Maintain a full VW service history?

[Yusee]

Cars can run a lot longer than they do. If the will is there to maintain them.

Just replace the bits that need replacing and keep running them.

I’ve run many cars to high mileage and none of them I would describe as unreliable as they got older.

It’s the unloved older cars that become unreliable.

Quite interesting to check the MOT/ tax history of your old cars to see how long they survived

[Watts]

My OH's Lupo turns 18 in April, we've had it from new and admittedly it's not done many miles nor has it many 'features' to go wrong but it has been extremely reliable. The only significant failure was the pedal box which VW built in a weakness so that you wouldn't damage your feet in an accident but unfortunately years of depressing the clutch pedal breaks the spot welds... Otherwise, amazing car! Definitely wouldn't call it an old banger

[fredgroves]

We had a 18 year old Ford for some time here.

Had it from 3 years old.

Really low mileage added to it (maybe sub 3k a year) and only replaced tyres, wipers...I had the mass air blow up on me a couple of years before we got rid of it. When the person who bought it from us drove away one of the cooling pipes let go about 2 miles up the road. Typical.

It was just a matter of time before stuff started failing though, not through use but just through age.

Who knows what else would have started rotting to bits.

[RM]

Mileage never feels relevant as a measure on it's own, it's what those miles were that counts. I'd much rather buy a car with 100k miles on it if those were mostly on the motorway, than one with 20k miles if those were mostly in the city.

[dfm]

Are the people not using VW using specialists or just their local backstreet garage?

[dubber36]

I get the long life oil technology, but servicing is, or should be more that just an oil change.

How many people going 2 years between services get under their cars and check for split cv gators for example? A stick could pierce one on the way home from collecting it when brand new. That could be 2 years of grease escaping and being replaced with dust and grit forming a grinding paste on the end of the driveshaft.

Servicing used to refer to preventative maintenance, nowadays it's just a case of fitting a few parts and changing fluids.