Following your owner’s manual

[Just a civilian pilot]

Good god you drive a lot. I used to do close to 30,000 a year but I’ve since moved and drive somewhere around 22,000 miles. I usually just change my oil at 5,000 miles (as it’s no big deal for me - I can work on my own cars), but if I was drying your amount and I couldn’t work on them myself...yeah, I guess I’d try to stretch it out a bit or maybe go with an Amsoil and a filter change in the middle and see if I could push it to 10,000-12,000 miles.

But over 300,000 miles in a 2012 civic? That’s a ton of miles in a short amount of time. Wow.

I got rid of the 2001 Civic in 2006 after 5 years and a total of 207,000 miles on it ( just wanted another car ). I did extend the oil drains but only after the extended warranty was over. I wasn’t running top of the line Amsoil when only doing 5000 mile OCI. Switched to Amsoil TSO ( no SS then ) 0w30 and did extended drains backed up by UOA but TSO was not nearly as good an oil as SS is today ( it thickened like crazy in the UOA ). Their filters were only good for 7500 miles if I recall properly ( SDF filters ).

 

[Wolf359]

Wait! What? You mean I have to buy 9 more cars! ???
At 71 I'd better get on that!

Those numbers don't seem to come from anywhere. Average ownership for a new car is about 8.4 years. Used car is less. Combined probably around 5 years or so. So 11 cars in 50+ years of driving sounds about right.

 

[DGXR]

Yes I would suspect climate has a lot to do with recommended maintenance intervals (Canada vs. middle east etc). Otherwise, I think maintenance habits are determined by the owner planning to keep the vehicle long-term or unload it after 5-7 years or similar. If they are just going to unload it, they will probably follow only the required maintenance. Whereas someone planning to keep the vehicle 15 years or more, they will take much better care of it. Obviously leased vehicles do not apply here as the term has a definite end date and all maintenance is included in the cost (and required).

 

[Nyati]

Wait! What? You mean I have to buy 9 more cars! ???
At 71 I'd better get on that!

Well I’ve had 52- so we average out

 

[repairman54]

A vehicle is the second most expensive purchase one makes in their life, right after a home, if not the most expensive if not a home owner.
Just look at how folks maintain their house and that's apparent by just driving down the roads. House looks bad imagine how the vehicles are.
Who reads the ''destructions'' ?

 

[joekingcorvette]

I use the owners manual as a guideline only for maintenance. Usually the only time I get out the manual is if I cannot figure out something such as how to reset the maintenance minder or set the clock or other little adjustments that cannot be figured out without the internet or manual.

 

[spasm3]

Owners manual is a starting place. The minimum , i prefer to go above and beyond that.

 

[nomas]

If BITOG wrote owner's manuals: "Just throw in SuperTech and forget about it".

I thought it was Amsoil ...