Looking after the environment has never been so important. With rapidly rising temperatures, sea levels and air and water pollutants, we must act now.
Volkswagen has taken active steps in approaching this problem, a strategy that Sunset VW shares. We believe in reducing our carbon footprint, pollutant output and general environmental impact as much as possible.
This blog will walk you through how Volkswagen cars can be repaired and serviced as greenly as possible.
Eco-friendly servicing options for Volkswagen
When servicing your Volkswagen car, a garage has a few options to reduce the environmental impact. These often come at little-to-no extra payment compared to other methods, and in many cases even mean savings. These lower costs can then be passed down to you, the customer.
Parts sourcing is one of the critical areas to focus on here. A service centre needs to get your car new components to keep it in good condition or replace worn-out pieces. Instead of purchasing new items from the manufacturer’s head office, the mechanics should look for nearby suppliers, reducing the environmental impact of transportation. In some cases, the parts might even be recycled, refurbished and reused.
The service centre might also operate on reduced waste strategies such as fostering close relationships with local recycling companies, encouraging technicians to use minimal disposables (latex gloves, paper, etc), and avoiding oil spills.
Finally, a garage might employ several energy reduction strategies. For instance, they might only light the workshop areas in immediate use or turn off the heating in certain areas.
In many cases, sustainable servicing practices are actually the law. For instance, the used engine oil removed from your car has to be collected and recycled. Once the company picks it up, the used oil will return to a refinery and become the base stock for more petroleum products. Filters (plastic or metal), antifreeze and even tyres can be recycled quite efficiently.
Green VW repair techniques
A VW vehicle repair is needed when something on your car wears out or breaks. In the above section, we chatted about some eco-friendly approaches garages take for servicing. Here, we’ll briefly discuss how they might apply the same principles to repairs.
In general, the same things apply. Technicians will look for local suppliers to supply environmentally friendly parts and reduce energy consumption and waste in the repair process.
The best way to repair a car as greenly as possible is to disassemble, diagnose and repair components rather than replace them wherever possible. However, an unfortunate challenge to this is the cost. Finding a component’s fault then repairing it naturally involves more work than swapping it out for a new one, driving up the cost to the garage and the customer.
Benefits of choosing green VW servicing and repair
Of course, the most significant benefit of green VW servicing and repair is its impact on the environment. With less wasted energy and resources, a job won’t affect climate change as much. This is a long-term, collective benefit – something that, when we all come together, will help make the future a better place for ourselves, our children, and everyone else to come.
However, the benefits don’t stop with the long term. Eco-friendly practices, like waste reduction, recycling, and energy-saving methods – mean servicing and repairs cost less. The service centre can then pass these savings on to you, the customer. Of course, it also brings satisfaction to know you’re doing everything you can for the world around you.
If you choose, you could ‘go the extra mile’ to reduce your carbon footprint. For instance, if your radio stops working, it’s much kinder to the environment to pay someone to fix it rather than replace it. Unfortunately, this usually comes with a higher cost (unless the technician finds the fault quickly). Service centres typically advise the cheaper replacement route – but the choice is yours.
Sunset VW and green VW servicing and repair
Volkswagen is committed to sustainability and looking after the planet for the future. Nowhere is this more evident than in their list of new and upcoming vehicles, where we see battery-powered EVs dominating their plans. Here at Sunset VW, our values align with VW. We believe in doing our bit for the planet and do everything we can to minimise our impact during VW servicing and repairs.
As a customer, please don’t hesitate to chat to your garage about your ethos when it comes to sustainability. We love to know that there are others out there and would love to explain how we keep our environmental values at the forefront of everything you do. Sunset VW is an approachable Volkswagen specialist based in Derby. As a family-owned business, we’ve been in business since the 80s, and we’ve made it our mission to do our bit for the local area through green vehicle repairs and servicing.
For more information or to book an appointment, why not reach out for a commitment-free, friendly chat and quote? We look forward to hearing from you.