I have had my 2014 second-hand Yeti for a year now, and the Maxi-dot told me I have a service due in 10 days time. That is exactly one year since I bought it, when as part of the deal they gave it it's second service, and hence I assumed it was on an annual service interval. I phoned the my local dealer, Westover Skoda in Bournemouth, and  they said from the computer data the car is on the variable service, and that honestly it would not need a service for a while, and if I brought it in they would reset the car so the Maxi-dot output would match a variable service. Also that as it had had better oil put in at the last variable service, after they had reset it I could wait for the car to say when it's next service is. So as the car has only done 8,500 miles since the last service, I will probably wait until 10,000 miles and then have the next variable service. I thought that was pretty good of them.

A cautious thumbs up for Steve, if it was him you spoke to. However your car will be on the better oil anyway as it is like mine and has to have the longlife oil (VW 507) because of the DPF requiring low ash oil. I have a feeling that the car was reset to annual servicing when it was being done but the service department just never changed their records. I do a similar mileage to you and insisted that mine was change to fixed annual when it went for it's first variable service.

Ian.

 I thought that was pretty good of them.

Not resetting the service indicator after the service would not exactly fill me with confidence.

Well I had the Maxidot reset to Variable Service - it now says next service in about 9000 miles or 365 days. What do people think about the variable service with respect to how good are the oil sensors and other monitoring information that is used to judge the next variable service? And how good is the long life oil? Do other people go to about 18000 miles before a service or do people prefer the more usual 10,000 miles? Not sure what is best for the car now?

had mine reset to variable when serviced, it showed 9000 miles less than if on fixed!!

Edited 16 August, 20169 yr by Frenchtone

Well I had the Maxidot reset to Variable Service - it now says next service in about 9000 miles or 365 days. What do people think about the variable service with respect to how good are the oil sensors and other monitoring information that is used to judge the next variable service? And how good is the long life oil? Do other people go to about 18000 miles before a service or do people prefer the more usual 10,000 miles? Not sure what is best for the car now?

Like you I do less than than the average of 12k. miles per year and therefore prefer to go with annual servicing. Longlife in my view is really for higher than average mileage users who are normally business users and change their cars every three years.

My old Yeti was on "variable" since I was doing 1500 miles a month until I was medically retired. When I p-exed the car it had done 103k miles and used no oil and appeared to be in excellent mechanical condition. I was perfectly happy with it on that schedule.

The new car is on fixed servicing since I am now doing very low mileage generally.

My two previous Yeti's were variable service doing about 13K per year but importantly a reasonable amount of my journey time was motorway driving.  I always ended up servicing the car after 2 years (as it's a time or distance service) and have had no issues.  I'll be getting the next Yeti set to variable service as my milage driving profile has not changed.

Variable servicing was invented for fleet managers to reduce costs for fleet sales, engineers who care about the lifespan of their vehicles??? Buy and run it cheap and out it after 3 years.

You're not supposed to hang on to your vehicle like we once did, it's meant to be recycled for a new toy with all the ever so new bells and whistles.

My Yeti is just over four years old and has done 45.000 miles.  In that time it has had two variable services and is running perfectly well. 

The reality of course is that we don't really know what is best. We'd only know if we kept the car for some years and then had the engine stripped down and examined which ain't going to happen.

 

But for most of us who grew up with cars that needed annual/quite low mileage oil changes and like to look after our vehicles it gives us some comfort having annual oil and filter changes done. And to be honest, in the scheme of things, it's not expensive having it done, whether it's really required or not.

 

I shall probably change the Yeti after 3 years and as it's covered under warranty why should I really worry what happens after that and succesive owners? But whilst I do own it and look after it well I'm happy enough to have it serviced annually even if that's more than it really needs. 

 

Our other cars have the oil and filter changed more frequently than the manufacturers service intervals but that's because they cover relatively low mileages and both have chains which benefit from regular oil changes. One is 6 years old and we intend keeping the other.

Reduced need for servicing is also aimed at getting more fleet sales.......it's a selling point.