Lease car (new): production date vs registration date

DocQuincy

This is my first lease: I got the car in April 25, 12 miles on the clock. It was registered on the day I picked it up. 

3.2k miles in and it is telling me I need an oil change. I queried this with the dealship as I assumed it was an error and they have said the car was actually produced in October 24 and that this is set based on when it comes out of the factory and that this is causing the car to tell me I need an oil change soon.

When you look the car up on gov.uk it says it was manufactured in 2025, not 2024, although the registration date is correct.

When I got the car, it just has the registration date on the paperwork and no one told me it was made last year and that this would affect the oil change (basically I need to change it in 600 miles when I will have the car approx. 8 months). I was told one service per year or 12.5k miles when I got the car.

1. I guess many cars were made up to a year before but should the dealership have told me this?
2. Am I stuck with paying for an oil change if they say I need to? I do not want to break the terms of the lease which just says “service according to manufacturers recomendations”
3. I have gap insurance and normal car insurance, both of which have the year of the car being made as 2025. Should I inform them of this change? It's only the internal Mazda database that I don't have access to that show 2024, even gov.uk has the year made as 2025.

Thanks.

uknick

My BMW was built in December 2017 but not registered until May 2018 as it was a demo car.  Service schedules etc. all are based on the build date (apart from MOT that is).

DVLA show it as a 2018 manufacture date.

In answer to your questions;

1. Looks like it and, as long as car is as described, i.e. model year not sure why they would have to tell you the actual manufacture date.

2. Yes, you will have to get the oil service done if you want to meet the lease and warranty terms.

3. I thought GAP insurance starts from date of purchase, not manufacture.  At least mine did when I bought the BMW.

Herzlos

When do the lease company want it to be serviced? That's the only date that matters. 

It's quite common for cars to sit around for a while between manufacture and registration, but everything should be based off of registration

DocQuincy

Cheers, I managed to speak to someone in servicing just now and, as you said, it needs to be done soon to avoid invalidating the warranty but it won't actually cost me any more since we're just bringing all the servicing forward a few months.

He said the same as you: servicing is from the production date and MOT is from the reg date. Still not sure whether to tell the insurers. Seems like if the gov.uk is saying 2025 and only Mazda knows the actual build date they shouldn't need to know. I'm hardly gaining from withholding that info (e.g. it's not like withholding points on your license).

Car_54

uknick said:

My BMW was built in December 2017 but not registered until May 2018 as it was a demo car.  Service schedules etc. all are based on the build date (apart from MOT that is).

Are you saying demo cars don't need to be registered?

WellKnownSid

Car_54 said:

uknick said:

My BMW was built in December 2017 but not registered until May 2018 as it was a demo car.  Service schedules etc. all are based on the build date (apart from MOT that is).

Are you saying demo cars don't need to be registered?

I’ve done a few test drives in unregistered cars

paul_c123

Car_54 said:

uknick said:

My BMW was built in December 2017 but not registered until May 2018 as it was a demo car.  Service schedules etc. all are based on the build date (apart from MOT that is).

Are you saying demo cars don't need to be registered?

Demonstrators don’t need to be registered until sold, they can go on test drives on trade plates.

Ectophile

My car is an ex-demonstrator.  It was registered to the garage for 1 year before I bought it.

SiliconChip

Ectophile said:

My car is an ex-demonstrator.  It was registered to the garage for 1 year before I bought it.

They'll have done that so that it's included in their sales figures for the year of registration, probably to ensure they received manufacturer incentive (mine was registered for almost 3 years before I bought it).

daveyjp

Dealers are usually able to reset systems after delivery to align with date of registration, subject to date and mileage limits.  6 months may be beyond the time limit for a reset.

Grey_Critic

When Ford replaced the original Granada with the Scorpio sales were not what was expected. A technician came into the office having put the vehicle through the system to check for updates - The car was in for its First Free Service and he found the system said it had been manufactured THREE years prior. I checked with Ford and they confirmed it was correct. When we got it up on the ramp it was obvious it had been parked up (unsold) in a field for a long time.