Servicing - Long Life v Annual

[garrardrj]

Taking the topic off a "For Sale" Thread

Having been involved with Car Boffins over the last 25 years i received from some very good sources the advice around Long Life Servicing which is relevant to many manufacturers now .

Simply (The long version is very boring ) I was advised if a car was doing less than 5k per annum that it would be best to change the oil yearly , over 10k then 18mths and 20k then 2 yearly .

I spoke to two VW Garages , a Skoda Garage and a Seat Garage when i first got my ED30 , they all confirmed the yearly change of oil for my car as i was not going to do more than 3k a year . Wifes Mini which is also on long life before we got it under the Service pack agreement has been advised to be annual and not bi annually as we only do about 4/5k in that too .

So what do you think for low mileage cars ?

[skard]

I use longlife spec oil...on a time and distance basis.

Although I only do about 4000 a year these days, use the same policy on the wifes TDI though sometimes do oil changes more than annually as she does about 12k and it is easy and cheap to do.
Don't see the point in an individual waiting 24 months for an oil change to their car, I can understand more in a fleet of cars to save money.

[stealthwolf]

You need to have a read of the requirements for longlife servicing:

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=65779.0

Short answer is that all GTIs should be on annual/10k servicing but use longlife oil.

[Jonathon555]

I go for annual regardless of miles

However my old gti150 tdi was serviced 3 times a year

[MC71]

For me, annual regardless of miles (always less than 8k) and longlife.