VW to offer 3-year free-maintenance on 2009 models

So would that add to the initial cost of the vw car.

well aint that the truth? I'd stay away from the dealers, not even touching them with a 10 foot pole. self oil change ftw...

Of course they increase the price of the cars to cover the cost. When was the last time you got anything at all for free????? There is no free lunch.

At least you wouldn't have to pay for anything.

I do my own oil changes.

I had a car dealership forget to put oil in my vehicle a number of years ago. It ruined the engine, and they would not cover the damages even though it was still under the Factory warrantee. This also happened to a few other people I know.

These service bays today are too fast paced.
Everyone rushes to get it done, and rampant mistakes are made, and the customer pays the price for efficiency.

The dealer can keep the free maintenance. Take the money off the price of the vehicle. (They won't of course)

If you want it done right, do it yourself.

Fortunate for my car... I dunno how to do oil change. LOL

So whats the oil change interval on the VWs? is it the same crazy 15k mile interval as BMW?

You beat me to it.
Everyone who own BMW from new knows that you are not going to enjoy many "free" services for 3 yr/36K according to THEIR service interval.
- 1st oil change comes on at 12k-15k (free)
- 1st Inspection I comes on at the second oil change (25k-30k)
(oil change and N-points inspection, air filter, etc.)
- 3rd oil change at 36k-45k (you're out of free service now)

You think you are getting 36K/5K = 7 free oil changes?
Yeah right! Keep dreaming.

well according to BMW philosophy, when you hit 45K miles, it's time to lease another one!

now you're trapped in a never ending cycle of lease-return-lease-return... ad infinitum :) or you can keep the car and start paying for $120-200 oil changes!

LOL! truly SMART people buy japanese, and NOT have to trade so often. my 13-yr old toy truck is still going strong. expect it to continue doing so for another 10 - 13 years.

excluding normal maintenance, actual REPAIR costs to date: $0.00.

GF has a '93 toyota 4Runner. 275,000 miles and still going strong too.
she ALMOST shelled out nearly $600 to the local Stealer's service dept. for a "failed" power window motor replacement.

took her to my friendly indy mechanic. who found that the motor had NOT failed. trouble was merely a frayed wire at the door jamb. she got her $350 back from the Stealer for the new, UNneeded motor.

toyota dealer mechanics must be like Maytag repairmen. they're hungry enuff to "INVENT" repair jobs! (one way good products lead to bad Stealers, apparently.)

Then they almost have to bring this back for Audi, too, right?

Oil doesn't wear out, Oil gets dirty!

Changing the Oil every 3,000 miles is a great way to get well over 100K miles.

Use of Synthetics like Mobil 1 is a great idea as well.

You can hear the engine start to get rough if you push it to 5K miles.

After the oil change it gets smooth as silk again.

You have to change the oil when it is very hot to get all the contaminants out.

Waiting until 5K Miles to change the oil is just lazy and dumb. A big reason why I won’t buy a used car, people just abuse them.

You are glossing over the facts a bit. Oils - even synthetics - do lose their lubricity over time. Worse than getting dirty, oil acidity builds, which causes long term problems even for "perfect" cars like the much-beloved, fanboy praised Lexus machines. Poor maintenance can kill even those specimens of mechanical perfection.

All that said, when to change your oil depends strongly on what oil you use and how you drive. A lightly driven modern engine with the latest synthetic oil can indeed travel 10k + miles with no problems. However, the speed racers on this site who thrash their perfect Lexuses and GT-Rs around Nurburgring faster than any vehicle ever before will probably be advised to change their oil every ~5k or less miles.

Bottom line, do what the manufacturer recommends, and if you care about your vehicle, splurge for synthetic oil.

I love these car companies and oil companies that say” Our product is so great, you don’t have to change the oil until 15K miles”

This is just a marketing scheme. Does anyone really believe this nonsense? Changing oil often is the best thing you can do.

If you have the dealer change the oil, get a red marker, and put a red X on the filter, because dealers have been known to cut corners, and not take the time to replace the filter.

This way you will know for sure if they did what they promised. Don’t even bother to get the oil changed, if you neglect changing the filter.

I had a service manager at Firestone once say:
“We change the filter every other interval.”

Come on, what a joke!

I have also heard the classic (from a dealer):
“ we buy a tank truck of 10W30, that is all we ever use, never mind that the label under the hood says 5w20, 10w30 will work just fine, we never had any problems with this grade”

How about changing Automatic Trans Fluid? They no longer drop the pan and replace the filter “Too time consuming” they tell me. They use a machine to draw the old fluid out, and pump new fluid in.
Wow about the contaminants still trapped in the filter?

This practice makes me want a stick shift even more now.

Faster, better, cheaper, The American Way.

^^^ works for Mobil Oil

I have owned 5 Porsche 911's including a turbo and the oil change interval was always 15k miles. Even though the cars use a dry sump system, I have always driven the cars very hard, including lots of track time and the motors always ran like a champ, no matter how hard you drive them. 15k on Mobile one is no problem.

Supposedly all the 09 vw's will have synthetic oil and the oil changes are every 10,000 miles. Don't know what kind of oil.

10k miles is just too long an interval. Tough on the motor. I don't even like to go 5k. People just can't be bothered these days I guess.

I had an engine last 250K miles. I even traded the car in. I used Mobil One, and I changed oil and filter every 2,500-3,000 miles.

there are a lot of MYTHS about the 'proper' oil change intervals.

mfgrs. do not want their engines to fail prematurely. while that mite speed up trade-in cycles, the damage to their reputations is just not worth it. it's best to go by the owner manual recommendations. no one KNOWS your engine better than the folks who built it.

if anything, most rec'd intervals are still on the conservative side. especially considering how much both engine components AND lubricants have improved over the last 100 years. changing oil more frequently just WASTES MONEY.

on the Car Talk program, a guy called in and asked, "Hey, what's this oil change business all about anyway???" he had NEVER changed the oil on his 135,000 mile honda accord! and it still ran!

(turns out, he bought it with 35k miles already on. the first owner, fortunately, was not so neglectful. and/or, Honda makes far better and more abuse tolerant engines than ANYONE ever suspected!)