Since my cars in for service, what determines the service interval ?
For example,
Kia Rio diesel - every 10,000 miles
Vaxhall Astra 2.0l diesel - every 20,000 miles
I thought it may be oil related but the same type and rating of oil is used in both engines.
So what determines it ?
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Oil specification, (quality) I know that contradicts your post. :-)
Also engine design, some engines are harder on their oil than others, VAG PD for instance. Whether the car is likely to be used by fleets may have a bearing on intervals too, private owners can be used to support dealer service departments.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 12 Apr 11 at 10:58
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Long service intervals appease fleets and canny private buyers looking at total cost of ownership. Fleet sales represent over 60% of Vauxhall's UK business.
Engineering considerations, beyond ensuring the car makes it through its three year warranty / lease period without failing, which it almost certainly will, are secondary.
I would personally never buy a 3yr old / 60-100,000 mile car which had been on 20k service intervals. But the manufacturer doesn't care. And why should they?
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But the manufacturer doesn't care. And why should they?
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A reputation for longevity will help second hand values, which will appeal to private buyers of new cars. There's one reason why they should care.
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Long service intervals have been common now since 2003. That's a lot of 2nd hand 3 year old 60-100k company cars sold into the second hand market, most of which have happily added another 60-100k miles
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>> Fleet sales represent over 60% of Vauxhall's UK business.
>> Engineering considerations, beyond ensuring the car makes it through its three year warranty / lease
>> period without failing, which it almost certainly will, are secondary.
but Vauxhall now give a 100,000 mile / no time limit warranty.
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>> but Vauxhall now give a 100,000 mile / no time limit warranty.
Which neatly excludes all ex-fleet stuff. The fleets move their cars on after 3 yrs, during which time they would be covered by a standard 3yr warranty anyway. The headline grabbing 100k "Lifetime" warranty is not transferable to the second owner on any of these vehicles.
Most private new car buyers move their cars on every 2-3 years as well, and the warranty doesn't transfer to the next owner.
Apart from the tiny minority of owners who buy cars new (or nearly new from franchised dealers where the lifetime warranty can apply if Network Q / <12 months old <30k), and run them for many years, this warranty doesn't actually apply to anyone.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 12 Apr 11 at 15:36
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>> Kia Rio diesel - every 10,000 miles
>> Vaxhall Astra 2.0l diesel - every 20,000 miles
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>> So what determines it ?
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Easy - think of an arbitrary round figure - either in miles (UK) or years - that the punter can easily remember.
Otherwise how do you explain that a commodity such as a car has any relationship to the time it takes for the earth to go around the sun, or to a measure of distance based on the number of paces that a Roman walked?
Last edited by: John H on Tue 12 Apr 11 at 15:17
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...or to a measure of distance based on the number of paces that a Roman walked?...
Black cab fares in London jump after six miles because that's when the hackney carriage driver had to stop to rest the horse (so I'm told).
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>>Black cab fares in London jump after six miles because that's when the hackney carriage driver had to stop to rest the horse (so I'm told).
Would it be financially beneficial to do any taxi journeys in London in six mile hops?
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...Would it be financially beneficial to do any taxi journeys in London in six mile hops?...
The six mile hop plan might fail because you would have to pay another round of fixed charges when you got into the second taxi.
Stuff like time of day, amount of luggage, number of people.
The hackney carriage tariff could have been designed by a mobile phone company.
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Mobile phones work south of the river.
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>>Apart from the tiny minority of owners who buy cars new (or nearly new from franchised dealers where the lifetime warranty can apply if Network Q / <12 months old <30k), and run them for many years, this warranty doesn't actually apply to anyone.
But is it really such a tiny minority? I tend to keep my cars for a long time and so do many others that I know.
I'll have a new Giulietta when Alfa Romeo offer their 10 year guarantee.
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>> But is it really such a tiny minority? I tend to keep my cars for
>> a long time and so do many others that I know.
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>> I'll have a new Giulietta when Alfa Romeo offer their 10 year guarantee.
It would be interesting to know the numbers. Of the people I know who buy new cars, the vast majority do so every three years at the longest, but maybe that isn't typical.
Warranty and MOT considerations will play a part in this, and perhaps a longer warranty might persuade people to hang on to them longer. It makes more financial sense to do so, of course.
Don't forget too that many of the PCP finance type deals are arranged over 2-3 years, and geared very much towards replacing the car at the end of it.
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>> It would be interesting to know the numbers. Of the people I know who buy
>> new cars, the vast majority do so every three years at the longest, but maybe
>> that isn't typical.
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>> Warranty and MOT considerations will play a part in this, and perhaps a longer warranty
>> might persuade people to hang on to them longer. It makes more financial sense to
>> do so, of course.
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In my experience, those who buy new every 3 years do so because of an irrational fear of MOT and out-of-warranty repair costs.
Now that some manufacturers are offering 5, 7 or lifetime warranties, some of those fears might be allayed and habits changed. The mooted change of MOT once every 2 years (to tie in with EU regs) may also help those irrational people change their attitude.
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I am taking delivery of my new C max today, to replace the Honda Civic which I have owned from new for nearly 8 years.
I fully intend to keep this new car for a good few years.
My OH changes his cars much more frequently.
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My wifes Sirion is nearing 3 years old now, she is adament she will not be changing it until its becoming unrealiable, so I suspect it will be with us until the oil runs out.
Hers has 9000 mile service intervals ( as does my car ) but she still only has one service a year now, we didnt even look to see what the interval was when we bought the car.
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You can tell how arbitrary service intervals when you see the interval jump with no engine revisions or change to oil specification. Anyone remember when Vauxhall 1.9 CDTIs originally had 30,000 mile 2 year intervals which suddenly dropped back to 20,000 miles and 1 year for no apparent reason?
Either the engines couldn't take the abuse (unlikely, few had done that many miles by then) or service departments were feeling very empty and moaned accordingly to Vauxhall about it!
The balance seems to be pleasing fleet buyers with longer intervals versus service departments who would love to see you every month if they could. Engineers must come into it somewhere, but where it's not clear.
Last edited by: oilburner on Wed 13 Apr 11 at 12:00
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good point.
Does anyone know why Vauxhall changed their service intervals ?
I can only think of legal issues where something broke before the service was due.
I don't know of any cases where that has happened though.
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Why do Japanese makers usually specify 9Kish mile servicing where other makers seem happy with anything up to 20K or more.
My own experience with Toyota's MD servicing was that the services were reasonably priced and over a 2 year period servicing costs similar.
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>> I can only think of legal issues where something broke before the service was due.
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The rumour at the time was because of customer confusion with the idea of flexible servicing. I've no idea if that's true or not. I believe VW did much the same thing.
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diddy1234
I thought the service interval for the Rio diesel was 12500 miles/12 months?
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The Vauxhall "lifetime" warranty is only 100k. So realistically that's only 4 20k services.
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>> The Vauxhall "lifetime" warranty is only 100k. So realistically that's only 4 20k services.
And doesn't automatically transfer on sale of car either. Who keeps a brand new car for 4 years anyway. Most Vauxhalls will be hire, lease, company cars anyway.
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>>Who keeps a brand new car for 4 years anyway.
And longer; me for one, and plenty of folk that I know.
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To return to the original question " Service intervals - what determines length".
The answer in some cases is - the Car!
Some have this "Condition Based Servicing". It isn't so bad for the first 2-3 years (i.e when it is usually still in the Company Car network!) but after that you start spending more time (and money) in the dealers than you really want to.
To resurrect the old joke - I feel like adding the dealer phone number to "Friends and Family"!
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Londoner, have Mercedes Benz got you on a retainer or something? ;-)
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:-)
I would LOVE a Mercedes. Mrs L has a Merc, whilst I slum it in a 3 series.
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Haha :-) I don't know Londoner, you can lead them to water...
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'diddy1234
I thought the service interval for the Rio diesel was 12500 miles/12 months?'
I think the newer Rio's are 12,500 miles.
Mine is every 10,000 miles
I can't confirm but I think it changed when Kia introduced the 7 year warranty.
I purchased mine 6 months before the introduction of the 7 year warranty.
Dam (I kick myself).
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Service intervals - what determines length - Old Navy
