I bought my MINI this past January and in the five months I've owned it I hit the 5,000 mile mark. I think 10,000 miles is too long between oil changes so I went back to the dealership today for an oil change and told the service adviser that this oil change would be on me since I hadn't hit 10,000 miles or owning it for a year.

He went into the computer and said: nope, this one's on us. He explained that it's not one year from 'purchase' but it's one year from the 'build date'. That was news to me and I'm suspecting there are others here who might not know that.

 

If your oil service light is yellow it's free. I short changed my oil at 500 miles, just something I always do after breakin , then at 1500 miles my car was 1 yr since build date and got a "free" oil change.

 

Actually that makes sense. It just means that your car was sitting there on the lot for a while before you bought it. The "rule" for the oil change is either one year from the last on or computer mileage of 10K. Its not based on time of ownership.

 

A follow up thought for those of us that have a battery key fob for our push button start. The owners manual suggests alternating fobs so the battery in the unused fob doesn't die. It dawned on me that it would be a good reminder to switch fobs with each oil change.