How to get fixed service dates changed

[lengy]

In March 2021 I bought an ex demo 2020 Polo Match from Johnsons Volkswagen in Birmingham with 2260 miles on the clock. We typically do 5000-6000 miles annually. The car was first registered in September 2020. So I was expecting the first 'Oil change service' to be in September 2021. However the car system is alerting us to an early first service date of 13th May 2021 with the following messages.

- Oil change service in 6900 mi of 25 days (13 May 2021)
- Inspection in 17600 mi of 390 days (13 May 2022)

Might this four month early oil change service date be down to the service counter being set when it was commissioned by the factory and the dealer not bothering to reset it when they registered the car? I would like to have the service dates in the same month as the month of registration so that so that in a few years time I can get the services and an MOT together at the same time. In the manual (p.28) it does say that you can reset the oil service, but I am reluctant to fiddle about with this myself.

I live in Coventry so I would be purchasing a service plan from Listers Volkswagen Coventry to cover the first two services. I guess could just ignore the service warning for four months, book the first service with Listers in September and then Listers could reset the service dates. Any ideas about the best approach.

Thanks and regards,
Graeme

[sc-red]

The date is based on when the car was PDI’d by the dealer, I.e. when the car was first started.

I had the same issue due to lockdown with my GTI. Car was PDI’d mid March last year, but not delivered to me until early May. Oil change has been on the dash for the last 4-5 weeks. It’ll be set correctly at the service.

[Aube]

Hi,

This seems to be a common issue with a few VW dealers and their second hand cars. A colleague purchased a 8 month old VW Golf with low miles from the main dealer but within a few weeks the service indicator flagged up the car needs a service. They said it was due to the very low mileage and that the car was almost a year old so it needs to be serviced if that’s what the indicator said. After a few calls they admitted that’s not the case and to bring the car in when it’s a year old or 9000 miles. He got an email from them confirming this as he wanted it in writing. It then dawned on him that as he bought the car using VW Finance it included two free services so asked the dealer to check what had happened, and a few days later he got the service plan documents.

Good luck.

[lengy]

Thanks sc-red and Aube for your replies. Regards Graeme