slo’s TUESDAY poll - Oil Change

[dez1978]

Other.
The garage comes and collects it as part if the annual service and Ministry of Transport roadworthy test.

ford family

wait, you only get your oil changed once a year?

 

[DLgal]

I handle all the car maintenance appointments.

 

[DLgal]

wait, you only get your oil changed once a year?

I barely do it once a year. I drive very low mileage annually...under 5,000. I go in only when my car lights up a "service needed" code. I honestly don't think it's been to the dealer since sometime in 2020...

My car is a 2007 Honda CR-V, still under 100k miles.

 

[dez1978]

I take my car in. Whenever the light tells me to lol. The dealership has said there's no reason to do it at 5K miles on the dot bc the oil may be perfectly fine or 50% life left on some cars and need to be changed sooner on others. So far I'm at 5600 miles on my new car (got in Oct) and haven't gotten it done yet.

 

[dez1978]

I barely do it once a year. I drive very low mileage annually...under 5,000. I go in only when my car lights up a "service needed" code. I honestly don't think it's been to the dealer since sometime in 2020...

My car is a 2007 Honda CR-V, still under 100k miles.

I seriously can't imagine that. my last car had 78k miles in 3 years. But we do not live in a big city and everything is at least 10 miles away.

 

[DLgal]

I take my car in. Whenever the light tells me to lol. The dealership has said there's no reason to do it at 5K miles on the dot bc the oil may be perfectly fine or 50% life left on some cars and need to be changed sooner on others. So far I'm at 5600 miles on my new car (got in Oct) and haven't gotten it done yet.

Yep. Newer cars are made to go like 10k miles between oil changes, and they have all kinds of sensors and whatnot that keep track of when the oil/filter need to be changed. I have always followed the manuals my cars come with. Even my "dinosaur" 2007 car manual says every 10k for oil/filter changes, and 7500 only in "extreme weather conditions." I've just done it when the dashboard code lights up. I've never had any problems with my car and its 14 years old and will probably last another 14.

 

[DLgal]

I seriously can't imagine that. my last car had 78k miles in 3 years. But we do not live in a big city and everything is at least 10 miles away.

My husband's car has more miles than mine and it's a 2017, but he works 80 miles away (and for a whole year while he was stationed overseas, I drove it only periodically to keep it in good condition). He put 90k miles on it in 3 years, essentially.

 

[dez1978]

My husband's car has more miles than mine and it's a 2017, but he works 80 miles away (and for a whole year while he was stationed overseas, I drove it only periodically to keep it in good condition). He put 90k miles on it in 3 years, essentially.

That used to be my commute. 37 miles each way. For about 18 years. Now I'm just 11 miles, and it's amazing. I get a whole hour back of my day lol

 

[DLgal]

That used to be my commute. 37 miles each way. For about 18 years. Now I'm just 11 miles, and it's amazing. I get a whole hour back of my day lol

His is 80 miles EACH WAY. Just one more year of that and he is eyeing a new job less than 5 miles away, which would be amazing!

 

[leebee]

We take the cars to an ExpressLube kind of place, in and out in about 15 mins (unless the line is stupidly long) for about $27. We both do this, just depends on who is driving the car when it needs the oil change and we are near the place. It's not really one person's responsibility.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We each take our respective cars in for oil changes.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

No car. I don't drive. No sense of direction, I mean none. If I had a car, the first time you'd see me pull away from the house in it would be the last time you'd see me, ever.

 

[tvguy]

I seriously can't imagine that. my last car had 78k miles in 3 years. But we do not live in a big city and everything is at least 10 miles away.

Then there are people like my mom who put 77,000 miles on her car in the 27 years she had it. The first 9 years she had it she was working, and she was putting about 3,000 miles a year on it commute to work and running around. When she retired she put 1,000-1,500 miles a year on it.
Took my wife's car in for it's 18 month free Toyota Care service last week. It has 6,600 miles on it, and only has that many because she had to go into the office the entire pandemic. Service writer says since the pandemic started two years ago he is seeing a lot of cars coming in for annual service and have only been driven 2 ti 3,000 miles. My car is 3 1/2 years old and has 13,800 miles on it. Most of those miles were put on before the pandemic but I worked at home for 15 months.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I take it myself.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Don’t own a vehicle, we decided we would try to have just one car a year and a half ago, and it’s worked out so far. We are retired.

My own last car was a 1999 Saturn SW, and when in 2020 it needed more work we decided “enough.” It had 210,000 miles on it, and we donated it. We got a note that it sold at auction for $500, so maybe it’s still running somebody around. As long as there were Saturn dealerships, I took it for the oil changes.

 

[scbruno]

We both drop off the cars. been going to the same service center for years and they are honest.

 

[dez1978]

Then there are people like my mom who put 77,000 miles on her car in the 27 years she had it. The first 9 years she had it she was working, and she was putting about 3,000 miles a year on it commute to work and running around. When she retired she put 1,000-1,500 miles a year on it.
Took my wife's car in for it's 18 month free Toyota Care service last week. It has 6,600 miles on it, and only has that many because she had to go into the office the entire pandemic. Service writer says since the pandemic started two years ago he is seeing a lot of cars coming in for annual service and have only been driven 2 ti 3,000 miles. My car is 3 1/2 years old and has 13,800 miles on it. Most of those miles were put on before the pandemic but I worked at home for 15 months.

if I recall, you live in California, and I'm guessing in an urban area. That would never happen here where I live. Even if you lived "in town" there aren't enough stores/businesses that you could do all you needed to do without going to a different town, and the 2 bigger towns that have ALL the things are 30-40 mins either direction. Heck, even if I just drove my kids to school and picked them up every day, thats 70 miles a week with no other driving. I don't think I have ever had a year where I've put less than 15K on my car. Usually closer to 25K. I grew up in the middle of nowhere (like 30 miles to an IGA grocery store) Illinois and now live in the middle of nowhere Missouri so I just can't imagine not driving that much lol.

 

[tvguy]

if I recall, you live in California, and I'm guessing in an urban area. That would never happen here where I live. Even if you lived "in town" there aren't enough stores/businesses that you could do all you needed to do without going to a different town, and the 2 bigger towns that have ALL the things are 30-40 mins either direction. Heck, even if I just drove my kids to school and picked them up every day, thats 70 miles a week with no other driving. I don't think I have ever had a year where I've put less than 15K on my car. Usually closer to 25K. I grew up in the middle of nowhere (like 30 miles to an IGA grocery store) Illinois and now live in the middle of nowhere Missouri so I just can't imagine not driving that much lol.

Suburbs. Unincorporated area of Sacramento about 3 miles outside the city limits. Sort of the stereotyped suburbs to me. Three major malls within 4 miles, 4 major chain grocery store chains within a mile, just head, North, South, East or West and you run into a grocery story. My mom worked so taking me to school was not an option since she had to be at work at 6 am. But we had school buses. But the schools were set up on grids with the goal of having every elementary school student within one mile of their school, every Junior High School student within two miles, and every High School student within 3 miles.
While two of the three malls are gone now, two of the grocery stores gone, and the schools closed due to declining enrollment, it would be different today. But with Amazon and grocery delivery, mom may have driven even less. Although in retirement, until age 89 she walked to the grocery store every few days to pick up a few things.

 

[mrodgers]

I take it to the dealership myself, and I'm covered for free oil changes up to a certain amount of miles. Each time I go it takes longer and longer, and these oil changes are all by appointment. I'm due later this month.

I gave up on the free oil change after sitting in the waiting room for 6 hours. I can do it in the garage in 5 minutes.

I didn't take a car into the shop for about 20 years until I lost the garage and flat driveway. Now I can't do it on my sloped driveway and the way cars are designed, I can't get it lifted on jack stands high enough anyways, or at least high enough but yet still be comfortable to go underneath. My nose is still touching the plastic shrouding with my car lifted as high as I'm comfortable with.

A dealership would be the last place I would take a car in for an oil change. Low man training is the guy who's doing your oil changes at the dealer. If I'm having someone do it, it's a small operation I'm going to where I'm hanging out chatting with the owner who I trust as he changes it on his lift during the state inspection.

 

[mmbrad02]

My DH used to work on the phone system at the dealership we use, and they all know him there, so I make the appointment but he will do drop off and pick up. I know nothing about cars so I prefer he do it anyway as he is more mechanically inclined. And he likes to catch up with the employees anyway. That said, he will take it in in the morning and they will drop him off at his office, and a coworker will drop him back off at lunch to pick it up.

Also note, I do not work in a city with a dealership at all and they would not offer to take me to my office if I dropped off.