Warranty work with a different dealer

Elessar

Has anyone ever gotten warranty work done on a car at a dealer that they did not buy the car from?

Thinking of doing this to get my Golf looked at for a specific issue, as the nearest is a 5 mins drive away. However I bought the car in a dealer 50 miles away. VW say it's fine but do you reckon I will have a battle on my hands, as I can't imagine the nearest dealer will relish the thought of looking at my car since I didn't buy it from him?

Also I guess loan cars are out of the question if the car needs to be booked in for work?

(EDIT: The car is brand new with manufacturers warranty)

kildare.17hmr

The dealser gets paid by VW to do warranty work so its no problem at all they will welcome the work

Padraig Mor

Should be fine. They'll get paid anyway. Some dealers can be a bit funny about doing work on "other garage's" cars alright - but with that attitude, you'd be best avoiding them anyway.

mickdw

In busy times, they were a bit funny about it because I believe they get a pretty poor labour rate from vw for the warranty work compared to what they charge individual customers. Now however, and based on talking to the service manager in my local audi dealer, he is crying out for work. He was saying that he had 6 lads to keep going and alot of the 3 & 4 year old car servicing work had disappeared.

Elessar

What about getting a loan car if needed?

mickdw

If its a new car, you surely have cover from vw if off he road. They usually have 2 years cover.

daveyboy_1ie

The manufacturers usually pay between 70-80% of the dealers full retail rate (btw I have 11 years experience in motor warranty at several importers) so in the past the dealerships refused the work on grounds that they 'could not stand by other dealers work' when in reality it was because they could not charge the full rate. What usually happened is the customer accepted it, or rang me and I told the dealer to accept the work and they had to grudgingly.

I reckon unless its a big dealer nowadays the market has changed so much that any hours to help fill their capacity is a welcome. Also as most have apprentices working the grunt work and only use the more experienced guys for the more usual issues it still a profitable job to them, albeit not as much as they used to earn.

Anyway, to answer your actual question the answer is yes, once they are the same marque (in this case VW) they are obligated to take warranty jobs on and stand your ground if they get awkward. in theory most dealers in the EU market should be obligated to do yoru warranty work, once the car is in warranty.