Quote:
Originally Posted by patbob
The manufacturer has a vested interest in selling you a new car, so their numbers are not all about how to get the engine to last the longest it can. They are not even about the optimal tradeoff between the extra fossil fuel used in maintence vs. the amount of fossil fuel needed to make a replacement. They are simply a balance between how long you'll accept as an ownership duration before buying another car from them -- too short and they'll go broke because you'll buy someone else's car to replace it, too long and they'll go under while waiting to sell you your next car.
Maybe 3mo/3k isn't the most optimal answer, but I'm sure it'll result in a longer-lived, well-running engine than the manufacturer's recommendations. I'm sure I'll use far less fossil fuel keeping that old car running than replacing it with another.
Slightly off topic, but one also needs to consider fossil fuel savings due to simple MPG gains. I've done the math, and it still isn't there yet (but it's finally getting close).
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There's probably some truth to that dealer theory, but on every gasser I've owned sofar (approx. 20) of various mfr., the engine oil would stay the new light brown color until somewhere between 2K and 3K miles. After 3K it was black, which says to me that it's reached an unacceptable contamination level. Hello, time to change the oil.
So it seems logical that there is something more to the typical 3K mile change recommendation than aspirations of financial gain.
