My 2016 1.2 petrol Fabia is due a service. In the four years since I bought it it's been on fixed interval servicing which at my mileage, just over 7000 last year, means annually.
Is it worth moving over to variable interval servicing on the basis that it'll go longer than a year between trips to the workshop?
Asked when I booked it in for service and agent said variable servicing was mainly an advantage to those doing mega miles which surprised me.
What does the panel think.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 29 Sep 23 at 15:57
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The beemer is supposed to be variable servicing, wih an oil quality monitor.
Its b***** of course.
I am on fixed servicing, 12k or annual, whatever comes first.
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Yep I've opted for an annual service on my GTI, also done the same of wife 1.2 Polo and son's Polo GTI - maybe has an advantage on oil quality but also means it's easier to keep tabs on what needs to be changed when.
I did have my previous Golf TDI on a variable service and to be honest over the 14 years I had it I probably only saved on about two services in all of that time.
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On our 2012 Mazda I have a service at our indie next week. It’s on fixed service and the estimate was more than I expected. Given the overlap in checks I was disappointed he no longer discounts the MOT so that also pushed the price up. Going through the itemised list its due air, pollen and fuel filters together with a brake fluid change. With the exception of the fuel filter (4 years) the rest are every two years.
As the car only does 5- 6k pa these were done only 11k ago and should be good for another year at least. So I’ve deleted these as being mileage rather than time driven and saved £250.
I have however stuck with the annual oil change and MOT.
You may find it worth doing something similar with the Fabia.
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Asked when I booked it in for service and agent said variable servicing was mainly
>> an advantage to those doing mega miles which surprised me.
>>
>> What does the panel think.
>>
I'm not surprised, thats the reason it was brought in. Mega miles owners/drivers, normal useage stick to once a year. There's no real cost saving.
There's not much to an annual service, I just order the bits from carparts4less or the dealer. I know that DIY isn't always possible or practical for everyone, however most annual servicings don't consist of much work at all.
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I'm not sure it's possible to switch a Skoda back to variable servicing once it's been set on annual / 15000km intervals. I may be wrong though.
We have a diesel Octavia and a petrol Yeti, personally I change the oil at no more than the above intervals.
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Annual service + MOT carried out at the same time for average or low mileage cars.
Not all items wear with mileage - some degrade with time. Doing both together can also save a few £££
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If you are on a variable service schedule and then do a DiY service and reset the service light yourself it will revert to an annual setup - unless you have access to OB11 or VCDS.
I think you can flip between the two setups if that is what you want to do if you have access to the above scan devices.
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If the car isn't covered by any kind of warranty then you can do what you like, but I wouldn't want to leave the oil for more than a year if a lot of those 7000 miles were short journeys - oil gets condensation in it which turns acidic. I suppose it depends how long you're thinking of keeping the car.
For what it's worth, VW's guidance for variable is the car should be doing 25 miles per day and regular long journeys.
Bear in mind that variable means variable - if you do lots of short journeys the car may demand an oil change sooner than if it's on fixed interval. Also, oddly, after the first 2yrs variable leaves the car asking for an inspection every 12mths, but VW dealers seem unable / unwilling to do either an inspection or oil change on their own. Again, you can please yourself how you deal with this.
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Skoda Fabia 3 Variable Servicing - Zero
