Lex reviews impact of longer servicing intervals

Lex, the UK’s largest leasing company with 178,000 vehicles on its fleet is to review the impact that longer servicing intervals are having on its £81m annual maintenance budget.

Longer servicing intervals spells good news for most drivers, but Lex is concerned that cars covering fewer than 10,000 miles per year could feasibly only make one visit to a garage every three years.

In that time brakes, tyres and windscreen wipers can all deteriorate, while essential items such as oil can all go unchecked which risks seriously damaging the car’s engine.

Lex believes one course of action is to introduce a ‘time based’ servicing option which pulls in cars early if they haven’t had a service. If consumers adopt this approach, they could also avoid the possibility of expensive bills and ensure their car stays in tip top condition.

“It’s great that car makers have extended servicing intervals so higher mileage drivers don’t have the hassle of taking their car into a garage so regularly,” explained Jamie Wiseman, Maintenance Manager of Lex.

“But for those low mileage drivers who cover less than 10,000 miles a year, this can cause an issue. In a bid to keep cars reliable and safe, preventative maintenance could be the way forward,” he added.

Although many car makers have fixed ‘intelligent servicing’ brains in many of their models based on their usage, Lex is still seeing some of its cars miss important services, another reason to look at this initiative.

“Few drivers ever look at their handbook and often don’t realise that the on board computer is telling them when to have their car serviced. We have even had drivers who live with a car for three years without once putting it into the garage for a service,” he added.