Volkswagen Capped Price Manufacturer Service Review

The Volkswagen story 

You could hardly ask for a better start to a motor vehicle company.

In an effort to make motoring accessible to the people, and not just the rich, a leader starts a manufacturer charged with making a people's car.

Even the ownership sounded aspirational, the German Labour Front.

It's just a pity it was all organised by the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler.

Nonetheless, Volkswagen expanded out of this less-than-auspicious start to become one of the world's leading manufacturers.

Its people's car, the Beetle, put the company on the map.

The Beetle even served as inspiration for one of the great sports cars, the Porsche 911, both having been designed by Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche.

In recent years, VW has had its share of trouble.

In 2015, the company found itself embroiled in a costly emission scandal after it was discovered that some of its diesel-powered vehicles had ‘defeat’ devices that could detect when they were being tested and cut emissions to improve results.

It was a whopper of a mistake which has cost the company financially in addition to its reputation.

However, while ‘dieselgate’, as the scandal is known, continues to smoulder, the company has embraced the concept of the electric vehicle (EV). 

VW has pumped billions into the development of its MEB EV platform and has announced plans for the VW Group (which includes Audi, Porsche, Skoda and SEAT amongst others) to bring more than 80 new electrified models to customers by 2025, including some 50 purely battery-powered vehicles and 30 plug-in hybrids.

Servicing with Volkswagen

The company offers a servicing program for all its current models.

Its online Servicing Pricing Guide gives customers an immediate service cost for their vehicle when the details of their car are input into the system.

The service schedule for most models is 12 months or 15,000km, which stacks up well against some of the other manufacturers that require shorter time periods between services.

VW also offers an option whereby customers can pre-purchase servicing.

The VW Care Plan allows customers to package servicing costs of either three or five years across a wide range of models - into the purchase of their vehicle.

That Care Plan is transferable with the vehicle too, so if it were to be sold the remaining services go with it to the new owner. Which is quite useful for resale value.

However, servicing costs are still on the high end of the scale.

Five-year fixed price servicing for the smallest VW, the Polo, amounts to $2,300.

For the Golf it comes to $2,650 and, if you prefer the hatch, then you can add more than $300 to that figure for the Golf GTI at $2950.

Step up to the Passat you'll be looking at a maximum of $3,100 while the flagship of the VW fleet, the Arteon, will set you back $2,800.

If you prefer a bit of ride height, you'll have to pay a little extra. For example, the Tiguan needs $3,200 while the Touareg will cost $3,800.

VW makes a very reliable car – comparison site Canstar rated the company as one of the top three brands in Australia for reliability - and has kicked its warranty up to five years from three.

However, they do charge when it comes to servicing and it could well pay to shop around your local independents to see if you can pick up a nice deal.