fazack

I jumped for joy when I heard they had increased the interval to 10K but Robinsons (Rochdale) are telling me I have to have it done at 7.5K otherwise Subaru Belgium won't honour the warranty.

Harry_Boy

Hi Fazack - see yesterday's Autocar for confirmation on this one Mate. The warranty is operated by the importer, and hence IM have decided to go it alone on the 10k intervals. There's nowt we can do, except petition the Belgian concessionaire for clemency.....

WRXBOB

Please don't take this the wrong way, but why would you want a 10k service interval?
10k is far too long an interval on these cars, even 7.5k is a long time between oil changes on a WRX, IMHO !
The 10k interval was introduced more for PR than anything else.

Personally I wouldn't want to leave the oil longer than 5k in my imported '02 WRX, even if running fully synthetic oil. Frequent oil changes can make a vast difference to the life of your engine, assuming the dealer puts the correct grade of oil in!

HappyMotoring

BOB

Harry_Boy

The received wisdom on SN is that anyone who follows the IM route to cheaper motoring is storing up trouble for their boxer.... But, there again, who will be picking up the tab if you shred your flat four within the warranty period, and it's been serviced in accordance with IM's requirements....

An interesting one, as they say.

FreeT

Agree about the oil changes, but i do that myself in between dealer services for my own piece of mind as its the best thing you can do to prolong the cars life and running ability.

Spend enough at garages as it is, and only takes 30 mins.

Apple

AFAIR my paperwork for my ordered '02 via Keyring says I'm in line for the 10K servicing - I prefer that as otherwise I'd be paying for unnecessary servicing just to keep up with 6 mth intervals when I'd probably only be covering 3/4k miles in that time. I know it's better to change oil more rather than less frequently but it'd get a bit extortionate / OTT after a while.

Apple

Nigel H

Can't see the change will make much difference to IM's warranty claims. Any problems more likely to occur later on life, after the warranty has expired.

I calculate you'll save 300 quid by going to the 10 000 miles service interval. Not a big deal in the scheme of running a scoob

boultsy

Apple, I'd check where the car originates from before assuming that your info is correct. If it's from Belgium/Holland then as stated above it will need the 6mnth intervals still, else bye bye warranty.

fazack

I totally agre with what some of you are saying on oil chyanges. In fact, I'd planned to change it myself half way through the 7.5K interval.

As I do over 20K per year, the 10K intervals would not only save me money but also a lot of hassle as I have to travel from Bolton to Rochdale to get a service - and the opening hours are quite restrictive at that dealer which means taking time away from work.

Has anyone approached Subaru Belgium ?

boultsy

Yep, they just reiterated the fact that it remains at the current intervals.

As Bob mentioned above the change looks like an IM PR stunt. The differences between a UK and EU import are getting less and less with PPP about to be accepted, 3 yr warranty etc. This gives the UK dealers a bit more ammo for the battle ahead.