Longlife or time and distance?

[wantmygti]

My dealer has told me that when my car is delivered he'll put it on the time and distance servicing as I only do anout 10,000 ish miles a year (maybe a touch more).

I was thinking I'd be on longlife and hence only need a service every other year ish. He also states that a longlife service costs more than a normal one.

Is this a stealers attempt to get more money out of me or is it fair play? I don't want to screw the new engine within a year or two but also I'm not keen on giving VW more of my hard earned cash than they deserve!

[womble68]

I'd suggest that its the Dealer trying to screw you over.  Longlife oil is better for the Gti, yes it costs more, but then at least if its on Longlife to begin with the cost has gone to the Dealer and not to yourself.  If YOU choose to swap at a later point to Time and Distance, YOU can make that choice at that time.  To be honest a solution when it comes to servicing when it comes round would be for yourself to provide the oil (its usually much cheaper to buy it yourself, with a bit of careful sourcing). 

[The Doc]

Long life for me every time (if possible)

[wantmygti]

Doc, is that purely based on cost? At what point does time and distance become favourable? Surely, if I did low mileage, it would be ill advised not to service the car at all? Does anyone know comparabel costs of say a 1st longlife service versus a 1st t+d service?

[Cass]

The servicing regime you choose should be based on the annual mileage you do as well as the type of driving eg short city/urban trips or high revving would qualify for the time/distance and low miles, rural or predominately motorway journeys would qualify for the longlife regime. Your choice, but I went with the time/distance option as I want an oil change every year, regardless of miles (I estimate I will do approx 6 - 8000 this year). Call me old school, but I like to see a service stamp in the book every year and the idea of running a car for up to 2 years without an oil change is false economy as I personally would not buy a second hand car which was not serviced at least annually. Engine oil is the most important thing in servicing IMHO. The longlife regime was brought by commercial/fleet pressure to reduce overall running costs but I am not sure if it has been fully evaluated yet by comparing the reliability and maintenance costs of cars which have run up very high miles against the more tradtional annual servicing regime.  

Cass

[wantmygti]

Cass- I agree, oil change every year is indeed preferred. On my current MR2 it gets a service every year and i do an extra one at the 6 month interval.

[scotty4]

1st service next week

11500 miles

had the car for 12months

service £230 including vat

service dept states car needs service, dependant on how you drive the car and this can be as soon as 8000 miles.

[adw555]

Had my first long life service at 20,150 miles....£152..main dealer...quite happy 

[scotty4]

adw555 do you do long journeys or stop start?

[adw555]

oh, my daily journery is 15miles down a motorway and 15mile back...very little stop start....that's the reason the dealer gave for the long distance I got before the first service