Every day we get dozens of Audi repair questions so I decide to post answers to the most popular questions. 
Question — Why is it so expensive to get my Audi repaired?
The short answer is the economics of running and new car dealership. Most if not all dealers need to make over $1.2 million dollars each month just to pay the bills and the majority of that cash flow comes from the service department.
Almost everyone at the dealership from the technician to the service manager get paid some sort of commission or a variation of a small base salary plus commission on the cash work they sell you.
In simple terms nobody really makes any money doing warranty work. For the technician warranty work pays half of what cash work pays and service writers get paid on their cash sales not warranty repairs.
When it is busy they get a good mix of cash and warranty jobs and everyone is happy. W
hen it is slow the customers that actually come in for service make up the customers that did not come in for service.
The slow times is when technicians and service writers recommend and sell service and repair that could be done at another time.
Most service managers will frown upon up selling warranty work but when it is slow it is almost like the don’t ask don’t tell in the military.
I worked at a dealership where when it was slow the service manager would hand us a job in the morning and say “hit it for all it’s worth” it is certified pre-owned and the sky is the limit for warranty repairs because there is only 5 cars on the schedule and 12 technicians in the shop.