New car oil breakdown

[Fillherup]

I rent a lot of cars. Lately I have been checking the oil when I fill the car. I have noticed that some cars (usually with 7k-15k total miles) the oils look quite dirty and dark with even at little as 2k-3k miles on the oil.

As constrasted with my 95 6 cyl Camry at 3k with Mobil1 and Pureone filter, the oil is usaully just a very dark amber. Also, I just put a new reman Nissan V30 engine in my 1987 Pathfinder. With 1600 miles the Mobil 1 oil/Pureoone is just a light amber.

Is this something with newer cars or just the cheaper oils and filters of rent cars? In other words, is Mobil 1/Pureone that good or it is some combo of cheaper oils/filter, hotter running cars, or rent car drivng patterns?

BTW, the Hertz cars usually have oil change sticker around 5.5K intervals.

 

[YZF150]

Lots of short trips and lots of idling.

 

[Tommy2]

I wonder why Rental companies don't use synthetic fluids in the vehicles they rent. I think it would be a good savings on their part.

 

[Andrew]

Rental companies, fleet managers only keep the cars for a few years. They do the minimum log book maintenance to save money and use the cheapest lubricants that meet the factory specs. Why would you do more when you sell the cars every 2.5 - 3 years ?

It is difficult to destroy a car in this time no matter what you do. I work in govt and some of our fleet cars miss a service. They get drained every 15,000 KM

It is only someone who buys a car and wants to keep it for 15 years who cares about longevity.

[ April 16, 2003, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: Andrew ]

 

[Fillherup]

On the cheap oils, I assume they all use SL rated oils.

So either the quality of SL oils are not the same and really do matter. Or short trips/idling is really hard on any SL oil. It seems.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommy2:
I wonder why Rental companies don't use synthetic fluids in the vehicles they rent. I think it would be a good savings on their part.

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They don't care, they typically change the oil every 8000km with whatever oil they can get the cheapest. They usually dump their cars by 40,000km so even if they do one or two oil changes the engine will still last that long for them.

 

[Mike_dup1]

Have you ever purchased a program car? These are predominately rentals. A lot of the major companies only keep them for some many miles. National usually advertise used cars for sale at local airport (small). I went and checked out a few last spring. 2 yr old Chev Lumnina's and Buick Century's. Lady told me if they can sell them they will, if they don't sell, GM will take them back (Leased) when lease expires as the were GM owned cars with the lease having the option to sell and recover some costs. btw-All the cars I looked at had oil changes stickers from local GM dealer as well as him name plate on them. I would surmise he delivered and serviced them for a fee. Miles ranged from 25,000 to 49,000 miles.
I was in the local Pontiac dealer picking up parts one day. The car carrier from Janesville was unloading new cars and the driver came up to me and asked, how do I get to the airport? I asked why he wanted to go there. He said I have to pickup a load of rental cars and take to GM auction in Milwaukee.

[ April 16, 2003, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: Mike ]

 

[Dick in Falls Church]

Reliable source said that one major car rental company bought oil in bulk for $1.35 per gallon.
Must have been really good stuff!!!!!

 

[Steve S]

****, all the oil has to do is keep the car in good shape untill the car gets turned over. Welcome to the world of fleet vehicle reality. How long a fleet expects to keep a vehicle in service is how a minimum service schedule is usually set up. There is no reason to use a service schedule to make your car last 300,000 miles if you buy a new car every 100,000 miles.

 

[Ken2]

Fillerherup,

The API Service Categories are a floor for quality...the oil company can make the oil as good or as poor as they wish as long as it meets these minimum requirements.


****,

$1.35 a gallon for long term contract for tanker truck loads of oil to multiple locations, direct from the jobber...the price sounds low but possible. No bottling costs, no retail mark up, minumum trucking and distribution costs, etc.


Ken

 

[HarleyDude]

It used to be that the Rental companies kept their cars about 20,000 miles and then put them on their own resale lots (you can probably remember seeing a lot of them in the past). Well, the various dealers (Ford, GM, etc.) saw the rental car resale lots as too much competition. So now, the manufacturers have agreements with the rental car compaines that the cars must be returned to the manufacturer. Where do they end up? You guessed it, on the used car lots of the Ford, GM, etc. retailers.

[ April 16, 2003, 07:16 PM: Message edited by: HarleyDude ]

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

quote:

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So now, the manufacturers have agreements with the rental car compaines that the cars must be returned to the manufacturer. Where do they end up? You guessed it, on the used car lots of the Ford, GM, etc. retailers.

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After running CarFax's on over 50 used vehicles, all but 2 of them were from rental companies. There's a flood of Taurus, Accord, Camry, Saturn, etc. that all came from major rental chains. Couple that with the fact they're getting top dollar for something you know isn't worth it, nor were they ever maintained properly. What a rip off!

The local CarMax dealer was willing to fix whatever needed fixing to get the sale--but a 98 Camry 4cyl with 70K that desperately needed new door panels and rear seats wasn't worth $8600.00. It probably wasn't worth half that. And $13,495 for 3 year old Taurus for sale at the local Ford dealer with the base motor AND that was previously owned by a rental car company?!?! I'll pass.

I recently purchased a used 1996 Saturn SL2 from a private party. It was tough finding a decent used car that was owned by private owners only!

 

[Spector]

quote:

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Originally posted by ToyotaNSaturn:

[qb] The local CarMax dealer was willing to fix whatever needed fixing to get the sale--but a 98 Camry 4cyl with 70K that desperately needed new door panels and rear seats wasn't worth $8600.00. It probably wasn't worth half that. And $13,495 for 3 year old Taurus for sale at the I recently purchased a used 1996 Saturn SL2 from a private party. It was tough finding a decent used car that was owned by private owners only!

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Well, CarMax usually does a pretty good job of inspection and also is a no haggle shop so not much room to wiggle, just on the repairs needed.

As to your Saturn, Best wishes. This board seems to have posts from Saturn owners where they are all oil burners at around 60,000 miles. Hopefully you got a good one.