Used Car Buyers and Maintenance

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Most shops that do oil changes do not, in my experience, put the details regarding the brand of filter and oil they use on the receipt.

Most of their customers...the average joe..don't care about such mundane details. My mechanic uses Champ filters and Citgo 5W-30 oil. I bet that I'm one of a small group of his customers that knows that (not that he keeps it a big secret or anything..I just asked one day).

To the average joe (of the sort that doesn't do their own oil changes), I suspect that an oil change is an oil change and the parts used don't really matter.
 
I agree. I think the fact that it was done may be worth something. I think one brand or another would be meaningless unless you get a person to whom "Oh that brand sucks! It leaves sludge on everything!"
 
More inFRAMercials, Michael? Use FRAMs if you want...
But where's the sense in servicing a car based on what the next owner may or may not like? Do something that YOU like.
I would be more impressed with the dates and mileage requirements than with any particular brands used, but then I'm not an average Joe. (And I'm not sure an average Joe knows that there can be such a thing as a 'maintenace log.' He just wants new Generic Brand tires and a clean ashtray.)
 
If you were an average Joe, who is uninformed about auto parts, opens the maintenance log of a used car they were going to buy, and finds that the last owner used parts of an unfamiliar brand (Havoline, Trop Artic, Supertech), what would be their impressions of that car?

If you were only planning on keeping the car for 50-60K and selling it, and since most car owners are only familiar with certain brands of oil (Pennzoil, Quaker State, Castrol, Valvoline) and mostly two brands of filters (FRAM or the OEM), wouldn't it make sense to use a name brand oil and FRAM or OEM filters so that the car would be easier to sell?

In addition, since consumers are often taught to follow the 3mo/3K interval, would it make sense to not let your oil changes extend past 4mo/4K regardless of what the owners manual says?
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Michael
 
I think many potential buyers would be impressed that you actually keep detailed records, and most of the rest wouldn't care either way.
If I were showing them the book, I'd probably throw in a comment about how Mazda, for example, recommends changing the oil every 5000 miles, so the car requires them to do less maintenance than others might.
 
I think the sad part is that when average Joe buys a used car its done more by looks and appearance then by maintenance records.
 
the fact that there ARE records is way more important than the parts used. i find it rare to see used cars with maintenance records unless they are less than 5 years old.
 
funny, another thread where michael is pushing fram oil filters.
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frankly, i dont care what the future owners of my car think. if they think wix, purolator, and baldwin are crappy filters because they arent advertised or as well known as fram, so be it. id simply show the person a comparison of two oil filters, without any labels, one fram, one baldwin/wix/purolator, and ask which they'd rather have cleaning their oil. my money says they'd pick the picture of the baldwin/wix/purolator over the fram.
 
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