Lex, the UK’s largest leasing company, is reviewing the impact longer service intervals for its 178,000 vehicles will have on its £81 million annual maintenance budget.

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.

The company said that in that time, brakes, tyres and windscreen wipers could deteriorate, while essential oil checks could mean greater long term damage to a cars engine.

Lex believes a ‘time based’ servicing option which pulls in cars early if they haven’t had a service should be adopted.

“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,” said 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,” said Wiseman.