Is it really necessary to bring car to VW dealer for routine maintenance?
No, but you need to find a trustworthy independent mechanic who will use the correct fluids, oil in particular. Don’t use ‘qwiky lube’ kind of shops. You’ll also need to become an expert on your VWs required maintenance schedule so you’ll know exactly what to ask for when you take it in (that applies to taking it to the dealer, too).
And you’ll need to keep all receipts if it’s still in warranty.
Just a casual question or do you have issues with some aspect of dealer service? Did service manager express his opinion on quality of service from a non-VW shop? What exactly don’t u like about routine service at dealer?
Is it really necessary to bring car to VW dealer for routine maintenance?
NO…But it IS necessary to DO routine maintenance. It can be performed by the dealer…or by yourself…or ANY competent mechanic. As @Texaxes said…stay away from the quicky lube places…I also recommend staying away from ANY chain. Find a good local independent and start a relationship with them.
And if you don’t have a trusted local mechanic, find one near you on the “Mechanics Files” area of this website.
Excepting for warranty repairs, you’ll get the most bang for your service buck using a local inde shop specializing in VWs or German cars and that comes personally recommended to you, from friends, co-workers, etc. The VW dealer shop can certainly do the job, but their main priority to is keep the owners of cars under warranty happy, and that is what they focus and train to do. The inde shop does just the opposite, focused on keeping owners of cars not under warranty service happy.
One thing I recommend to recent new car purchasers – even if you never turned a wrench and never plan to – is to purchase the factory service manual. These are only available for a limited period of time. If you don’t buy one in time, you won’t be able to. Use some of the money you save by using the local inde shop for buying that manual from the VW dealership. It will probably come in very very useful one day, and quite a bit of service money will be saved, if not for you, for the next owner.