2002 51 reg Octavia vRS

My car has just flashed up for a service, almost exactly a year after the last one.

I was under the impression that it was on variable servicing. The front of the service record shows the car as a 'QG1'; the service before last shows Next Service as Longlife s/v (in pen) but last years service shows Next Service as one year later & a more careful inspection of last years invoice shows they used 'Flushing oil' & 1lt of Castrol GTX Magnatec.

I think my dealer changed the servicing from variable to fixed (without asking me!) at the last service. Is there any way I can tell?

(To be fair to the dealer, the car had only managed to cover about 9k miles & 14months on the variable; so they may have thought I was better off on Fixed.)

Thanks

With the description of the oil, it does sound like you were changed to fixed. The only way to tell is read the codes from the ECU with VAG-COM or your dealers tools. How many miles have you covered since the service?. At only 9K miles per annum, variable is best, just think you wouldnt need to go near a dealer for another 12 months ish. Fixed is a good way for the dealer to make money, think about it. Every 10K you need an oil service, and then every 20K a major service. On variable you basically skip the 10K oil service.

Hi Mannyo, thanks for the reply.

I bought the car 1/2way between services. It had done about 6k miles since the service when I bought it, then I did about 3k miles more & it flashed up asking for a service (I didn't worry too much as I knew the previous owner & knew that he had done a fair few short journeys. i.e. 1 mile to work each day). The service cost me about £380 from a Skoda dealer (but that did include front pads & rear wiper as well) & the car is now flashing for another service 12 months later. I have only done 3.5k miles in that time & a lot of that was motorway driving.

This is why I think I should be on/would be better off on variable.

Thanks

Darren

Personally I woudn't be happy about having the car serviced every two years. I'd have thought variable service was only a good idea if you were doing 20k+ a year

do you have a stamp in the book of where the last service was done. you could ask what type of service they did.

I've got a similar problem with my octy (see my thread in here somewhere ) in that I don't feel it should be due a service yet (only covered 9k roughly).

I've been quoted £300 for another variable

I asked about getting a fixed service this time but was told I couldn't "chop and change" so it looks like I'm stuck with a short variable this time around.

Not a happy bunny at the moment........................

hi just bought a 54 plate octy vrs not sure what sevice programme its on, but i will only be doing around10k a year so looking at this thread is fixed my best option or is it cheaper to go on the variable

Hi Funkymonkey,

Well I've decided to go for fixed now as I'm on around 29k miles now and needing a service so as I can only cover another 10-11k before it needs the "big" 40k service another variable is just a waste of money for me.

Another factor is that all of the people I know personally who are into performance cars agree that variable servicing is not really suitable for someone who uses the power of a car like mine regularly, although I'm sure there are plenty of people who find variable a much better option - I just don't think I would be one of them, and if I only managed to get around 10k per variable anyway then it would end up costing me loads more money.

This is a gamble I'm not prepared to take.