Hey Bruce, I have a two-year-old Subaru Forester with 17,000 miles, no hard driving. Do I need to do the major service interval at 30 months even though the mileage will be only about 22,000?
There are some neat booklets that come with every new vehicle – the owner's manual and maintenance schedule are two of the most common. They have every answer you may ever need about your car. To answer your specific question I would say yes, do the 30-month service regardless of the mileage, especially if your car's maintenance schedule states the service is based on either/or (mileage or time). If your maintenance schedule specifically lists only mileage, you should be safe to follow the schedule. Many maintenance items on a car can deteriorate with age, not just mileage. Oil, be it engine, transmission, or gear oil, becomes contaminated with moisture that is normally evaporated when warmed up. But if you do not drive your vehicle much, you may not ever fully warm up all the fluids. The moisture mixes with other contaminants and can form acids that will harm internals. Antifreeze is something that we tend to forget about, especially here in California. We have to remember that it is no longer "antifreeze" but all-temperature coolant. Yes, part of its job is to resist freezing, but it also raises the boiling point of the cooling system. Coolant picks up contaminants from the interaction of the diverse metals in a modern engine and can become corrosive, especially attacking aluminum. The big problem is that you cannot tell if coolant is still good just by looking at it. Coolant can be tested for its pH level, but overall it is simple to change coolant. Just be careful that it is disposed of properly and always use the coolant recommended by your car's maker; there is a huge difference in coolants. Other maintenance items such as hoses and belts may dry out and crack; they need to be inspected. One of the biggest scams out there is when dealers substitute their own maintenance schedule for the factory schedule. Dealers like to do some profit enhancement now and then, and this is so easy. They also like to sell you a ton of "additives" that often do little more than enhance their bottom line. There is no reason the maintenance must be done at the dealer. You can take your vehicle to any service facility for routine maintenance. Whatever you do, always keep records of your services; many auto makers are becoming very strict about warranty coverage if you cannot prove you maintained your car. The real bottom line is to do what the automaker's maintenance schedule calls for, and you will keep your car running for a long time.
When my car gets to be three years old, is it worth getting the extended warranty?
Extended warranties are such a huge profit center for car dealers, this is one reason they push them. In many cases a dealer makes a higher profit from the extended warranty than from the car itself. I will generalize here and say that any car that needs an extended warranty is a car to stay away from. An extended warranty is an insurance policy. The company is betting that you will never make a claim. Essentially, when you purchase an extended warranty, you are betting that your car will break down. Do your homework before you buy a car. Check with Consumer Reports on the reliability factor of the different makes and models you are considering. If you buy a car that has a history of reliability, such as a Subaru, Toyota, or Honda, the chances are you will never need even the basic warranty, let alone an extended one. It is possible that something terrible will go wrong with even the most reliable model. I won't kid anyone. If the automatic transmission goes out on any modern car, it is very expensive to repair. The automatic in a Subaru may cost around $4,000 to replace. It is a risk and only you can determine if you are willing to take that risk. If you perform the required routine maintenance, there is no reason many modern cars should not rack up more than 200,000 miles before any major component fails. Expect minor items such as a radiator, alternator, maybe some air conditioning components to need replacing after 100,000 miles or so, but an engine and transmission should last almost forever. So what is the answer? Buy the right car, keep it maintained, and drive happy.
At 10,000 miles I switched to synthetic oil. Any thoughts on that?
There are people out there who swear by synthetic oil. I am not one of them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with synthetic, it's just that I have never seen it proven that the cost is justified. The proponents of synthetic will tell you that your car will get better fuel mileage and last longer. It is true, at least in a controlled environment, that fuel mileage will increase slightly if synthetic oil is used, but the increase is usually so incremental that it is insignificant. With modern engines lasting almost forever if they receive the bare minimum of maintenance, how many miles will synthetic add that? Then there is the cost of synthetic, which is considerably more than "normal" oil. No automaker extends the oil change intervals for synthetic, so you have to change the oil just as often, meaning your maintenance costs go way up. Having said all of this, I do have to say that there is no real negative to synthetic oil. It works just fine. It does have reduced friction, which if you are racing or entering an economy run may be important. (An aside: When I lived in Canada, there was a racing series for stock Honda Civics, the Honda Michelin Challenge. Some competitors found that there was an incremental horsepower increase if they ran the engines one quart of oil low.) Some people turn to synthetic oil because they believe they are reducing our dependence on oil. Maybe, but only very slightly. If you want to reduce dependence on oil, this country needs to start re-refining engine oil (for more information on re-refined oil, go to RE-REFINED OIL). Engine oil itself does not wear out; the additives in it do. It is a fairly simple process to clean the oil and bring it back to "new" condition. In this country, we could save literally millions of barrels of crude if we re-refined engine oil.
BRUCE HOTCHKISS
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