Costs maintenance & inspection VW Grand California

A few posts ago I said, “I don’t think there’s any other topic that so many people argue about than gas or diesel heating.” Wrong thinking 😱

All information in this article I have researched to the best of my knowledge. Grandcali.com is not a bible or a recommendation for action, it is my or our opinion!

But now, as started in the introduction above, we come to the topic of maintenance! It is one thing above all else, and that is expensive. But unfortunately, you won’t find any really concrete statements on the subject on the Internet, especially with regard to the Grand California. There are many tips, but one of the simplest is certainly to bring your own oil for oil changes and thus avoid the horror prices that Volkswagen charges for a liter.

Now, however, Volkswagen offers a“Maintenance & Inspection” package, with which you should be able to drive to the inspection without any worries. VW advertises with

Plannable costs instead of nasty surprises.

Volkswagen

But is that really the case? Is this offer worth it and what does it include?

First of all, we were interested to know what exactly is being taken over by VW? Without knowing the service plan, this is not really clear. This is exactly what you need to know in order to calculate whether this package is really worth it. The user manual, which supposedly contains the service plan, does not help here either. Specifically, you can request this from a Volkswagen partner. I don’t know why such a secret is made of it, probably so that you can get a good deal.

The scope according to Volkswagen homepage

• Engine oil
  • Change including oil filter
• Filter
  • Change of air, pollen and fuel filters (only combustion engines) as well as gas filters for BiFuel vehicles
• Gear oil
  • Change for automatic transmissions (including filter) and for Haldex transmissions (only vehicles with combustion engine or hybrid drive)
• Inspection
  • Visual and functional inspection including adjustment of the headlights
• Spark plugs
  • Replacement (only vehicles with combustion engine or hybrid drive)
• Other services
  • Cleaning water tank, maintenance sunroof
• Brake fluid
  • Change
• Replacement mobility
  • for 1 day, e.g. replacement car, pick-up and drop-off service, public transport

Sounds good at first, doesn’t it? Now, what about the cost of this package? The price depends heavily on the runtime and mileage. For our example, we take the package of 30,000 kilometers per year, with a term of 36 months, so in our case, the Grand California has a mileage of 90,000 kilometers.

VW charges 74.79 euros per month for this selection, 897.48 euros per year and 2,692.44 euros for the complete term. So we have maintenance costs of just under 2,700 euros or 33 cents per kilometer for our Grand California.

How often is the Grand California now in the workshop for maintenance in 36 months?

There is no general answer to this question, because we have a flexible interval for oil changes. The Grand California comes with maintenance code VI4, which means the following:

• Oil change service (flexible):
  • according to service interval display in control panel insert max. 50.000 km / 2 years
• Inspection
  • every 2 years or 50,000 km

In reality, no one is likely to make it 50,000 kilometers before the oil needs to be changed. Either the time is reached and the oil change is due or the Grand California is already screaming for the change after about 30,000 kilometers.

On our first Grand California, the service was due exactly after 30,000 km, so we assume this value for our contribution. This means that three oil changes and one inspection would be necessary in our calculation example. The simple oil change costs an average of 550 euros at a VW partner, resulting in costs of 1650 euros just for these three visits. The first inspection at around 50,000 kilometers costs an average of 700 euros.

According to Adam Riese, the total cost is 2350 euros, whereas the maintenance package costs a good 2700 euros. The difference here is 350 euros. If you bring your own oil to the oil change instead of paying for the expensive one from VW, you can save quite a bit. The simple oil service costs about 290 euros with own oil.

To make the calculation complete:

• 290 Euro service costs + 75 Euro oil costs = 365 Euro

In summary

• VW cost including oil: 550 euros
• VW cost with own oil: 365 euros

So what is the moral of the story? Correct, the VW package “Maintenance & Inspection” is more expensive than paying for the service individually. The really expensive parts, namely the wear, is not included in this package. These costs are again on top. At the end of the day, it makes more sense to save yourself X amount each month and pay for the inspection in full.

Those who would like to have an overview of the maintenance to be carried out are welcome to take a look at our knowledge database.

HERE