My nice new Niseko is coming up to its first birthday. The service interval in the handbook is shown as 12,500 miles with no time alternative. Trouble is, I’ve only done 4,000 - this is our ‘fun’ car and it doesn’t do a lot of miles. My Mazda dealer has advised an annual service anyway, and I guess it might be three years before I needed one if I stick to the 12,500, which would be a bit daft. What do people think is sensible?
Thanks.
G’day mate, welcome to the Forum
It’s a sad fact, that cars that do very few annual miles probably need as much looking after as high milers. An annual oil change is a must, and regular inspection of the tyres etc. Brake discs rust badly when left for long periods, brake cables sieze etc etc etc
We only do about 8k miles a year, but always have the car serviced annually, for the reasons like wot Geoff said.
Thanks for the advice, guys. It’s not quite as bad as Geoff says - the car is used regularly, just not for long trips all that often. So no danger of the brake discs rusting. But I will take the advice and get the service done.
Whilst it is true there is no time specified on the service intervals, mazda do stipulate that the anti-perferation and paint seal sides of the warranty need 12 monthly inspections which will be recorded on the DSR (digital service record) else the warranties will be void. This is usually covered under a service, but is available as a dealer service on its own.
Just been checking my manual for this and noted that the first service is given as 12.5k miles or 12 months, whichever is the sooner.
On a related topic, the reason I was double-checking the manual was that, being of the old-school, I cannot quite get my head around cars these days often having pre-run-in engines, so it doesn’t seem right not to at least change the oil and filter after the first few hundred miles. In fact, in the first two weeks of ownership I’ve actually just passed 1k miles! So my anxiety is rising!!! Is it really true that my Mk3 doesn’t need anything until 12.5k miles or 1 year is up???
pretty much yes and even then its realy just a check over and oil change that is NEEDED as opposed to sold to you of course. what a fantastic car.
Thanks for the reassurance Harco. I’ve got used to this wonderful feature of new engine manufacturing methods with the bikes but just couldn’t really believe that it was now applicable to car engines! The more I get to know the MX, the more it feels like a bike - light flywheel, needs revving, faster response, power coming from where it should - the rear wheels, sharp steering, etc. This was largely what immediately sold the model to me on the test drive.
If you’ll forgive my hijacking this thread; I assume that the running gear still needs the usual running-in care, and that this isn’t also pre-run-in?