Car history - a question for all the learned &/or auto industry members

[SAMMA]

Got my nearly new RS on Friday and am loving it! Haven't had a car this nice for a long time and it's a welcome change after being relegated to a Mazda3 & public transport for quite a few years. I have a question for the learned members here and those in the auto-sales industry. This RS is a MY11 with only 2000km on the clock first registered at the end of Nov 2011. I figured it would be due it's first service in Nov/Dec based on the interval specified in the owners manual but the cars computer is telling me in 4 months time? By my calcs this means the car wasn't fired up until the end of Jan 2012. Is it normal for a car to be registered so far in advance of actually being initialized?? Was purchased from a VW dealership who advised it was an ex VW exec car. The initial entries (delivery date, delivery inspection etc) in the service book have not been completed so I'm contacting Skoda to confirm exact warranty period but was curious what peoples thoughts are re this.

Is it commonplace for the paperwork to be not completed when the first owner is not a private individual but rather a manufacturer employee(s) ??? - I assume the Skoda database will shed more light. Seems strange to be registered so long before hitting the road ...

Cheers Samma

[Mysticality]

If it sheds any light on the situation - my service interval has always told me how long until next service, plus 365 days and 15,000km.

Next service 720 days or 30,000km... Yeah, right!!

[K1W1]

By my calcs this means the car wasn't fired up until the end of Jan 2012. Is it normal for a car to be registered so far in advance of actually being initialized??

It happens when companies are fudging their sale figures as we suspect certain brands close to our hearts do from time to time.
It's up to you what you want to do you can either take it in in November and get the service done and they will reset the service meter or wait till it tells you. Personally I'd wait.

Driven first in January with only 2000 km sounds like a car used in the Tour Down Under to me.

[wai]

It's like in the days before the Build Date was common. Then it was just the date on the compliance plate that was all that you would look at. The compliance plate was only required when the last item requiring compliance was installed.

So there would be dozens of cars in holding yards without one seatbelt (or just the seatbelt stalk) waiting to be fitted. When the dealer ordered them, the last bit would be fitted and the compliance plate stamped with that month and year. Now you had a brand spanking new car.

Never take any of the statistics on market share too seriously. They are all manipulated. Just look at how the music charts are compiled, but that's a whole other story

[Transporter]

My advice would be, change the engine oil and oil filter now, since the oil oxidize and your service is anyway quite overdue by date. The first service interval is from the date when the car was built, not sold. Who thinks otherwise is simply wrong. I see very often the cars that were build more than 12 months before they were sold for the first time. The things to watch for in these situations are, the fluid leaks and the battery will most likely fail much sooner than in average 3-4 year time.

If you're not sure, the VCDS will tell you when your car came to life.

[Diesel_vert]

As the warranty starts from the date of registration (if I'm not mistaken), I'd get the first service done according to that - purely for the purposes of maintaining a consistent service history (removes doubt for the prospective buyer when you sell it) and not give the manufacturer any excuse to deny a warranty claim in the future.

[SAMMA]

Driven first in January with only 2000 km sounds like a car used in the Tour Down Under to me.

Didn't think of that - No Wobbler Wild Turkey Air Horn fitted though

[SAMMA]

My advice would be, change the engine oil and oil filter now, since the oil oxidize and your service is anyway quite overdue by date. The first service interval is from the date when the car was built, not sold. Who thinks otherwise is simply wrong. I see very often the cars that were build more than 12 months before they were sold for the first time.

Yeah it's a June 2011 build so I was thinking about changing the oil before the first 'computer indicated' service ...

[dArK5HaD0w]

like Mysticality said - don't listen to what the trip computer is saying when it comes to the "service interval".
mine too also says something ridiculous.

i believe the reading displayed depends on wat the mechanics set it to during servicing, via the vcds cable.

[K1W1]

It's like in the days before the Build Date was common. Then it was just the date on the compliance plate that was all that you would look at. The compliance plate was only required when the last item requiring compliance was installed.

So there would be dozens of cars in holding yards without one seatbelt .(or just the seatbelt stalk) waiting to be fitted.

Maybe for locally assembled cars but not for imported. With imports the compliance date was the date the car came out of bond (because it complied with the regulations on that date) so importers used to hold vehicles in bond until they needed them. There was no point in them coming out of bond storage earlier because that was also that day that duties and sales taxes were payable. I once sold a car that was built in year 1, complied in year 2 and sold new in year 3 (more than 24 months since it left the factory).

[K1W1]

The first service interval is from the date when the car was built, not sold. Who thinks otherwise is simply wrong.

Well I guess you had better tell Skoda dealers (or at least one dealer) that then.
My car was built in Sept and registered in Dec and when the first service warning came up it said service in 1000 km or xx days. The xx days worked out to be the day before my car was registered so I can only assume that the dealer as part of their pre delivery procedure reset the service interval counter.

[BlackSuperb]

Picked up my new Skoda today. The MFD says Service Interval 371 days or 15,000km.

371 days?

[Diesel_vert]

Picked up my new Skoda today. The MFD says Service Interval 371 days or 15,000km.

371 days?

Well, 31 days x 12 months = 372 days, which I suppose is an easy-to-calculate approximation of a year.

But surely it couldn't have that difficult for the engineers to program the on-board computer to display the proper amount of days for every month for every year?

[Tigger]

Haha...12 months between servicing??

I wish...

I do over 1000 per week in my octavia, so does my wife in her polo GTI, so our services come up pretty quick!

every 3 months or so!

[BlackSuperb]

Yeah, I do 30,000 a year so every 371 days is no issue.