Audi A6 190 ultra - long service intervals

tonic wine

I've been searching to buy an A6 from the UK, but looks impossible to find a car that has been on fixed servicing.
Most have been serviced from 18-22K and upto 18 months before having there first service.  
Is this now the norm and would this be anything to be concerned about?

Toyotafanboi

They are well able for it. I'd say it'd be hard to find a car that sized on fixed intervals.

Isn't it almost a good sign that it was doing good mileage and not below average in anticipation of DPF/ clutch issues etc.

tonic wine

Which would be better for first service,
  11 months and 22K miles,  (4K over the recommended 18K?),  or 18 months and 18K miles.

kirving

Yeah the first one is a little high, but the car is doing 500 miles a week. Someone doing that kind of milage as a commuter especially as opposed to a rep would be spending a lot of time in the car on top of work and may find it hard to have time to get it done, as opposed to plain neglect.

ION08

tonic wine wrote: »

Which would be better for first service,
  11 months and 22K miles,  (4K over the recommended 18K?),  or 18 months and 18K miles.

18 months and 18k miles in my opinion.

Oil degrades faster with mileage than with age.

That being said, I wouldn't be too pleased with either 18k or 22k intervals.

If its only the first service it should be alright, but if a cars has been consistently serviced at such large intervals (ie anything above 10-15k) I would avoid it like the plague.

tonic wine

Thanks for that.  All cars have had only one service.
I've shortlisted another one today that i might fly over to have a look at.
It has 21K miles on the clock from March 15.  It had its first service at 19.5K miles in Jan 17, almost 2 years from date of purchase!!  Am I reading too much into this?  As you said, it's not been consistently serviced at large intervals, but I had it in my head, it's first service was an important one to get done on time?

Toyotafanboi

The service interval on those cars is every 20k miles or 24 months, so they are all in the ballpark.

ION08

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

The service interval on those cars is every 20k miles or 24 months, so they are all in the ballpark.

Yes let's blindly trust VAG long life serice intervals which can't possibly be designed as a marketing excersise to attract fleet buyers with low maintenance/service costs and not even question whether it is actually good for the engine or not!

The likleyhood is that 20k miles will be grand for the first couple of services, ie whilist the car is still in warranty... but the mechanical effects of 20k/24mth services will be felt after a couple of years when the car is of higher milege, out of warranty and by the sucker of an owner who wasnt able to afford the car when it was new or nearly new.
Thats the person who will be pumping money into replacement Turbos and other parts (which im sure suits the manufacturer just fine!!)

If it was my owm car and I planned to keep it a while (heck even if I didnt!), there is no way I would skimp on the price of a yearly oil change for the peace of mind that I am taking good mechanical care of my car.

Same story with "sealed for life" gearbox oil. :rolleyes:

Toyotafanboi

I don't know if it's skimping as such. I'd say it's convenience with some high mileage users to run their cars to 20k miles or they'd never be out of the dealership.

A few years ago I'd have been dubious but I see plenty of these cars daily, mainly in fleet ownership on 30k km intervals that are comfortably going to 2-300k kms with no issues whatsoever in relation to wear from poor engine lubrication.

I probably wouldn't do 20k miles between oil changes in a car designed in the 80's or 90's but the technology is seemingly there with both the fluids and the engines to extend the intervals.

We also opted for long life servicing in the Golf, the missus does around 1000km a week in it so visiting the dealer twice as opposed to four times a year is a bit more convenient, work would start asking questions I'd say if you were asking for a day off once every 12 weeks to get the car serviced :pac:.