Since I bought my car, my dealer (the only one in here officially recognized by  Skoda) insists on doing the oil and filters change EVERY 7500km at an extreme price of 200 euro. I told them it seemed this is being done out of greed and no car should need servicing so often. They told me that after measurements that Skoda technicians had done they advised servicing was needed this often because of air pollution and bad quality fuel . They also use the best (most expensive) oil for this, the Castrol long life . When my car was under warranty, I had no choice, I had to do every service there. But now I am thinking of doing this somewhere else.

I am thinking of extending the service interval to every 10000 km. Is this sensible? My friends say that even this is overkill but I don't want to take chances. What do you recommend?

The service interval is detailed in your service book.

I'd complain to skoda.cz about your dealer insisting on more frequent servicing.

Here in the UK it's every 15,000km/1 year on short intervals... Longer if set to variable and using the better oil.

To me it sounds like your dealer is profit making.

But it does depend where you are and how you use the car.

Mine gets an oil change after every track day irrespective of how many miles since the last service. One time it was under 2,000 km.

Poor quality fuel (i.e. high sulphur, contaminants, etc.) would be a good reason to decrease the oil change intervals/kms. As would a high proportion of short journeys.  H0rr - you don't mention what your usage pattern is like?

 

But even I think under 5000 miles sounds a touch excessive?

 

On UK fuel and a high proportion of journeys over 50 miles, I've just changed the oil (and filter) on my 2010 Yet at 9000 miles or 14500km.  i - because I want it to last and oil changes are lot cheaper than turbo bearings.

 

H0rr, if you don't like paying the labour charges then now your car is out of warranty why not do the intermediate oil changes yourself?  It's a simple enough job. Mine just cost me £48 or around 56 Euros, using Castrol Edge FST 5w30.

 My average speed is 23 km/h even though I do 20 km of highway almost every day .So short trips and city usage most of the time. I never buy cheap gasoline but we never really know its quality.

Labour charges are really low here, I used to have the oil changed paying less than 5 euros on my old car. That's why this whole affair seems fishy to me. While I understand that an officially endorsed dealer asks for more, 20 times more seems excessive (around 90 euro labour charges), especially if you have to do it every 7500 km. I will ask around about other dealers and will try to buy the oil and filters online just to be sure they are of good quality.

Anyway I will make the oil change at 10000 km which seems reasonable.