Hi folks.

 

Had my 280 since last September, done just over 6000 miles (all going very well) and the dash is telling me the car needs an inspection, as expected - I was told by the dealer I bought the car from it would need it. Fair enough.

 

I have since moved house (house move was what facilitated the car purchase) so I phone up my local dealer to book it in and they say there's no such thing as a 6000 mile inspection! They only do a 1 month safety check or a 1 year/10,000 mile service. 

 

So what's the deal here then? The local dealer said they can have it in and give it a free safety check and 'reset the light', but why was I told when I bought the car about this 6000 mile inspection and why does this other dealer not recognise this? Does it even need a 6000 mile inspection?

 

Cheers, T

No such thing as a 6 month inspection. Intervals are either annual on fixed interval or variable. My guess is the selling dealer simply did not know anything about Skodas or was trying to rip you off by doing twice as many services as actually required. Would appear they have set the dash to lie as well. My car is now 11 months old and still no warning. 

Thanks skidpan. You're totally right. Just called the dealer I bought it off. They said it was "probably not reset to 12 months / 10,000 miles at the factory by mistake." It was only the sales lady that told me about it when I picked it up so she probably didn't know the ins and outs of servicing... 

 

As you were everyone.

It was set on Variable Servicing at the Factory, 

then came off the Transporter, at the PDI the Service Indicator will have been re-set, and the Transit Setting.

No factory mistake.

 

?

When was the car PDI'd,. when was it first registered?

 

Maybe name the person that blamed the Factory, 

Maybe name the Dealership they work for, maybe ask them to put what they said in writing.

Edited 24 January, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

Meh, I'm not that bothered. Not gonna name and shame. It's easily sorted.

 

Car first registered 1st Sept 2017

Fair enough.

 

The thing is this is a continuing issue for many, a thing dealership employees pass off as an error.

They deal with hundreds / thousands of vehicles a year and it happens regularly and yet staff act as though just an error too often.

7 hours ago, skidpan said:

My car is now 11 months old and still no warning. 

 

Service message came on this morning, car booked in mid Feb.

 

Regarding dealers not re-setting service indicators that is exactly what happened when I bought the Leon. Took delivery June 14th and bought a service plan. Mid January the service warning came on so I rang dealer to find out why when it was only 7 months old. They said the service was due from the date of manufacture, mine was made late February thus needed a service. Decided it was not an issue since I had a service plan so I booked it in and told them about the service plan. They said the service plan was no good since I had not paid enough in, they wanted £220. So asked to speak to the sales team, told them the problems, promised to ring back, never did and when I tried them they simply hung up. So I then tried the business manage who sold me the service plan. Since it was a finance product and was unsuitable I had been miss sold which is illegal, he also did not return calls. So I contacted Seat Customer Services. They immediately confirmed that the service is due 12 months, 10,000 miles from sale and not manufacture so as I suspected it was not due until June. They said to ignore the dash message and get it done as I had originally intended. For my troubles they sent a £200 voucher I could spend on anything I wanted at a dealer and confirmed it all by e-mail. Strange as it may appear I never went back to the seller again.

Did it have delivery mileage when you bought it?

 

The  default factory setting is variable (QG1??). IIRC this has a minimum of 9000 miles/1yr, maximum 18600 miles/2yr range. The QG code will be printed on a label in the spare wheel well or boot, and the service booklet if you got one.

 

It is possible to change these limits via diagnostics, but I doubt very much this was done accidentally at the factory. Why your dealer said it would be due at 6000 miles is beyond me as no such regime exists, and being the suspicious person I am (and having dealt with a Skoda dealer for 14 years and seen everything), I would question if the car mileage is genuine or the car was built over 18 months earlier (yes I know thats not possible)

 

Edited 24 January, 20188 yr by xman

32 minutes ago, skidpan said:

 

Service message came on this morning, car booked in mid Feb.

 

Regarding dealers not re-setting service indicators that is exactly what happened when I bought the Leon. Took delivery June 14th and bought a service plan. Mid January the service warning came on so I rang dealer to find out why when it was only 7 months old. They said the service was due from the date of manufacture, mine was made late February thus needed a service. Decided it was not an issue since I had a service plan so I booked it in and told them about the service plan. They said the service plan was no good since I had not paid enough in, they wanted £220. So asked to speak to the sales team, told them the problems, promised to ring back, never did and when I tried them they simply hung up. So I then tried the business manage who sold me the service plan. Since it was a finance product and was unsuitable I had been miss sold which is illegal, he also did not return calls. So I contacted Seat Customer Services. They immediately confirmed that the service is due 12 months, 10,000 miles from sale and not manufacture so as I suspected it was not due until June. They said to ignore the dash message and get it done as I had originally intended. For my troubles they sent a £200 voucher I could spend on anything I wanted at a dealer and confirmed it all by e-mail. Strange as it may appear I never went back to the seller again.

 

How dealers like this continue to exist is a mystery to me. I trust you gave appropriate feedback about them to SEAT cs (not that they are likely to do anything about it)

A Superb 280 Sportline Combi (estate) DSG 4x4 will not have been built 18 months before September 2017.

 

The Warranty starts from first registration, and the MOT is 3 years later, so is the Haldex Service though.

So it is good that Full Main Dealer Servicing Records do record, 

and Transit resets & resetting to Fixed Servicing is done correctly, and 'fixing errors; is logged on the System / Records.

Car came with delivery mileage. Can’t remember how many but it wasn’t much at all. 

Its genuine mileage. 

Screenshot of Skoda Connect App:

(yes, need to fill up soon;)

 

 

Picking up my Superb on Friday.  Based on what I have read on this forum, and knowing I will do 12-15k per year, of which the bulk of miles will be motorway / longer journeys I told the dealer I didn't want a service plan as I want the car to be on variable service as per Skoda guidelines.  Got an email back saying he would send it in to be set to variable.....  So looks like someone changed it without asking me??  Naughty Skoda dealer!

http://volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes 

Edited 24 January, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

3 hours ago, TGR said:

Car came with delivery mileage. Can’t remember how many but it wasn’t much at all. 

Its genuine mileage. 

Screenshot of Skoda Connect App:

(yes, need to fill up soon;)

 

 

 

Does the infotainment screen say the same thing? (car menu, settings, scroll down to service).  Just wondering if its a bug with the Skoda Connect app (which I don't have). The Inspection service on my 2016 280 is due after 3 years/30,000 miles. 6000 miles is ridiculous and clearly wrong. The oil service is still on variable as you will have done about 13,000 miles before it is due, mine was much the same despite them saying it would go for nearly 20k (but I was happy to have the 1st oil change done early anyway). As far as I know the Inspection service cannot be "flexible", it is always fixed. Only the oil change service can be flexible or fixed according to how its set up.

 

What is annoying is that someone at the dealers has specifically gone out of their way to change the inspection service so that it runs out after 6000 miles, which I think is close to fraud.

Edited 24 January, 20188 yr by nicknorman

Hmm, yeah it is weird. Yes, the infotainment screen, menu, settings, service say exactly the same thing.

 

I remember the guy on the phone today saying something about it might have been 'European setting' or something. Probably just another excuse or made up cover story because he simply didn't know, or may have been trying to back pedal somewhat...

 

Whatever it is I'm not overly bothered. More pleased that I don't have an expense that I was kind of expecting. 

 

Interesting if the Dealer I purchased it from were genuinely trying to swizz me out of some extra cash. They gave me a great deal on the purchase by basically matching the best Carwow quote I'd been given with very little persuasion or negotiating on my part.

1 minute ago, TGR said:

Hmm, yeah it is weird. Yes, the infotainment screen, menu, settings, service say exactly the same thing.

 

I remember the guy on the phone today saying something about it might have been 'European setting' or something. Probably just another excuse or made up cover story because he simply didn't know, or may have been trying to back pedal somewhat...

 

Whatever it is I'm not overly bothered. More pleased that I don't have an expense that I was kind of expecting. 

 

Interesting if the Dealer I purchased it from were genuinely trying to swizz me out of some extra cash. They gave me a great deal on the purchase by basically matching the best Carwow quote I'd been given with very little persuasion or negotiating on my part.

I suppose the only possible "honest" explanation might be that they reset the service to 6000 miles and were going to give you a free inspection just to make sure your new car was all fine. But somehow I doubt it!

I think that is actually the most likely explanation tbh. I can't remember the exact words said about it on the day, only that it was mentioned. I was probably too excited to get it off the forecourt and drive it!

47 minutes ago, TGR said:

I think that is actually the most likely explanation tbh. I can't remember the exact words said about it on the day, only that it was mentioned. I was probably too excited to get it off the forecourt and drive it!

Understandable (the excitement, I mean!).

Had the inspection light reset today along with a free health check. All is fine and dandy. 

I asked them to check the dipped headlight height as it’s a tad low for my liking but apparently it’s ‘spot on the legal height’ whatever that is. Shame I can’t trim it to my preference in the car but these fancy Smart Lights are supposed to sort themselves out... 

Fella said they’d reset the inspection to the next fixed interval and then once that’s done they’ll reset it to the “long term variable” since I do about 15,000 miles a year and that that would actually be cheaper than going on a service plan. Ok.

I’m assuming the oil service will need to be done sooner than what the status now says? 

Bearing in mind the state of tune of the car, it’s sophistication and cost, I’d have the oil changed around 10,000 miles. Then go onto the variable if you like. But no later than ~13,000 miles.

Do they offer a long life service as with the Octy I had?

 

is variable considered to be the best way forward these days?

Depends what you want, useage, miles per year,

and if it was to be 2 years between someone checking your car in a dealership you do some of that yourself.

http://volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes 

 

12 hours ago, thebigred said:

Do they offer a long life service as with the Octy I had?

 

is variable considered to be the best way forward these days?

 

If you do over about 11,000 miles a year variable is the way to go.

 

If you do less then its fixed.

 

There is sod all cost difference between the 2 methods since they do all the checks at the 2 year on variable that take place over the 1st and 2nd on fixed. The main saving is only having to take the car in every 20,000 miles approx which can be important to high mileage drivers who depend on their cars.

 

We have had variable on 2 cars where fixed did not exist but being old school I still did an annual oil change myself, less than £30 for oil and filter its daft not to.

18 minutes ago, skidpan said:

 

If you do over about 11,000 miles a year variable is the way to go.

 

If you do less then its fixed.

 

There is sod all cost difference between the 2 methods since they do all the checks at the 2 year on variable that take place over the 1st and 2nd on fixed. The main saving is only having to take the car in every 20,000 miles approx which can be important to high mileage drivers who depend on their cars.

 

We have had variable on 2 cars where fixed did not exist but being old school I still did an annual oil change myself, less than £30 for oil and filter its daft not to.

Useful info, thanks (y)