I've just bought a 10 plate petrol vRS on 9800 miles.

 

I've noticed that when it was service by Skoda it has a ticked box next to oil for variable service. Each service has been done each year with around 3500 miles added each year.

 

What does the variable service mean as i would just want to keep getting the car serviced every year as i will only be doing around 7000 miles a year?

Variable is the long life/high miler service.

Get your dealer to change it to fixed 1yr/10k services for you

I used to leave my vRS on variable even though I only did 12k per year, as I preferred having the long life oil and just took it in early on the anniversary.

You can normally negotiate a good variable price very close to the fixed service cost. Also it gives you a a bit more flexibilty in not worrying when you take car in as you can go a bit longer past a year if you want to

I also found you get the best prices for services in January.

Fixed servicing alternates between an oil change one year and an oil change and inspection the next year. Variable is the oil change and inspection when the car decides - typically up to two years between services.

There is advice on servicing to be found on the Volkswagen and Skoda web sites. In your case, the low annual mileage would indicate fixed services.

In your case, a 2010 car would most likely use the same "long life" grade of oil which ever type of service you chose. It is only people like me with older cars who can get away with using older standards of oil and so might "save" a little money by going for fixed servicing.

It is a simple matter to switch to fixed servicing. Even an independent garage can reset the service indicator. - it's detailed in your owners' manual.

I used to leave my vRS on variable even though I only did 12k per year, as I preferred having the long life oil and just took it in early on the anniversary.

You can normally negotiate a good variable price very close to the fixed service cost. Also it gives you a a bit more flexibilty in not worrying when you take car in as you can go a bit longer past a year if you want to

I also found you get the best prices for services in January.

If your car had a dpf then the same oil is used for variable and fixed servicing.

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