Charging for COURTESY car!!!

[Tbart]

Just booked my car in for it's first service,and was informed that there would be a £10 charge for the
courtesy car.
Now bearing in mind that it is called a COURTESY car am I wrong in objecting to paying this?
I am in no means tight,and can easily afford to pay this,but have emailed dealer to change my booking
to a "while you wait" service.
Have any of you had this charge imposed when servicing your cars,and should I have just paid it?
Or am I right to assume that a COURTESY car should be free.?

Regards Tbart

[Rickzayne]

I've heard it's to cover the insurance..?

[scubagazza]

Yep was told the same thing, although i was told by bristol st nottingham that they'd collect it for free.

[DaveB]

Seems to be normal practice nowadays to charge for insurance on courtesy cars. You may be able to get your own insurer to cover it, but they will proably charge more than £10.

[Tbart]

I actually believe that dealers charge quite a lot for servicing already and could quite easily absorb this charge themselves.
Dealers are already paying insurance premiums for demonstrator cars and not all dealers charge for courtesy cars,so I am
fairly sure they could provide cars for free. When parking at an airport they provide a courtesy bus to the terminal from the car park,they don't then charge you for this service.
All I am saying is that if something is a courtesy you should not then be charged for it.

Regards Tbart

[DigitalCal]

I was told by my dealer that I had to sort out insurance myself. As I work 50 miles from my dealership, I wasn't going to make it back in time to pick the car up the same day, so I ended up having to fork out £40 for 2 days' worth of insurance (Friday morning to Saturday morning = 2 days according to insurers). Defeats the idea of 'courtesy car', really, especially when you pick it up with hardly any fuel in.

[bluenose62]

I had exactly the same gripe with Citroen Birmingham last month, and the fact they never had any cars available. I told them to shove it in the end, used an independent garage, used genuine parts, the car was collected from my house in the evening, a courtesy car was left for me, no charge, and the service was £100 cheaper. I won't even phone the dealership for a quote next time.

[danieljnewman]

My dealer gave me the choice. Pay £10 and face £0 excess if I had an accident in it, or pay £0 and face £750 excess. I paid the £10 just for piece of mind.

[Tbart]

Just had an email from the dealer and apparently as I am a loyalty card holder( didn't know I was) I am entitled to a free loan car.
I can pay £10 to reduce the excess to £0 if I want otherwise the excess is £1000.

Regards Tbart.

[Bigfeet]

This is an old aged argument, some dealers will charge in order to help towards to running costs associated with operating courtesy cars. Other dealers done as the charge is absorb within the department spending. It really boils down to the dealer and what their costs are.

[BeefMasta]

Just had an email from the dealer and apparently as I am a loyalty card holder( didn't know I was) I am entitled to a free loan car.
I can pay £10 to reduce the excess to £0 if I want otherwise the excess is £1000.

Regards Tbart.

At least they explained the cost.

I was in a Ducati dealer the other day and they had a sign up saying: "Due to the amount of bikes written off during test drives, they have to now charge a non refundable £25 to cover the insurance".

[Bigfeet]

The other thing as well is it also provides a paper trail to prove which customers were in control of which courtesy cars for speeding/parking fines.

[BeefMasta]

The other thing as well is it also provides a paper trail to prove which customers were in control of which courtesy cars for speeding/parking fines.

Yeah when my mate took a BMW Z4 out for a test drive he spent 10 mins filling in paperwork and had to provide a copy of his license etc.

Went to a SEAT dealer and the guy didn't even ask if he could drive, lol.

Obviously varies from dealers / companies as too how many checks they do.

[lfcrule1972]

When my current DS3 had it's first service they lent me a 120vti for the day free of charge, first time that's ever happened

[Bryn]

After I wrote off my C4 last year, I ordered my new DS3 to replace it and the dealer agreed to a free courtesy car while I waited for the DS3. All I had to do was phone my insurance company to transfer the insurance onto the courtesy car for the duration. Effectively, I saved about 6 weeks' car hire off the price of the new car. (= happy bunny!)
It was only a C1 but, hey, it was free, so no complaints!