Available non-dealership garage for maintenance?

[mitochondrial]

Hi everyone, I've been doing some research of this awesome A3 e-tron vehicle. However, I am not sure if it is my lack of skills in researching or if it is really the fact?
I've never heard anyone brought their A3 e-tron vehicle in some street garage for maintenance and everyone is complaining that the dealership's garage is ripping them off and the maintenance cost is not really transparent. Therefore, I was wondering for some simple maintenance like oil change should be able to do it in some non-dealership garage, right?
if not, what're the disadvantages?

 

[jumper]

Change the oil yourself then (but keep your receipts and log the mileage at which you did the service).

I believe that Mobile-1 0-40wt meets the Audi spec. I'd buy an Audi OEM filter, though. I always use Mercedes' factory oil filters when I change the oil on my CLK430. Aftermarket Mercedes filters, at least, are visibly inferior to OEM. I've not seen Audi's oil filters, yet.

As an aside, I have to laugh when looking through the list of "maintenance" items performed at the various mileage interval services. Other than oil changes, its a very rare item that is not a just visual inspection or a fill-up-the-windshield-washer-reservoir type task. Why would I pay for those "services?" There's not much really to do routine service-wise on modern cars. I can certainly also change air and cabin filters and maintain any other consumables in the car. Heck, even the Etron brakes ought to last forever if one uses regenerative braking effectively.

 

[rfortson]

Well, I'm leasing the car and got Audi Care so my maintenance is paid for. There are a few expensive items, such as transmission fluid flush, and from what I looked at, it was pretty much a wash compared to the dealer prices. I'd rather have the dealer mess it up (and be on the hook to fix it) rather than a 3rd party garage mess it up. Since it's still somewhat new tech, I figure the dealers should be on the hook for it.