My wife's alltrack is still under warranty, so this morning I took it to the dealer for a yearly oil change.

This dealer has a fantastic feature, which is a window overlooking the service bay, so I could see exactly what was happening to my car. So I noticed that instead of raising the car, and draining the oil, he sucked out the oil. This is fine by me because it means less chance of stripping the bolt, and lift damage to the car. Plus, the oil had only 3k on it. Downside is the bottom of the car is not inspected.

And nice too is that the car has a dipstick, so I can tell if the oil actually was changed.

So when I went to pay, I noticed that they had charged me for a new oil plug. I pointed this out and they removed it. I saved 14$ and the bill came to 162$

Still, it's a far cry from the experience I had with my under warranty P car.

 

Yes but how many have paid that drain plug fee at said dealership for a service not actually performed? That's fraud.

 

I think that's an extreme view. I'd call it sloppy accounting

 

Sloppy accounting is ripping people off - call it whatever you like when multiplied by total annual LOF services performed that's just plain wrong.

 

I'm not unhappy in the least. The price that I paid was reasonable, and they got me in and out in a hurry. There is no reason that a car that costs 3X as much as the alltrack should cost 4 times as much to service

 

That car had a plastic oil pan and plug, no worries about stripping it. Just an FYI. If you plan on keeping it long term there are conversion kits to go steel or "skid plates" that protect the plastic pan.

From what I have been told a lot of shops have moved to this model on vehicles with top mount oil filters. ZERO need for a lift. Roll it in, roll it out. Dealers will still want to charge you for that brake inspection that is so important

 

Didn't know about the plastic pan/plug. Thx.

Next year I will insist they do the complete job. One of the benefits of taking off the tray is you can see if there are oil leaks or other problems. I just hope they don't plaster over the window looking down on the service bay.

One of the problems for garages removing the engine under tray is that they leave one of the corner bolts on and just dangle the tray. This happened with my volvo, and the tray ear broke off