VOLVO has extended the service intervals for almost all its petrol cars, claiming the change will save fleets hundreds of pounds in maintenance charges and reduced vehicle downtime. Model 2000 cars now have 12,000 miles/12 months' service intervals, compared to the former interval of 10,000 miles/12 months.

But Volvo has introduced an initial first service at 6,000 miles or 12 months. The changes apply to all vehicles powered by Volvo's own petrol engine, but not the 1.8i (125bhp) GDI unit produced by Mitsubishi. Service intervals for all diesel-engined Volvos remain at 10,000 miles/12 month. John Wallace, Volvo's leasing and rental manager, said: 'Initial indications show that over the standard three-year/60,000-mile industry benchmark, the changes effectively remove one and a half services from the service requirements of our cars.

'Not only does this help to reduce wholelife costs, but it will save fleet managers more than 22% on their servicing budget and ultimately help to make Volvos more affordable and accessible to company car drivers.' He said the expected savings per car would be about 'a couple of hundred pounds', and gave assurances that customers would be told when they collected their new cars; that logbooks had been updated; and that the electronic changes to dashboard service warning lights had been made.