Post by econo_cars"Nate Nagel"
German cars tend to have more rigorous regular maintenance schedules than
other cars, which also helps them last longer than other cars. It's just a
difference in philosophy, who's right, who knows.
If you had a Honda and followed a maintenance schedule for an older BMW it
would likely last just as long. but most people with Hondas don't keep
them much beyond 10 years or so.
nate
You may or may not have noticed that Toyota, not that long ago, changed the
mileage/time of recommended service schedule. It now requires less servicing
per year than traditionally. A part of this decision was to be more
competitive with Honda in the claims of low cost of maintenance. What it
says to me is when times were good Toyota had no problem convincing us that
we needed to spend money more often, but that the cars never really needed
that much maintenance. After all, for example, some of the engines are the
same used in models that claimed to need more servicing per year years ago,
but now all of a sudden that same engine requires less serving to maintain,
hmmm
I've never owned a German made car , but I've never heard bad things about
them either by those who have and do. Any problems I've read about had more
to do with problems caused by poor quality diesel in North America, which I
believe VW rectified fairly quickly by making tweaks so the engine wouldn't
gum up (may also explain why more servicing is recommended?). Many of the
earlier Golfs are still on the road, just like there are still Toyota
Tercell owners going strong. Other than old Ford trucks, the only old Ford I
see frequently is 96/97 Ford Taurus. Seems like you just can't kill those
Vulcan 3.0L V6 engines.
Econo-cars
I am not sure that it is just marketing. The service intervals of most
car makers went up. As the quality of oil went up over time (API - the
people who make the standards for motor oil has increased the standards
several times since the 80s), there is less wear and tear. In addition,
the quality of the metals in the engines improved with improved
metallurgy, and the machining of the parts improved, as well. Also, as
the emissions improved and the tolerances improved, less unburned
gasoline gets in the oil. In addition, oil analysis can tell the car
makers how long oil is really lasting and holding up at the different
intervals.
All of these things lead to oil that lasts longer.
And, as the car makers have experience with longer service intervals,
they see no evidence that more frequent oil changes help the engines
last longer, or at least longer than the car will last.
In the old days (cars made before around the 80s) had engines that
lasted roughly around 100,000 mi. In the years before the 60s, it was a
lot less. The rest of the cars were wearing out by then. As the all
around quality of both the engines and cars improved, car engines last
longer. My dad a lot of money in the 60s, 70s and 80s rebuilding cars
and selling car parts. He was a partner in a company that sold engine
parts and rebuilt engines. They also made a lot of money selling exhaust
system parts, shocks, spark plugs and other ignition parts. They also
sold carbs. They started selling less and less of these other parts
around the mid '80s, as cars went to longer lasting ignitions, and the
exhaust systems and shocks lasted longer. After around the mid 80s, the
number of engines that need rebuilding continued to decrease, despite
the fact that engines are lasting longer than ever.
In fairness, the business also changed as more auto parts chains,
particularly NAPA and Autozone, grew in popularity. However, the local
jobber warehouse owned several stores, most of which were closed, closed
one of its warehouses. Most independent auto stores closed, and a few
engine rebuilders closed. (My dad's business closed after he sold it to
a former employee - a family member of the other partner made poor
business decisions, then got sick and could no longer keep the business
running. He had bladder cancer, but if I were to choose a body part to
describe him, it would involve a body opening just behind and below the
bladder.) In addition, many local shops closed, as well. The entire
aftermarket auto repair industry closed, as a result of increased
complexity with new ignition and fuel systems and computers, longer
lasting engines and other parts, and more auto chains like Midas, Monro,
NAPA and Autozone.
Jeff
