Well, last night I could hardly believe my ears, the wifes 45 year old female cousin visited, she has a 3 year old Audi 3 and has never had it serviced!

She didn't think it needed yearly servicing. She thourght you got to 3 years old and the MOT covered changing the oil etc. I've heard it all now. Surprisingly, the car still works.

 Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Sorry but not as good as the storey I heard the other day.

A couple, after many years, decided to get a second car for the wife to use. After much searching and test drives pick one (not a LR).

One evening the husband returned home and said to the wife "what's changed with the car, something looks different?"

She replied "I just got it today!"

He said "What do you mean it looks exactly like the first one, same model, colour, accessories etc."

She replied "My insurance had run out".

Seemed they got 1 year "free" insurance in the purchasing deal - not bad 1 year insurance for £4000+
 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone

How about the brit family who's american relatives visit, the brits offer the use of their family car for the yanks to visit london, 4 hours after leaving the yank family call the brit family saying that they have broken down on the M40 motorway with a faulty gearbox.

long story short - the car was manual and had been driven in first gear for many miles as the american driver had never heard of a manual gearbox 2010 FL2 XS Auto in Santorini Black with HSE alloys

Urban myths! This one is totally genuine. She is a divorced woman. I presume her ex-husband took care of things. We see her every week, it's just never cropped up in conversation and wouldn't have this time apart from her moaning on about the first MOT and how it didn't cover an oil change. Surprised she knew what that was! Must have been watching the Discovery Channel or Top Gear.

That said my other half said she thorght the MOT meant they changed your oil et al. What do you think you get for 50 quid? If only. Well seeing I arrange and pay all the servicing. Her cousin then went on to moan about creaking doors, so armed with a tin of WD40, I didn't have grease, I sprayed the hinges and magically the noise stopped, her face lit up like a Christmas decoration. Simple things! If only people would read the handbooks

Mind you the car obviously didn't have any significant faults in 3 years and it speaks volumes that it kept going so long.

We just got rid of a 2007 MINI servicing is covered by a package and done according to cars service indicator.
we had one oil change at 6 months old and nothing since the car now being 4 years old.
MINI say do not do intermediate oil changes as synthetic oil so a waste of money.

your Mini should have had a service at 2 years old regardless of mileage.

I had a 2007 cooper and changed the oil and filter myself at 17000mls as I felt it was too long to wait until the first service which was 25000mls or 2 years.

Iain

only did 20,000 miles in 4 years, Mini refused to service it under TLC at two years as too low mileage.

Like I cooper has just mentioned, the engine oil should of been changed at least every 2 years or 17,000 miles as its timed/mileage based.
On my series 3 bmw the car actualy works out what it needs and when. The car will flash up the service light. Each time I took the car in they just simply placed the electronic key into a receiver unit where all the cars info is down loaded to the pc.
There all info on what is needed is recorded for the engineer to do. This is called a time based service. One thing to mention is that if you drive the car harder they service time frame will be calculated and you could end up going in much sooner.
Its true that synthectic based oils can and do go longer between services but 2 years is usualy the max.

I agree, I think it should have been serviced sooner, but the indicator light only finally came on at 4 years and 20,000 miles and said to service car in 900 miles.
I would have preferred to have had the oil changed sooner but as I said Mini refused saying it wasn't needed.
incidentally the ABS unit died last month costing £1780 to fix, and no goodwill from Mini. apparently it's a common fault on all BMW and VW group cars as they all use the same manufacturer.

I was very heavily involved in the MINI scene from 2004 to 2010 and feel that BMW's belief that the synthetic oil will last for 20,000 miles from new in the MINI is funny enough on its own!

Many years ago when i left school i worked as a YTS mechanic for about 3 years. One day a lady walked in and said her Citroen AX was leaking oil, i was given the job of checking it out. I asked her if she checks the oil level on a regular basis to which she said i checked it the other day and it needed some. I asked her how much she had used she said it took loads about 8 ltrs (1 ltr engine i think it was) straight away i knew what she had done> she had filled it up to the top of the engine filler cap how the car kept running i will never know.
Another old chap came in complaining about how small the hole for putting the the oil in was, he was tring to put it down the dip stick.
And taking about not servicing cars my mate brought a brand new Scooby STI 5 years ago and has never had it serviced !!!!!!!

There seem to be quite a lot of cars around now with gearboxes "sealed for life". What they mean by "life" is anyone's guess I suppose! eg:

"A five-speed manual transaxle is standard and a very impressive PowerShift six-speed is the automatic option. It's essentially two manual transmissions in one and shifted electronically and offers 8% to 10% better fuel economy than a traditional 4-speed automatic automatic. There's no hydraulic pump, no torque converter and it's sealed for life, so no servicing is necessary."
(Ford Fiesta - may be just for the US market)

Perhaps "life" is 25 years - but may only last 7.5 years!!!! 2002 Honda VFR800
2002 Toyota Celica 140 Silver (mid life crisis - again!)
2007 FL2 GS Manual Army Reconnaissance Green + freel2.com sticker
2004 Toyota Celica 140 Black - Gone
2000 Toyota Celica 140 Silver - Gone
1998 Toyota Celica ST Pearl Green - Gone
1996 Nissan Primera 1.6 - Gone
1994 Rover Montego 1.6 Auto - Gone