chinnybloke

Hi,

Given that you can easily put on serious kms here travelling about (especially when you live out in the sticks), we frequently need the cars servicing according to the next service stickers they put at the top of the windscreen. We have to follow them in the Toyota for the warranty but I let it slip a few thousand on the Subaru as it is not under warranty anymore. But why are they so short? 6 to 8 thousand kms is nothing. In the UK our Toyota service interval was 9,000 miles or 14,400km and the other car was variable according to how you drove it, but it was never less than 15,000 miles or 24,000 km!

Certainly one thing here is the cost of servicing is much much cheaper but I still don't get why so often. Surely oil here is the same as oil in the UK so why does it need changing more often?

Also, does anyone have a BMW/Audi/Merc? Are they on variable service intervals here and similar to UK levels (around 12-15000 miles)?

Thanks,
CB

dbd33

It depends a bit on the dealer, the first VW dealer I dealt with wanted the car in for an oil change every 3,000km, I switched and the current one uses an interval of 15,000. Even so, that's five services a year at two days each; I would not have bought a Volkswagen if I'd realized how much down time it has.

iaink

Primarily its because its +35 in the summer, -30 in the winter. It takes a toll.

Partly I think there is also an element of "because thats how its always been", and although oil technology have moved on, service intervals havent. At $40 for a service and oil change its not as critical to extend the life as much as it is in the UK where it costs a lot more.

My new honda has a monitoring system, and looks set to get about 11000km out of its first lot of oil. 6000km is a typical fixed service interval here, if you want the warranty honoured. I have a friend with a Chevy truck converted to run on propane at least part of the time, and he routinely gets more than 20000 km per oil change before the monitoring system tells him its time for a change..


2 days to service a VW? Really?

dbd33

It's been two days every time but I don't want to be too hard on VW, the Honda always takes two trips as well. I think it's to do with inventory control, the first trip is determine which parts are needed and the second to install them. The dealers keep oil and filters on hand but not the more exotic parts such as wiper blades and light bulbs. Whenever I take the Honda in I have the windshield replaced but I don't think that can be very time consuming. Curiously, the Honda windshield is under warranty as are the VW lightbulbs.

JonboyE

The UK market for new cars is still dominated by company/fleet cars. Therefore the importance placed on low service costs for the first three years of the car's life rather than the performance and maintenance in years 7, 8 and 9 and so no.

Also, as iaink says, driving conditions in some parts of Canada and much rougher on a car's engine than those in the UK.

Surrey Expat

Also bear in mind, what you might consider a 'service' in the UK is not so here, merely an oil change with a multi point inspection. In Canada people tend not to look after their vehicles as much and would not pay the higher cost of a full service. At least that is what our mechanic tells us.

I guess oil changes has become good business.

clynnog

You go to a dealer that gives you service intervals in km's....he must be a hyphenated Canadian.

Canada2006

I don't know if it's the case in Canada, but in Europe traditionally dealers and car manufacturers made a lot of money out of spares which meant they could sell their cars more cheaply. This happened particularly in France.

However, as cars have become much more reliable, there is less money to be made through spare parts - the car companies have canabalised one of their review streams!

As domestic North American cars still aren't as reliable as European, there is still money to be made on spares.

And of course, the more service intervals you have, the greater chance of spotting something to replace

Novocastrian

Hehe. Got 'im.

chinnybloke

Thanks for the info. The new BMW dealer in Moncton told me 12 months or 24,000. If they've got any brand new X5's for sale for about $10,000 I'll get one.

printer

I have often wondered about this too and i certainly don't stick ridgidly to it although i don't have any cars under warranty. Personally i think it is plain daft to assume all vehicles should have an oil and filter change every 5000kms which seems to be the advertised norm here in Kelowna.
As Iaink said there are the temperature extremes to consider but i would think twice a year should take care of that.

Danny B

My 2001 Vauxhall Vectra (1.8 petrol) was every 20,000 miles or once a year in the UK.

My 2008 Mazda is every 8,000km or 6 months and if you don't go the local dealer calls you at home and gives you shit

dbd33

It's a German car.

Mikey B

Its also to do with the fact std North American cars are behemoths, the 5L mustang I had I forgot to change the oil for about 8-9000km when I 1st moved here big mistake!! Its not like a nice 1.8T Audi or a 1.6L Ford where they can run for ages with no servicing. American car mentality, pack as much engine as you can into as small a space as possible hence they need looking after more.

Id imagine this will slowly change as 1 technology is getting better but also cus cars are getting smaller engine sizes here and the behemoths are becoming redundant but as 1 poster already said it will always be more frequent than the UK cus the weather extremes take their toll. For now just use your own judgement on what car it is and what you did in the UK.

dbd33

I thought one advantage of a big V8 was that it ran at low rpms and so was unstressed even if the oil changes were neglected, I'd think it'd need looking after less than some buzzy little engine, such as those mentioned.