GR86 (Not a) Courtesy Car

Swizzle

Swizzle

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Looking to book my first service, having to travel a bit to my GR dealer, option on the service for a courtesy car is £25, is this normal? I haven't used a courtesy car in well over a decade and the used to be free!
 
I think my Toyota wanted £15 quid for a courtesy car during a service.
Not Toyota, but with my partner's Kia, they generally charge £10 for a courtesy car unless it's recall or warranty work.
 
I think I was charged £12 for a courtesy car from a Peugeot dealer early summer 2022. Not been to a dealer for a service since.
 
Always seems to be a charge, if not for the courtesy car, for “courtesy car insurance”.

Courtesy cars were never free, cost had to be built in somewhere*.

The sector no longer has access to the oversupply of small cars - a feature of the 90’s and 00’s. Inevitably they are no longer “free*”.
 
It's not uncommon but I've never been charged more than a tenner, either for insurance or an admin fee, although I've not used dealer servicing for a few years now.
I don't know yet what my local Toyota dealer's policy is...
 
Never been charged for a courtesy car at Toyota, SEAT or Porsche.
 
My local Toyota dealer wanted to charge me for a courtesy car even for warranty work. I refused and did the work myself. While I explained to them that £10 is not a significant sum, it is not right to charge when addressing a warranty related issue. Dealer in question was Steven Eagell (say no more) in Hereford.
 
I handed my epace over to Cazoo before the GR was ready as it had been at the dealer a week and I assumed that I'd have it.. I had a brand new car free of charge from Lindops for three days then another for a day when they were sorting the small dent on the bonnet... No complaints at all..
 
Had a free courtesy car twice when they were doing the parking sensor install, ordered wrong colour sensors first time round so took 2 visits to sort them.
 
Booked it now, I'll be taking the courtesy car Christmas shopping so the £25 fee will probably be a drop in the pond anyway, still seems like a liberty
 
By definition a courtesy car should be FOC, or complimentary absorbed into the service charge. I have used garages that charge for courtesy cars and happily pay if for routine maintenance, however IMO I think it is wrong to charge for warranty work.

Also in the “olden” days it was an opportunity for the dealer to show off a new model, entice you to buy a newer model, however now there seems to be a complete divide between the sales department and service department.

With this is mind more recently I have requested test drives of certain models coincidentally at the same time as a service. I have also used neighbouring dealers, I was took a Hyundai TONIQ6 for a test drive while my Toyota was being serviced. Was gifted coffee and biscuits in the Hyundai garage, but nothing at Toyota.

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Yotayoda said:
By definition a courtesy car should be FOC, or complimentary absorbed into the service charge. I have used garages that charge for courtesy cars and happily pay if for routine maintenance, however IMO I think it is wrong to charge for warranty work.

Also in the “olden” days it was an opportunity for the dealer to show off a new model, entice you to buy a newer model, however now there seems to be a complete divide between the sales department and service department.

With this is mind more recently I have requested test drives of certain models coincidentally at the same time as a service. I have also used neighbouring dealers, I was took a Hyundai TONIQ6 for a test drive while my Toyota was being serviced. Was gifted coffee and biscuits in the Hyundai garage, but nothing at Toyota.
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When I was posted to Cyprus with the RAF the local dealers met you off the plane and each department usually has a favoured dealer.. they gave you a “Gizzit” free car to use with free insurance on the understanding that when you bought a car from them then any costs associated with the Gizzit were waived… They also gave you a car (probably less attractive) when your stay was coming to an end and your duty free car had either left on a Hercules if you were successful on the ballot or in a shipping container…

On my first tour (88-91) I even got a buyback deal on the Mazda 323 I bought for the 2.5 years until I ordered a car to take home.. IIRC I paid £CY3,250 for the Mazda brand new and handed it back to them for £CY3,300…. The locals paid high taxes on new cars so my Mazda at 2 years old was a better buy for them and the dealer did very well out of the arrangement

#Good times
 
Swizzle said:
Looking to book my first service, having to travel a bit to my GR dealer, option on the service for a courtesy car is £25, is this normal? I haven't used a courtesy car in well over a decade and the used to be free!
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Listers Lincoln was free when I bought my GRY two years ago but now charge £15 for ‘Insurance’. As I have a service plan, it is the only money I pay them directly.
 
The dealership trade insurance policy usually now has a ridiculously high excess, to the point the dealership self insures.

This has meant more dealerships using a separate loan car management software system with a standalone insurance policy. As soon as you set a customer up on this, the dealership is billed on a daily basis for the insurance for the car - usually around £5-8 per day when I was a service manager quite a few years ago.

This obviously stacked up quickly, so we started passing this cost onto customers who requested a loan car (note the terminology) alongside service work. We absorbed it for warranty work, figuring the nominal £10 per day we charged for service work usually covered the monthly loan car bill.

We used to advise customers they were welcome to insure the car themselves if this was cheaper/free for them, and explained the circumstances regarding the high excess. It also meant those who really didn’t need the loan car opted for collection/delivery services or a lift home. Most were understanding once the situation was explained fully.
 
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