Flexible Service Help

[shane_elliott80]

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster. I purchased a brand new Seat Ibiza FR 1.2 in June 2015 and I'm trying to work out the servicing but I'm told different things from the dealer and Seat UK customer service (Which is one of the worst I've come across but I'll save that for another day).

Anyway, I'm told my car is on the flexible service regime which is 20k miles or 2 years whatever comes first. I'm fine with that since the car has done 14000 miles in just over a year mostly on motorway.

I have some questions that I've searched long and hard for but can't find any answers, if anyone can help with the below it would be great!

1. Is the time/mileage interval mentioned above correct as the dealer said a year or 10k when I called which I've obviously missed now.

2, On the dashboard when I press the button to bring up how many miles till my next service I get confused. If I press it 3 times (I think) it comes up with 2000 miles and a spanner, if I press it again it comes up with 4600 miles and a spanner. Does anyone know the difference between these two numbers? Are they for different kinds of service or the minimum and maximum?

I have looked in the manual but can't find much about the two different indicators so any help would be great. First time owning a brand new car so want to keep it perfect.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[j.owen]

What the hell, your situation is so similar to mine was; I also have a June 2015 1.2tsi FR and also done 14k miles since then.

When I rang SEAT, they checked their database and because mine is a lease car they set it to variable, which isn't described anywhere. What it basically means is that it just needs to be serviced whenever the service light comes on. If you have to flick through the trip computer to find out then it's no soon, you know when it's soon when every time you start the engine you'll get a clock with a spanner and the amount of miles remaining.

When I rang the dealer and booked my service I told them about this variable servicing and they said just mark it down as a first year service, however after my service (earlier today) they said they've put the next service down for the next 2 years or 20,000 miles so...

Anyway, long winded but hope it helps.


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[RUM4MO]

This sounds a bit weird, if you had bought a VW Polo with the same engine, it would have been set by factory default as fixed servicing, ie 10,000 miles 12 months. Now, VW used to "use" variable servicing if it was appropriate for that cars intended use, for low mileage cars it would be reset to fixed servicing.

Very very few owners of new cars are using variable servicing as it is not best plan for longer engine life, it is very good though for leased companies as they pay out less!

So, depends on how long you intend to keep this car as to if you are bothered about having a troublefree engine, or at least doing something to try to achieve this.

Edit:- I would have thought that with that age of car, you could check up all that servicing stuff on the main "radio" panel using "car" menu?

 

[j.owen]

This sounds a bit weird, if you had bought a VW Polo with the same engine, it would have been set by factory default as fixed servicing, ie 10,000 miles 12 months. Now, VW used to "use" variable servicing if it was appropriate for that cars intended use, for low mileage cars it would be reset to fixed servicing.

Very very few owners of new cars are using variable servicing as it is not best plan for longer engine life, it is very good though for leased companies as they pay out less!

So, depends on how long you intend to keep this car as to if you are bothered about having a troublefree engine, or at least doing something to try to achieve this.

Edit:- I would have thought that with that age of car, you could check up all that servicing stuff on the main "radio" panel using "car" menu?

For me personally it's good, it means that I only have to pay for a service once in the two years I have it despite being allowed to do up to 30k miles on my lease. If I owned the car I would ignore that and stick to to 10k/1 year recommendation.

As you said good for the lease company, the car was running fine though at just under 15k miles and since the service haven't noticed much difference in "smoothness" which you usually get from a service.


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[shane_elliott80]

Thanks for the responses, going to put another call in to the dealer later today. I think I'll just get it serviced now and if they want to set it to 20k after then they are more than welcome but I'll still get it done before. I was more worried about invalidating the warranty for not servicing correctly but I've now got in writing what my service regime is so I'm less worried.

RUM4MO - I don't have the fancy menus, just a standard stereo so I have to use the onboard trip computer on the dash.

Thanks again for replies, if anyone else has had similar issues please feel free to share!

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[RUM4MO]

Ah, your car must be a 2015MY car and not the 2016MY with the different and larger touch screen main display panel!

As you say, you are okay warranty wise, but I think that they will change the service frequency FOC if you ask to fixed miles and time, ie 10,000miles 12 months, it is in their interest as they will see you more often!

My wife's previous Polo started off life as variable and it requested servicing at about 18,000 miles, though I did an unofficial oil change at 10,000miles or 12 months and stuck with that for the rest of its 105,000miles 13 years we owned it. My 2011 Audi S4 is on variable servicing, but I change the oil at the 12 month point.

The only oil that VAG dealers use now is the Longlife version - to avoid confusion!

If you intend to replace that car at 4 or 5 years then for you, leaving it on variable servicing will work okay, it will just be the poor mug that buys it later in its life that will need to cough up for more wear and tear!