I went on to give my usual, well-worn speech......

These long life (long distance) service schedules are a great selling point for a new car buyer especially a fleet buyer. If you buy a 100 motor's & they only need a service every 20,000 miles then this represents a big saving. The majority of these cars will see their time through the first three years without a problem. The reality is that the second or third owner is going to get a car that has done possibly 60,000 miles & only had 2 or 3 oil changes. The manufacturers have few worries, as they are out of warrantee period & they are in position to sell you lots of bits for your well-worn motor. Mr fleet owner has a clear conscience & a healthier bank balance (nice)

Anyways, this customer brings his Audi in for his new MAP sensor (thrust sensor in Audi speak) & he was covered by his warrantee (a rare thing in my experience). He asked if we could look at his brakes, as they were making a grinding noise. We stripped all his brakes & the condition of the front discs was unbelievable. They looked like they had been recovered from the Titanic. I couldn’t contact the customer to get authorisation to carry on, but decided that they needed changing. I showed the guy his discs & he couldn’t believe what he saw. My point about servicing was reinforced! There is more to a service than just the engine & its amazing how badly seized a brake pad can become in 12 months.

In my opinion, all cars should receive a Full Service at least every 12 months or 10,000 miles & a Minor Service 6 months in between. It is arguable that cars that cover a higher mileage could get away with fewer Full Services. I see a few that do about 10,000 miles in three weeks & there seems little point in pulling all the brakes to bits that often, as we do on a Full Service.

There are many factors that have to be taken into account & it does take some time to assess the individual needs of customers.

Sorry for my ramblings.

Please discuss………….

My recent gripe is on extended timing belt change intervals.

Had a customer's car towed in last week - 86,000 miles V reg Zetec 2litre with 100,000 mile/10 year mile belt change interval. Guess what? Broken belt!

Fortunately my customer does not seek to blame me for this failure, although some Zetecs are 80,000miles/5 years. Autodata is not that clear on this issue though!!

They're all getting changed sooner now on the strength of this experience.

Regards,

Steve

Regards Tom

Dave what a breath of fresh air! I wish I'd had a pound for every conversation I've had with customers regarding long life servicing. I try as often as possible to convert them to the 6/12 month service and just remind them of how many things can go wrong from a safety point of view.

It works every time and so it should!!

They may not need all serviceable items replaced every 12 months but at least the vehicle is checked for safety and you can report on other issues.

Good post.

JW

At least Renault for all their faults are beginning to see sense and putting the later
models onto 12,000/12 month service schedule.

Hope other makers follow suit.

Neil