So today was the day for my Scouts first service. Being an ex demo car it had not done as well on the variable as I would have liked, but I have been monitoring the service indicator on the maxidot (turn off engine and before maxidot goes to sleep, press and hold dashboard trip reset button) and did see the interval creep up quite a bit once I was behind the wheel. So at 12,000 miles not too bad. I am doing 1400 mile round trip next week so I will hopefully get a real feel of the benefits of variable service after this.

Anyway, into my local 'stealer' this afternoon. £206 :eek: for an oil change. Still no other dealers nearby so captive market I guess. Figure it won't need another for a while. So after forking out for the long life oil at £50 odd plus VAT, I thought I would check the maxidot to see what it said. I was surprised to see the display next service in 9,400 miles or 372 days:confused: . So back to the garage and lots of apologies and reassurance that the longlife had gone in, but the technician had a Friday afternoon moment and got the computer setting wrong. Lets hope they were right about the oil. The service indicator now reads just dashes _ _ _ . I guess it needs to do a few miles to get some data to be able to start it prediction?

The moral of this story is. Check! It would appear that it is easy for a dealer to make a mistake and not set a car back to variable after a service and it is easier for your average owner not to know what to do to check it. You could end up with a very expensive annual service if you are not careful. Hopefully I will only need 1 more stealer service before I can go back to my good old independent, who will take the time to make sure everything is 100% at half the price.

Sounds like you have bee overcharged to me?? I paid less than £100 last time i did it!

The distance/time to next service will take a while to appear, it needs a certain amount of information before it can calculate the next service. It looks at oil quality and driving style amongst other variables to work things out.

Variable services are always going to be more expensive than fixed as they can go up to 2 years or 18,600 miles and they use the expensive long life 507.00 oil in the case of a TDI.

The distance/time to next service will take a while to appear, it needs a certain amount of information before it can calculate the next service. It looks at oil quality and driving style amongst other variables to work things out.

Variable services are always going to be more expensive than fixed as they can go up to 2 years or 18,600 miles and they use the expensive long life 507.00 oil in the case of a TDI.

Sorry to hijack the tread here but my car has done 12k (vrs tdi pd) and i've had to top it up with oil. The dealer asked "is it on variable or fixed". Without sounding thick but as the car hasnt had its first service yet how do you know what oil is in the engine anyway? I mean, the car comes from the factory with oil but they dont know if its on variable or fixed so whats the differencein the oil they supply me with?

So the £104 for labour on a first service is a rip off? It does seem steep, but I am stuck unless I want to do a £120 mile round trip to someone else.

I mean, the car comes from the factory with oil but they dont know if its on variable or fixed so whats the differencein the oil they supply me with?

The service log book that comes with the car has a sticker in it that indicates what service it is set to when it comes out of the factory Q1 being variable. I think they are all set to this and its up to the dealer who sells the car to advise the driver based on their driving habits if it is more suitable on fixed.

I guess that as the computer checks the oil quality it would be fairely obvious after a bit if you were on a lower quality oil, but set to variable as you would not get anywhere near the 18k mark and be very close to 9K?

You don't need to go to the stealer's for a service at all, just a vat reg garage

There must be someone close to you!

Škoda - Retailers - Retailer Search

The reset to fixed is a common ploy by many unscrupulous dealers to get cash off you quicker. I also wouldnt be checking the distance all the time. You *can* actually force it to call for a service if you hold it too long!

Many here have paid between £120 and £150 for a variable oil/inspection service. Seems your dealer have lost any repeat business from you.

Remember as well variable isnt for everyone - Servicing Plans : Owners : Volkswagen UK

VW garages seem to be offering pretty good service deals just now. You cold get a quote from them and ask Skoda to price match if you want to keep it at the Skoda dealer.

You *can* actually force it to call for a service if you hold it too long!

Many here have paid between £120 and £150 for a variable oil/inspection service. Seems your dealer have lost any repeat business from you.

Remember as well variable isnt for everyone - Servicing Plans : Owners : Volkswagen UK

Thanks for this, I have to go back in a few weeks to get a new bonnet badge fitted (min corroded). So they have a chance to redeem themselves. I am slightly worried that they may not have been 100% honest about the oil they put in now, but I guess I have no way of checking?

Will be careful with checking the service indicator . I have to say monitoring it since I got the car (every month or so) has given pretty consistant information and indeed helped me plan for the service before this next long trip.

Re: variable servicing, whilst on and average day I do around 20 miles, I do regular long trips (next week 1400) so I think that variable is still for me. Its a bit difficult to to tell in my case as I use the car to travel to client sites and although I am at one close by at present, next month I could be doing a 100 mile round trip every day.

I am slightly worried that they may not have been 100% honest about the oil they put in now, but I guess I have no way of checking?

Re: variable servicing, whilst on and average day I do around 20 miles, I do regular long trips (next week 1400) so I think that variable is still for me. Its a bit difficult to to tell in my case as I use the car to travel to client sites and although I am at one close by at present, next month I could be doing a 100 mile round trip every day.

What engine do you have? If it's a 2.0TDi with DPF, they should be using 507.00 whatever service regime it's on.

Because the oil is monitored when using variable service, I personally think that the worst that can happen if you aren't suited to variable is you end up going in for servicing as often as you would have for fixed, and hence waste money (because variable servicing is more expensive per service).

Sounds to me though that variable is probably best for you. Generally though, 9-10k PA is the sweet spot!

The service log book that comes with the car has a sticker in it that indicates what service it is set to when it comes out of the factory Q1 being variable. I think they are all set to this and its up to the dealer who sells the car to advise the driver based on their driving habits if it is more suitable on fixed.

Found sticker but don't know which figure is oil. What line of blurb does it come in?

However, I notice that the dealer has written first service due at 20K or else 2 years from date of purchase, whichever comes first, so I assume it must be fully synthetic long life?

(This is 1.8TSi engine).

Found sticker but don't know which figure is oil. What line of blurb does it come in?

Bottom line of the block of figures and first set on mine reads QG1 (i.e. variable service). Somewhere I think there is a tool on the web you can put all these figures into and it will list off what they all mean for you. I think someone posted a link here at some point. Explanation of service intervals and oil can be found on pages 6 and 7 of my manual.

What engine do you have? If it's a 2.0TDi with DPF, they should be using 507.00 whatever service regime it's on.

Yes its a 2.0 TDI and yes your right, after looking at the manual the only alternative is 506.00 for engines without Diesel Particle Filter, which of course mine has:thumbup:

Bottom line of the block of figures and first set on mine reads QG1 (i.e. variable service). Somewhere I think there is a tool on the web you can put all these figures into and it will list off what they all mean for you. I think someone posted a link here at some point. Explanation of service intervals and oil can be found on pages 6 and 7 of my manual.

Yes, I've got QG1. But I will be going onto semi synthetic at first annual service (about 6K to 7K in my case!) My local preferred garage (a specialist dealer) uses Millers oils.

Just had mine serviced last week and set to variable (because I do about 25k miles per year) and the service indicator is now showing a set of dashes where it used to have a mileage/days countdown, so I guess it's still working it out.

I just paid about £190 for a service at 18k miles, the car's first service in my hands and that was going onto variable servicing, so I guess your bill might have been a little on the salty side, but it's not totally outlandish. I actually thought that was decent value when I got the bill, but it may be that I am being naive!!

SW

Just had mine serviced last week and set to variable (because I do about 25k miles per year) and the service indicator is now showing a set of dashes where it used to have a mileage/days countdown, so I guess it's still working it out.

I just paid about £190 for a service at 18k miles, the car's first service in my hands and that was going onto variable servicing, so I guess your bill might have been a little on the salty side, but it's not totally outlandish. I actually thought that was decent value when I got the bill, but it may be that I am being naive!!

SW

My first annual 2.0FSi service was £102

mine was over £200 quid for first service (20k) a few replacement filters. hoping that it be out of warrenty on the next service so i can take it to an independent.

mine was over £200 quid for first service (20k) a few replacement filters. hoping that it be out of warrenty on the next service so i can take it to an independent.

You can anyway - see other parts of this thread and others. So long as it is a proper garage (VAT etc.) and they stamp up the service book, you are still covered. I used Clarion West Worthing for every service on my FSi, and when I needed warranty work (air con compressor) at Rivervale there was no problem at all.

Yes, I've got QG1. But I will be going onto semi synthetic at first annual service (about 6K to 7K in my case!) My local preferred garage (a specialist dealer) uses Millers oils.

Does that oil meet the VW spec for your engine? I'm surprised you'd want to use anything other than fully synthetic in a turbo'd engine?!

Does that oil meet the VW spec for your engine? I'm surprised you'd want to use anything other than fully synthetic in a turbo'd engine?!

I do between 6500 and 7000 a year. The service manager at Clarion knows his stuff - they have been Skoda main dealers, and now specialist dealers for years. I'd sooner have an annual change using a good semi synthetic than wait for 20K to 30K miles before emptying out sludge!

I just bought 4 litres of Fuchs GT1 Longlife III 5W30 507.00 oil for the princely sum of £46.20+VAT. That's the oil they'll be using if it's a TDi. Filter is another £8+VAT trade.

You've just been anally raped by your Skoda dealer if they charged you that price.

I just bought 4 litres of Fuchs GT1 Longlife III 5W30 507.00 oil for the princely sum of £46.20+VAT. That's the oil they'll be using if it's a TDi. Filter is another £8+VAT trade.

You've just been anally raped by your Skoda dealer if they charged you that price.

If you join 'Freedom' Fuchs GT1 4ltr is on offer for £31.73 and delivery is only £6.99.

Plus extra delivery to N. Ireland which will tear the *** out of it. :(

I do between 6500 and 7000 a year. The service manager at Clarion knows his stuff - they have been Skoda main dealers, and now specialist dealers for years. I'd sooner have an annual change using a good semi synthetic than wait for 20K to 30K miles before emptying out sludge!

But does it meet the VW spec? How would a semi-synth handle the heat of a turbo's bearings? Turbos put great stress on an engine's oil. I'd rather do 15k on the right oil than 8k using oil that can't handle the stress of a turbo application.

(For all I know, semi-synth IS the VW spec, I'm just saying that it surprises me they would spec semi-synth in an engine with a turbo!)