Heh heh. Unfortunately communication requires a willing sender and a willing receiver. Hearing the response “blah, blah, blah” is a clue that the communication has not been successful.
Back in 1970 I worked the overnight shift at a Hudson gas station in Waukesha, WI. A well-dressed man with a good looking older car told me to never change the oil - change only the filter. It seemed to work for him. I bet he never let his oil get low, or his filter too old.
Or, they just have no orientation to the whole thing.
A friend of mine–who grew up in a “car-less” home and had no clue regarding the need for automotive maintenance–bought a brand-new late '80s vintage Honda. He did almost entirely local, short-trip driving, and he never changed the oil in the 5 years or so that he owned it. Obviously, he never opened the Owner’s Manual.
Believe it or not, he experienced no engine problems whatsoever, and the car was only done-in by a collision with a deer. I got to know him for the last couple of months that he owned that Honda, and–luckily–I have been able to “convert” him to someone who maintains his vehicles very well. He was very lucky that his Honda never experienced catastrophic engine failure, but I have been able to convince him that his luck will not endure with any other cars.
Back in the '80s I had a friend who was a mechanic at two Honda dealerships (Pohanka in MD, Ourisman in VA).
He said virtually all engine problems they saw were due to oil related neglect.
Most of their days were spent installing AC in new cars and servicing brakes.
My 6 year old actually reminds me to check the oil on Saturdays if I happen to forget, and he’s learned which tube is for the oil and which one is for the transmission fluid too
I prefer to check oil by mileage (1000 miles), not time.
Used to take anywhere from 3 days to 3 months for me to go that far.
Now with COVID I’m driving less than 10 miles a week, but I check under the hood weekly for rat nests.
https://community.cartalk.com/t/hold-it-rat-there/164446/44
Rats love to chew wires to hone their teeth. Another time at the Hyundai service area while waiting for some labels to be stuck on the seat belt anchors, I saw a Sonata with its entire interior ripped out. Everything from the fire wall to the back window was gone - dash board, steering assembly, everything. Service manager said that the customer had the car parked outside and left a window down - rats got in and destroyed all the wiring. They were waiting for customer to resolve issue with insurance before reassembling. He said they often get cars in with rat damage, especially from areas like this customer from Los Gatos (a semi rural/suburban area). Read where people use dryer softener sheets, pepper spray, or special rat repellent wrapping tape. Wonder how many house fires are caused by rats.
The irony of having a rodent problem in a place named “The Cats”.
… rather than Boca Raton (rat’s mouth)…
Or Raton Pass between Colorado and New Mexico.
I see reference to the Mitsubishi Mirage without the oil change. I am not sure which model this is but I have one of the newer style ones for running around on jobs. This has the 1.2L 3 cylinder and I am on the forum for this car.
A mechanic at a Mitsubishi dealer was describing how he had a Mirage come in with a trashed engine. It had been run on the factory for 60,000 miles. The timing chain stretched to where it jumped time and trashed the valves and pistons but he said there was no records of oil changes and it looked like tar inside the thing. He said it was the worst neglect he had seen and was amazed it ran that long. Mine has 50,000 miles and has had at least 10x oil changes so far as I space them about 5000 miles apart. I cannot see any signs of buildup or discoloration under the oil cap.
I am not trying to upset you but do you see a little irony in the fact that you advise people to never buy a low end computer or TV and then you go and buy the lowest priced car for sale in the US. Don’t get me wrong, we have had a lot of Mitsubishi built cars in our family, a Twin Stick Plymouth Champ, A 2.0 Plymouth Arrow, a 1994 Mitsubishi Gallant ,a great car and the only car I ever owned that was braver on the curves than I was. It cornered at insane speeds due to it’s double wishbone suspension. The next model cheaped out with front strut suspension.
For years I was on the lookout for a dark green Diamante wagon but I never found one.
I know what you mean. Basically I put lots of miles on my car and a lot of these are slow speeds on rural gravel roads. I didn’t want to put a ton of miles like this on a more expensive car.
Anyway, the car has been quite reliable and trouble free for the first 50,000 miles. I know that isn’t much in today’s world but I don’t regret it. Others report much the same although there are some issues with the CVT equipped models. It sounds like you want to change the fluid on time or ahead of schedule for sure and these may fail before 200,000 miles. Mine is a manual and I have changed the fluid once already.
The car gets up to highway speeds although maybe not as fast as something else. It starts up each and every time. I can see the comparison to the Wal-Mart computer but here is the deal. Those computers would be the equivalent of taking 5 minutes to go from 0 to 60 so they are almost unusable to many people. Then there is the fact they seem to fail just outside the warranty like clockwork and be worthless. Of course I think lots of these fail due to the conditions people keep them in (think cheap car filled with trash and never had an oil change) but a lot are just failure points built into the unit. Some of these do not cool properly, leading to failures. Some use such cheap plastic that laptops literally break apart when opened and closed enough times. I don’t see that about the Mirage.
I have softened my stance on the TVs but not the computers. Some of the TVs like TCL are not really too bad for the money and they are cheap enough to not worry about if they don’t last forever. The thing that gets me are the people who call me and want me to repair a $100 TV. It is going to cost more than that in parts most of the time. I wouldn’t rebuild a totaled Mirage. I would go get another one. The people get all irate when you tell then it is not worth fixing some cheap TV. This seems like a better answer than just blindly taking them in and fixing them, then giving them a surprise bill, but they still get upset. Then they want to sell you the broken TV. Nope! I don’t want it and have to pay to recycle them so would have to charge you money to take it. A lot of my hatred for cheap electronics is the owner behavior I tend to see with this stuff.
Also, my GF has a Wal-Mart kayak. It isn’t a top of the line unit but works, doesn’t leak, etc. I do overnight trips so have a better model. She does day trips. If this kayak were built to the standards of the computers, it would dissolve in water and/or get a hole the 1st time it hit a rock.
The Mirage is probably best compared to the cheap kayak. It isn’t the most feature rich but it is solid and reliable for what it is. Unlike the Yugo which had failures, this thing is reliable and durable. It is just small, cheap, and not a luxury car by any means. It is perfect for the service work that I do and I am not putting lots of miles on a more expensive car.
It also gets Mobil 1 synthetic oil every 5000 miles.