Hello all, names Mick, and i'm enjoying my first Skoda. Its a 2009 Octavia 11 1.8TSI which i purchased new on 9th October 2009 so its not quite 1 year old. I only do around 5- 6 thousand miles a year and was told by the Dealer as it was on a Variable service Plan the 1st Service would be either 18,000 miles or 2 years whichever came first. However with only 5145 miles on it the service indicator is showing when i switch the ignition on and it says a service is due in 16 days or 5400 miles. Now i was expecting the 5400 to count down as i was putting miles on it but its not and it appears that when the physical mileage reaches 5400 that the SERVICE indicator will come on. I know the Owners Handbook says it can be reset via control knob 5 but it is a bit vague, i have'nt tried it and wonder if i did it would affect the warranty or whether i should take it to the Dealer for resetting and would they charge for it being done? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Mick.

Sounds like your set to fixed services to me. Take it to the dealer if you want moving to variable.

As your mileage is low I'd stay on fixed servicing personally, but thats your decision of course.

Thanks for that Keith. I wonder if the servicing schedule is set by the Dealer at the time of the PDI. My brother in law has an identical car bought at the same time running the 105 TDI engine. He has 200 miles more than me on his and his service light is not showing. I think i'll hang fire until the mileage matches up to the 5400 as showing by the service indicator then go up to the dealers and see what the crack is. They did say it was Variable and the sticker under the bonnet says it is but who knows what the dealer gets up to. Cheers again mate, i will keep you up to date. Mick.

Variable servicing uses fully synthetic oil which is more expensive , if normal oil or semi is put in it will revert to fixed . Dealers will go for cheaper option

It is not unknown for Dealers to change a "variable" servicing vehicle to "fixed" when it is part exchanged or sold on to a new owner. Why? Well, they want the servicing work and would rather see you every 12 months rather than every 24 months if you are low mileage. Provided the correct oil is used then the car should be fine going 2 years or 18000 miles. Skoda aren't the only car manufacturer to do this. I know that on petrol engined Minis and BMWs there are similar extended services intervals.

As advised by previous Posts, go back to the selling Dealer and get it sorted.

It is not unknown for Dealers to change a "variable" servicing vehicle to "fixed" when it is part exchanged or sold on to a new owner. Why? Well, they want the servicing work and would rather see you every 12 months rather than every 24 months if you are low mileage. Provided the correct oil is used then the car should be fine going 2 years or 18000 miles. Skoda aren't the only car manufacturer to do this. I know that on petrol engined Minis and BMWs there are similar extended services intervals.

As advised by previous Posts, go back to the selling Dealer and get it sorted.

Thanks everyone who has answered my questions. Today the service counter dropped from 5400 to 5300. Obviously it only drops per 100 miles each time. So now the day counter is showing 15 days or 5300 miles. i will wait until i run out of days and see if the SERVICE light comes on or whether the mileage counter takes over from it and continues to drop accordingly. 5300 miles will take me about another year to cover so that would be about right, around 2 years in total. Thanks again everyone and thanks to BRISKODA for a brilliant site. Cheers, Mick.

In 15 days time you'll get a "SERVICE NOW" message on the display I reckon.