Guest Writer: $6.00 for Washer Fluid?!
August 17, 2007 – 8:55 am by Dan Volkens
Filed under Rants, Volkswagen Passat
Am I right in thinking that $6 for window washer fluid is a total scam?
Guest article by Volksbloggin reader Jordan
Here’s what happened: my 2004 VW Passat broke down a few weeks ago. I have no idea what the problem was, but it had something to do with “coils.” I asked them to do my 50,000 mile service, as well. I was already pissed off by the time I went to pick up my vehicle from the dealership, because I was informed that — despite what I had been told by both my finance company and the dealership (not the same one I got this service at) — my warranty had just expired at 50,000 miles, about 500 miles ago. As such, I was going to have plunk down $400 for this coil issue, and my 50,000 mile service. But boy was I peeved that, on top of all this, I also had to pay $6 for WINDSHIELD WASHER FLUID.
As anyone who drives a newer VW knows, they’re sometimes a little TOO helpful. That dumbass seatbelt chime goes off, even when in park, and your “Top up washer fluid!” warning beeps after just three or four uses of your washer fluid after filling it up. As such, I never bother to actually refill the thing until it is actually empty, otherwise I’d be filling up on a weekly basis. So, when I go in for service and have to pay the absolutely foolish service fees, since I have a lease, and know full-well that I can be liable for warranty issues if the car isn’t serviced at the actual dealership, even though I could get it done for half the price anywhere else, it’s of small comfort that I normally don’t haveto pay anything for them to fill up my washer fluid tank. And, at my old dealership in North Little Rock, Arkansas, I didn’t have to pay. But at this new dealership, in Glendale, California, apparently free washer fluid is just TOO FAR TO GO.
My dealership called me to ask me how things went with my service (coaching me, Mrad!!), and I wasted no time telling them that I wasn’t happy to have to pay for washer fluid. I know it’s petty, but it seems like such a stick in the eye after dropping $400 on service, and what SHOULD be a warranty issue. I was transferred to my service adviser, who said that “all the dealerships charge for washer fluid.” I told him that my old dealership didn’t. He told me that next time I came in, I could ask him to credit the $6 for the fluid, and that from here-on-out, I would need to ask NOT to have my fluid filled if I drop off the car with the reminder light on.
The solution is fine, but does anyone else think that this is just a little over the line when it comes to service? I mean, we’re talking about, essentially, blue water. It costs me $1.50 to buy a jug of washer fluid at the gas station, so why is it that the dealership, who is probably buying washer fluid in bulk at a huge discount, charging me four-times the wholesale cost?
Guest Writer: $6.00 for Washer Fluid?!
August 17, 2007 – 8:55 am by Dan Volkens
i hear ya. stealerships are just that..
but if your some what mechanically inclined, you could have purchased a pack of coils (right around $100 > the $125 you paid) and installed yourself.
oil changes are so easy and you know everything about whats going into your ride.. and that the bolt is tightened correctly..
#1 suggestion: if you have a laptop, get a VAG-COM from Ross-Tech. If not use vwvortex to find a local VW nut that has one. You can scan you ECU for CEL’s etc! Pays for itself in like two stealership trips!
anyways, again I don’t know your situation etc and it sux but there are tons of measures you can take.
i purchased my ride out of warranty and never put one on. I’m not a mechanic but I have learned a lot from local dubr’s, books ( get a Bently book or CD) and just gettin my hands dirty.
hope this helps anyone in the future,
1.8T
um, ya -do some research. Coil Packs have been an issue since day one. Be glad that you went 50k before chagning them. I have chagned twice already!!! But buy them yourself!!! Don’t pay a lot of money when you don’t have to. I mean, the Internet is still here and you can search on a site called Google… it’s pretty cool. Or just try ecstuning.com they have the same parts that the dealer uses, but just a lot cheaper!!!
It costs so mush because that’s where the dealer makes all his money- it certainly isn’t when you buy a car at zero % financing. He is in business to make money, not to give you stuff…
But just shop around…
Dude, I totally feel ya. Just after I got my Golf I had two back to back oil changes for two different amounts. The second one was about 6 bucks cheaper, and the only difference was the fact that I had just topped off my washer fluid.
I always top mine off before I go now. I’m not forkin’ over 6 bones for washer fluid. I’d encourage all other readers here to do the same. Fight the man!
@Sonjador: I am not a car person. The extent of my knowledge is filling the gas tank and filling the washer fluid — when I feel like it. I doubt that even if I had known about the coil issue beforehand, that I would have known how to fix it. Moreover, I don’t think it’s the duty of the driver to have to research all these problems with their vehicles. I do regular maintenance, so why should I have to worry about routine issues with the car? VW should be doing some kind of customer care on this issue, if this issue is such a problem for everyone.
this (and a few other reasons) is why I don’t drive a VW as a daily driver anymore… I really hate being nickel and dimed… my local dealer charged for washer fluid at an oil change, the car has since been sold and I moved on to a different OEM. Word of advice VW, fix your dealerships.
@jordan.
I am not going to fight on the Internet… but it has been all over the forums- possibly even on this page somewhere… But in the year 2007, you are going to tell me that you don’t research your car and problems that may happen with it? I gotta ask- do you research chat rooms? Instant messaging? Maybe the latest cell phones? Your car is what gets you to your job so you can make money. Don’t you think that it is important to take care of it in the proper way?
With information EVERYWHERE these days, it might be good if you would look into a few things and not just expect someoen else to take care of you and your things.
I really don’t care if you have a lot of knowledge on it or not- you should educate yourself a littel so you know what you are talking about when you bring it to the dealer so they don’t screw you, or anywhere for that matter.
You mentioned routine issues with the car- isn’t that regular maintenance? What the hell is the difference? Don’t you change the oil regularly? What about spark plugs, etc… the coil packs are the “wires” that attach to the plugs…
Try vwvortex.com for their forums and maint. issues and concerns…
take care of your car and it will take care of you.
While I appreciate both of your guy’s positions, there’s definitely no need at all for this to be an argument. Don’t we have more important things to worry about?
Yes, Jordan can educate himself about the car, but when it comes down to actually doing the work, if he’s not comfortable with it, what he should do is try to find the best deal he can to have someone else do it.
I fully appreciate your stance Sonjador about educating yourself and doing the work. I’m a self-educating freak. lol ;) How about providing better support to Jordan rather than get upset about it? I know, it can be frustrating when you know how easy it is to do something, but someone who doesn’t know how to do it thinks it’s a mountain to climb, and will pay money to have it done.
Big hugs now? Ehhhh, let’s not go that far. :D
my stance is that he should educate himself to know about the issues at hand. Like buying a TV, a house, food- you need to know about it. Not so he can do it- but so he can understand what is happening- and more importantly what SHOULD be happening.
I think that is support- so the dealer doesn’t rip him off anymore…
Right?
I did research the vehicle, but I generally don’t go to car forums or anything like that. I looked more on the “official” channels like Yahoo! Cars, Consumer Reports, and the VW website to learn about the vehicle. All that being said, I have a hard time believing that I would have come upon information about this issue in 2004, when I got the car, unless I had spent an awful lot of time hanging around car forums.
Regardless, I think it’s unreasonable to expect every buyer of a vehicle to do this kind of work before buying. I think I did more than most by looking at the websites I did, which gave me the usual “I like the car / I hate the car” type of comments and an overall consumer rating of the vehicle. Again, my feeling is that if there is a persistent issue with the vehicle, it’s VW’s responsibility to fix the problem and provide customer notification. Can you really imagine your grandmother researching her next vehicle on car forums to find out about possible mechanical issues?
The other problem here, is one that’s purely circumstantial. I’m new to California, and don’t have any support system here. I have to get to work, and I can’t be fooling around with “shopping around” for someone to fix the problem for me at a lower cost. This happened on a Sunday evening, and I ended up having to borrow the car of the only person I know for Monday so that I could get to work on time. (Rental places were closed or sold out — I checked numerous ones.) That being the case, I wouldn’t have a clue where to begin looking for a shop that would give me a better price. How would I know who’s shady and who’s not?
Overall, it’s just a bad situation that I shouldn’t have to deal with. If this problem is as prevalent as it seems, VW should be taking more steps to rectify it.
Look, I am tired of this complaining- I have replaced mine twice. They go out when you least expect it- I mean, did you expect it to go out?
I had to drive mine to the dealer and have Mark, my mechanic there, replace them with version R I believe… So, VW has been workign to resolve the issue.
It is hardly not known. Version R is out- I believe that is like 6 or 8???
All I am saying is YOU should have researched it and known what was wrong rather than “being taken by the dealer” as you are complaining about in this forum. You are the consumer- you should be educated… it is not the dealer that needs to educate you on what is wrong, you should know…
I’m not complaining about “being taken by the dealer” regarding the engine. I couldn’t have fixed it, and have no intention of researching every possible failure of this vehicle, or any other I might acquire in the future. If you read the headline of this post, you’ll see that I’m complaining about the dealer charging $6 for blue water. The only thing I was annoyed about when it came to the price of the service was the fact that I had been informed by BOTH my original dealership AND my finance company that the warranty included in the vehicle, because it is a lease, does not expire until at least 60k miles or 4 years, as those are the terms of my lease. Clearly, that’s not true — thus, annoyance at having been lied to by two separate parties.
YOU were the one that brought up that I should have researched the coil issue ahead of time. My only point is that I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect non-car people to spend hours researching all the possible failures of their vehicle and then plan for each contingency. I just don’t understand why you’re getting so excitable about this whole issue — do you work for VW or something?
Poor Dax! If you asked for it to be filled, then you cannot complain for the $6 price tag. Otherwise, you can tell them to suck the fluid back out and get the $6 back.
I think *stealership may just take advantage that most people think that $6 is nothing. But, that 300% more than average retail price.
Hey Ivan, this is actually a guest post, it didn’t happen to me but to one of our readers, Jordan. :] That’s the thing, he didn’t ask for it to be done. They will do it without asking if it’s low.
Yeah, it was me! If you re-read the post, you’ll see that my point is that, in fact, I NEVER asked them to do it. The VW (IMHO) warns you far too early that the fluid is low, and as such, every time I go into the dealership, it notifies them that the fluid is low. But I would gladly fill it for $1.50 by buying a jug of fluid at the gas station instead of paying $6 at the dealership.
Moreover, why does it cost me $1.50, retail, to fill up the fluid and the dealership charges me $6, when they’re buying the fluid mix wholesale?
It costs $6 because they use that ultra-super-uber-high-quality washing fluid. ;) :D
New to VW. Just purchased a 2007 VW Passat 2.)T wagon in September and would like to know what are reasonable prices for the services at 10K, 20K, 30K and 40K. Have heard some horror stories. I plan on using dealer service since I want to be sure not to compromise the warranty. Thanks in advance.
Hi Bill, your costs (depending on where you live in the country, etc.) for those service intervals will vary a lot, unfortunately. But I imagine you can expect reasonable rates for the 10K, 20K and 30K. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-100 typically. The real kicker is the 40K service, which is a MAJOR interval. Check out a couple previous posts about my experience with the 40K:
- 40k Service: Is the Dealership Cost Worth It?
- The Dreaded 40,000mi. Service Has Arrived for My GTI
Thanks Dax, Checked in Tallahassee, Fl and 10K is $110, 20K is $245, 30K is $110 and 40K is $450. All amounts “could be more or less”. I guess it just depends on what the dealer wants to charge. Believe I will rotate my tires before taking for service and see how much difference that makes. I have read so much about owners changing their own oil and “not being able to prove the oil used had the correct specs” so I will let the dealer change it and if problems come up, the proof will be in the service book. I am enjoying reading the reports from you and others on this site.
Hi.
Good design, who make it?
A problem neither the VW dealer nor my trustworthy local garage can solve on my 2001 Passat: Pull the key out of the ignition and the low-fuel warning signal beeps. Dealer said: Comfort control module. Replaced it [with a used module] for $250. Problem still there. Local mechanic said: Bad ignition switch. Replaced it with a brand-new unit from the dealer. Problem still there. Don’t know if this is worrisome or not. Anyone else out there with similar problem and who knows what’s happening?
“…Checked in Tallahassee, Fl and 10K is $110, 20K is $245, 30K is $110 and 40K is $450.”
I have to agree with Bill Lane on these service prices. My car just turned over 20K, and my dealer quoted me a sum for that mileage comparable to what Bill found in Florida. I’m not looking forward to coughing up that much dough for maintenance - I’ll probably end up taking it out of my tax refund, or that tax rebate we’re supposed to get this summer (yucch)…
As for $6 for washer fluid? I refill my reservoir with the $1.50 stuff, so the dealer won’t touch it. Plus, my warning chime telling me to refill doesn’t sound until right before my reservoir empties - I know because I’ve run it dry at least twice now. So maybe Jordan got a bad sensor on his washer reservoir?
$6 for a top-off that wasn’t needed?
I would’ve battled it myself. I wanted to battle service on my Golf just 3 or 4 weeks after I got it. My airbag light came on, and I took it in - $520 later, I found out it was the side airbag in my driver’s seat. I was unhappy, but she is 8 years old, no warranty.
The light came back on, and it’s been on for a few months now. I’ve just been a bit lazy and haven’t had the chance to dig into it myself. It’s just the connection in the side bolster.
But wow.. that’s just stupid. Sounds like a mechanic there is just going by the book and not thinking for themselves.