Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre
Experience the Difference

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the difference between my current Land Rover Dealer and a Land Rover Service Centre?
• How did Team Valley Land Rover become a Land Rover Service Centre?
• Why are service prices at Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre lower than many other Land Rover Dealers?

General FAQs

The only difference is that your Land Rover dealer sells cars, Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre does not.

A Land Rover Service Centre has exactly the same rights, privileges and responsibilities to Land Rover UK as the Aftersales function of the Land Rover Dealer where you may have bought your car from. Both the Land Rover Service Centre and Dealer Aftersales have to meet the same requirements to meet from Land Rover UK and are be checked and audited in the same way.

To become authorised by Land Rover UK, the Land Rover Service Centre has had to provide Land Rover with over 400 evidences (the provision of over 500 Land Rover special tools is just one evidence!) and pass an extensive and exhaustive audit which is carried out by Land Rovers audit team, all designed to ensure the Land Rover driver can rely on the highest standard of service from the Independent Land Rover Service Centre.

Both the Land Rover Service Centre and Dealers Aftersales have the same authority to:-

• service your Land Rover (maintaining your Full Manufacturer Service History)
• carry out all your warranty work on behalf of Land Rover UK
• carry out any VIP pack work
• check for outstanding recalls and carry out your recall work
• supply the full range of genuine parts directly from Land Rover UK.

Team Valley Land Rover believes its operation offers the Land Rover Driver a significant price advantage over the Land Rover Dealer why not contact us on 0191 4877361 for a quote.

The technical explanation (European and UK legal position) what it means for customers of Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre:

The BER (Block Exemption Regulation of the European Union which was introduced to all member countries in October 2003 after a 12 month transition period) of the Automotive Business, introduces the Authorised repairer as a new type of operator meaning a provider of service, repair and maintenance services for motor vehicles operating within the distribution system set up by the supplier of motor vehicles (Article 1(1)(1) of the BER). The supplier is in general the vehicle manufacturer or its importers – in this instance the supplier is Land Rover UK.

It is, under BER, possible for an operator to be a member of the network of a vehicle manufacturer and select to only service, repair and maintain motor vehicles as well as distribute spare parts.
With respect to service, repair and maintenance, one of the policy objectives of Regulation 1400/2002 was to enable Authorised repairers to concentrate on aftersales services only [without being obliged to also sell new cars of the brand, Article 4(1)(h) and recital 22 of the Regulation]

Where the market share of the car maker and its Authorised repair network exceeds 30% (as in the case of Land Rover), the Regulation only exempts (allows) the use of such selection criteria that are of purely qualitative nature (cf. Articles 3(1) and 1(1)(h) of the Regulation], the Authorised Repairer is appointed to the network of a manufacturer as part of a qualitative selective distribution channel.

Qualitative selective distribution means that the manufacturer appoints the distribution partners (Authorised Repairer) on the basis of selection criteria which are objectively necessary with a view to the nature of the product and the service in question [Article 1(1)(h) of the Regulation].

It also means that such purely qualitative criteria must be set out and applied in a uniform and non-discriminatory manner [Ibid].

From this it follows that manufacturers who wish to operate a qualitative selective system (as Land Rover does) that meets the conditions for block exemption under Article 3(1), must admit all candidates who fulfill the required qualitative criteria to their networks of Authorised Repairers. The rationale of this approach of the Regulation is to enable market forces to determine the density of the Authorised Repairer networks and the location of repair outlets in accordance with local demand, so that consumers can benefit from certified aftersales services in their proximity and effective competition between Authorised Repairers.

The BER offers the distributor (the Dealer) of new vehicles the possibility to provide after sales service through Authorised Repairers of the brand (Article 4(1)(g) of the new BER). In many cases the distributor will continue to exercise both activities i.e. they will at the same time sell new vehicles as distributor and repair and maintain vehicles as Authorised Repairer.

A service business which specialises in Land Rovers has the opportunity of becoming a Land Rover Service Centre, which includes Servicing, Repairing and offering full warranty services as part of the official Land Rover UK Dealer network.

Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre is a full member of the Land Rover UK Network for Service, repair and general maintenance (supplying Land Rover warranty, Genuine parts etc) though is not obliged to also sell new Land Rovers. Any customer with a Land Rover can use Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre and receive the full services of a Land Rover UK network partner.

To become a Land Rover Service Centre we had to meet a significant number of quality requirements (commonly referred to as Standards) which are issued by Land Rover UK.

The Standards which Land Rover requires its Service Centres to meet are significant in number, depth and quality. They are judged necessary to protect the interests of the customer and their vehicle.

Because Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre meets or exceeds the Standards required by Land Rover UK, Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre was invited to be a member of the Land Rover network – with exactly the same rights, privileges and requirements as the current Land Rover Service Centres in the North East who are Stratstone in  Newcastle, Stratstone in Durham and Stratstone in Stockton.

The standards are audited for Land Rover by independent auditors.

You as a customer now have a choice in the North East about which official Land Rover Service Centre you use for your service, repair, warranty and parts business – that is, all your Land Rover Service Requirements. Either Stratstone or Team Valley Land Rover.

A full function Land Rover Dealer (who sells new cars and also provides service and repair) is a Service Centre when it comes to supplying you with your service, repair, warranty and parts business in exactly the same way as Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre.

Land Rover UK has appointed Team Valley Land Rover as the only Independent Land Rover Authorised Service Centre in the North of England.

Independent and locally owned Team Valley Land Rover is now fully authorised by Land Rover UK to:

• service your Land Rover (maintaining your Full Manufacturer Service History)
• carry out all your warranty work
• carry out any VIP pack work
• check for outstanding recalls and carry out your recall work
• supply the full range of genuine parts directly from Land Rover UK.

The obvious question is “why, if you are Authorised by Land Rover, use Genuine Parts and your technicians are Land Rover trained, is the cost of my service so much lower than I am used to?”

The simple answer is (1) our lower labour rate and (2) our lower oil charges.

(1) Why is your labour rate so different?

Well, the service labour rate at many Dealers is often driven by ‘SERVICE ABSORBTION’
The Service Absorption percentage indicates the extent to which the direct profit of the after sales departments cover the overheads of the entire dealership. The aftersales absorption percentage is monitored by dealer networks' composite accounts and reported monthly to the manufacturer as part of the monthly composite submission.
If the overheads can be 100% absorbed by the after sales direct profits then it is viewed that the dealerships ability to withstand a downturn in vehicle sales is greatly enhanced.

• This cross-subsidy of sales operations has long been the kingpin of the standard dealership structure, and acknowledged in the widespread use of 'aftersales absorption' in the monitoring of dealerships' financial health.
• The standard approach to management accounting in franchised networks monitors the revenues from inter-dependent dealership departments. No matter that the managers of individual departments are given targets that may encourage them towards greater inter-departmental competition rather than co-operation, which is often at the overall cost of the customer.
• So, the volume in one area of a dealership is dependent on volume in another and this could be to the detriment of the service customer as in practise, the market-priming activities and incentive programmes of manufacturers tend to put new car sales first among the dealership's immediate priorities.
• Over the last decade or more, the franchised dealers have responded to the loss of service volume to competitors by raising labour charges to protect margins - effectively, in the longer term, making the competition ever more competitive. But raising franchised workshop labour rates beyond inflation to offset a decline in service hours sales has not served effectively to halt the decline of aftersales absorption. It's worth noting that in Southern Europe, where more car franchises and agencies are 'owner-driven',
• the average margin between franchised and non-franchised servicing costs is lower than in the UK and other markets. The UK has been a trend-setter in the process whereby franchises have consolidated under corporate ownership and set higher profit targets to compensate for higher management costs
• and to repay external investors.
• all of which has an upward pressure on service retail labour rates.
  Another factor in a declining average overhead absorption rate is the increasingly effective competition faced by franchised dealers' service departments from variously competent 'owner-driven' independent sector – Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre is an ‘owner-driven’ business, which has been recognised by Land Rover UK as meeting all the Standards required of their authorised network. The franchised sector has increased the range of its offer over the last five years, to include courtesy transport
• and free vehicle cleaning as routine elements of the service offer. These added value propositions, equivalent to some 10 per cent of direct labour costs, have been made in pursuit of competitive advantage within the franchised sector, without reference to the independent sector's lower-priced offer. They make it all the harder for dealer service operations to compete on price - yet they confer no competitive advantage against non-franchised service: the independent sector has wisely steered clear of providing matching services.

Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre

• Does not use Service Absorption as a financial indicator
• Does not have separate departments with separate targets – only one department operating for the benefit of our customers
• Does not sell vehicles – focussing entirely on providing service excellence
• We try to keep labour rates as low as possible while providing a professional and effective service at a value for money proposition.
• We are owner driven with the owners personally responsible for day-to-day operations
• We keep management levels to a minimum giving responsibility and authority to all members of staff who take a personal pride in providing excellent service
• We have no external investors who need to be repaid with a return on their investment – which is usually paid for through higher labour rates.
• We do provide courtesy transport, which is a contractual requirement of Land Rover UK. Out transport is through two Freelander TD4’s which we supplement with cost effective hire vehicles from a nearby provider should our customers need transport.
• We will wash your car after each service which, again, is a contractual requirement of Land Rover UK.

(2) Why are oil prices so different?

Many Franchised Dealers are part of a Dealer Group. It is common practise for Dealer Groups to centrally agree oil prices through their Head Office. Part of this centralised agreement is that a ‘commission’ often equivalent to £3.00 per litre, is paid directly to head office by the oil companies, which increases the cost of oil to the dealer.

The increased cost price makes it impossible for the dealer to achieve the targeted percentage profit margin on oil without substantially increasing the retail price to the customer.
Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre has no such centralised agreement choosing a retail price which reflects the true cost price for quality shell oils.

This is why oil retail price at Team Valley Service Centre can be less than half the price of many dealers retail oil prices, e.g. for a Freelander TD4, this could reduce your service bill by over £48.00

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE PARTS AND SERVICE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAND ROVER UK & TEAM VALLEY LAND ROVER SERVICE CENTRE AND LAND ROVER UK & OTHER LAND ROVER DEALERSWHERE YOU MAY HAVE BOUGHT YOUR CAR FROM.

Team Valley Land Rover Service Centre uses:

• Genuine Land Rover parts
• Land Rover Trained Technicians
• Land Rover specified diagnostic equipment
  and
• Submits your Land Rover warranty directly to Land Rover UK

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