I bought a new VW Beetle 12 months ago - one of the first RH drive models and
have since covered 10000 miles. In most respects I have been very happy
with the car but there is one problem area; the car is using around 1.5 litres of oil every 200 miles. The dealer who sold us the car says that it is "perfoming within spec" and the handbook does say that the car could use up to 1 litre of oil per 1000 km. (this statement also appears in the handbook for my son's Polo and for the Golf)
I have driven new or almost new cars for years and have never had to put oil in the cars between services. Have anyone else had this problem and am I being unreasonable in telling VW that the level of oil comsumption is unacceptable. It is not the cost of the oil that concerns me but the damage that is being caused by the oil being burnt.
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Seeing as your car is using 1 litre of oil for roughly 210km (MUCH less than the 1000km you said is stated in the handbook) I think you've got them on a technicality.
I'm no expert (nowhere near!) but burning that much oil cannot be a good thing, for your wallet or the car.
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Sorry Mark, I must have had finger trouble when typing the original note. The car is using 1.5 litres of oil every 2000 miles not 200!
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Phew! I suppose 1.5 L every 200 miles is a little ridiculous!
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I think honestjohn covered this ages ago, also I remember Honda motorbikes having problems on new engines. Honda made the tolerances very tight allowing for initial wear. Unfortunately owners rode the bikes so carefully the expected bedding in did not take place. This resulted in excessive oil being used. Honda solved this in later bikes by widening the clearances slightly.
You do not say what oil you used to run in the car. Are you losing compression, garage can test for this easily. At 10,000 it should be nicely run in! Was your motoring lots of short journeys? If you really are burning this, rather than it leaking, the plugs must be coking up.
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Are you using a full synthetic oil? If so, stop and use a good quality mineral oil such as Texaco or Quantum. I have experience of engines not bedding in because they have been run on synthetic oil in, in my opinion, the mistaken belief that they are getting better protection. This then leads to increased oil consumption.
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