 🙂

Edit: The german garage charges, not the C&A bin akshun.

*reported for swear filter avoidance*

€93 is probably the rate for 1 hours labour – no?

Since when does it take an hour to change gearbox fluid?

Anyway just googled it, it’s apparently the going rate for a DSG oil change from a main dealer.. plus the German cost multiplier which I was expecting really.

Sh*t.

I reckon the job was worth about £169

That’s absolutely ridiculous!!! You could almost get a set of forks for that!!!! 😉

Which is why my Passat goes to an independent, who uses genuine parts and good staff, but has yet to charge more than £200 for a service (other than the one where he did the service and changed the timing belt/waterpump for £400).

do they treat Brits in German Garages like UK garages treat women ?

So main stealer charges are as much a ripoff in Germany as here then
I was quoted £260+vat to service a fiat panda the other week by a main dealer, I nearly fell over 😯
Edit, that didn’t include the pollen filter or brake fluid either

you mean they changed the oil without giving you a quote first?? i’d be refusing to pay IMO!

A ‘pollen filter’…..

On a car with openey windows….

Someone, somewhere is having a laugh…

Lemon party?

As above, 93 E is abotu an hours charge in main dealers here. 200 for fluid – that’s a joke and I’d question it. But then you should have been able to see these prices before you put it in if it’s a standard service?

Well you used a dealer so you pay more everyone knows that so that’s why so many avoid them.

willy waving time,
I know completely different car (pug 306) but my service was £450
including all filters and oil, cambelt change, fan belt change and water pump
I love my local garage

sorry this is of no help to you,
but I thought I’d share 🙂

edit: it wasn’t £450 but actually £ 350

200€ for fluid!! 😯 are they using White rhino jiz. 😯

200€ for fluid!! are they using White rhino jiz.

Interestingly – did you know white rhino’s are the same colour as other rhinos and are actually named after their lips.

Seeing as your service cost so much you can have that fascinating snippet for free.

willy waving time,
I know completely different car (pug 306) but my service was £450
including all filters and oil, cambelt change, fan belt change and water pump
I love my local garage

Fek!

The MG’s gearbox can be rebuilt for less than that! (£350, but plus time taken geting the engine in/out and shipping). Maybe I should be more paranoid about the new car breakign down than the old one!

That’s a bit cheaper than an auto box fluid change from Merc. I think that the appropriate word is “monopoly” not as in money, but as in exclusivity.

I’m assuming it’s the Prius so maybe it’s Smug Tax? 😉

Seeing as your service cost so much you can have that fascinating snippet for free.

It didn’t, I walked out, £160 from an independent in the end
But a freebie is a freebie…..cheers 😀

Servicing my car has been free for the last two years 🙂

The DSG isn’t striclty speeking an Automatic is it? As in it’s just a computer controlled gearbox with actuators rather than a big lever in the cabin?

So you’ve not paid 200E for automatic trasnmission fluid, you’ve paid 200E for £5/litre EP-90*!

*other grades of gearbox oil are available, you’re probably isn’t shell EP-90 as even the midget uses something slightly posher than that.

Not really, changing the oil in a DSG is a MASSIVE faff involving numerous specialist tools and 2 pairs of hands. The fluid is about £60 alone…

If you have the time and inclination you can make your own tool as shown:

homemadeenemamachine

personally, I’d pay someone else to do it.

willy waving time,
I know completely different car (pug 306) but my service was £450
including all filters and oil, cambelt change, fan belt change and water pump
I love my local garage

sorry this is of no help to you,
but I thought I’d share

edit: it wasn’t £450 but actually £ 350

Probably cheaper to buy another 306. 😆

In Germany you will be paying to dispose of the fluid as well at a guess

Tell them to put the old fluid back in and take it somewhere cheaper

That’s a couple of days wages for an IT contractor isn’t it

Day and a half tops….pay the bill and move on 🙂

Probably cheaper to buy another 306. 😀

😀 😀

Hells bells you lot.

Pollen filters are good because I don’t drive with the windows open. Hardly rocket science that one, is it?

Yes I know independent garages are cheaper but you try shopping around for one that isn’t going to shaft you in the opposite direction and leave you stranded when you have massively strict time pressures, when you don’t speak the local language. I was prepared to pay dealer prices, but the scale of the cost of the DSG oil change was what annoyed me. It’s still expensive at independents. And quoting UK prices here is meaningless since this didn’t happen in the UK. Anyone got any good recommendations for VW dealers in Munich? No, thought not.

The DSG isn’t striclty speeking an Automatic is it?

Of course it bloody is, it changes gear for you, therefore it is an automatic.

So you’ve not paid 200E for automatic trasnmission fluid, you’ve paid 200E for £5/litre EP-90*!

I clearly haven’t – if I put gearbox oil in it I doubt the wet clutch would work very well 🙄

I’m assuming it’s the Prius so maybe it’s Smug Tax?

Prius costs buttons to service.

Yes I know independent garages are cheaper but you try shopping around for one that isn’t going to shaft you in the opposite direction and leave you stranded when you have massively strict time pressures, when you don’t speak the local language. I was prepared to pay dealer prices, but the scale of the cost of the DSG oil change was what annoyed me. It’s still expensive at independents. And quoting UK prices here is meaningless since this didn’t happen in the UK. Anyone got any good recommendations for VW dealers in Munich? No, thought not.

You bought a car with DSG, you choose to live in Munich, and you clearly want the dealer to deliver according to your timetable. In what way do you think you’re being rogered?

‘Course, I’m a total tightwad, so I’d have done everything I could to have researched beforehand, and either done the oil change myself or at least mitigated the cost.

This will be one of the many reasons that the German economy is less in the proverbial s**t than our economy.

What’s Roger Uttley doing in Munich?

That’s an incredible price to service a modern car. Utterly taking the pee.

God, I’m so glad we have a nice simple, manual, petrol car. It’s a lot cheaper to run than a Passat by the sounds of it…. I don’t think we’ve paid much over £450 for the 3 services it’s had with us combined. And that includes MOTs, new spark plugs, filters, oil and a full aircon service. That extra money you’re spending is wiping out everything you save on fuel……

Last time I had the fluid replaced in *both* of my gearboxes and the rear diff it came to £65 inc VAT.

Antihistamine tablets are £3 for a month’s supply.

No it’s not an ‘automatic’. It’s completely different from a standard auto.

could have bought a decent bike for that
*titters*

You bought a car with DSG, you choose to live in Munich, and you clearly want the dealer to deliver according to your timetable. In what way do you think you’re being rogered?

The reason I thought I was being rogered was cos I just heard someone say ‘the bill is 680 €’.

Having calmed down a bit and spent a few seconds googling I realised that the problem is the DSG. They are extremely expensive to service, and I didn’t know this when I got the car!

Another reason for manual next time I think!

No it’s not an ‘automatic’. It’s completely different from a standard auto.

au·to·mat·ic? ?[aw-tuh-mat-ik]
adjective
1.
having the capability of starting, operating, moving, etc., independently: an automatic sprinkler system; an automatic car wash.

It changes gears for you. It is therefore automatic. Doesn’t work in the same way but so what? That’d be like saying a diesel engine isn’t an engine cos it’s not a petrol engine.