I drive less than 6,000 miles per year. Should I still get an oil change every 6 months or wait until I reach the car manufacturer’s recommended mileage?
Every 6 months at the most.
If you drive it 5 or more days a week, then no more than 6 months. If it is driven on weekends only, then once a year should do.
Opinions will vary.
If the car is under warranty, then change it according to the book (ie every 6 months).
If that 6000 miles has very little highway miles in it, then I’d do it every 6 months. But if you routinely take it out for a highway trip (like 20 minutes or longer), then I’d be comfortable extending it longer than 6 months.
@JoeMario The dealers keep bugging seniors to bring their cars in based on TIME. My neighbor is retired, and drives very little. He has a 2004 Focus with 15,000 miles on it. It’s out of warranty now, but the dealer would have given it 27 oil changes!!! He settled for 5.
We bought a new 2012 Mazda3 in August of last year and it will be going in for its first oil change next week. We travel a lot and the car sits in the garage most of the time. I do agree that you should try to come close to the factory recommendation during the warranty period.
I drive one of my cars less than 3000 miles per year and I change the oil every 6 months as recommended by the maintenance manual. I doubt it would make much difference if I waited 9 months or a year, but it’s not expensive or difficult to do, so that’s why I do it.
Tell us what your owner’s manual says.
I drive my 2006 Matrix ~4000 miles a year, 2-3 times a week mostly 20-30 minute trips plus the occasional highway cruise.
I’ve been changing the oil every 6 months, but now that the extended warranty (which I bargained down to a reasonable price) is running out I’m switching to once a year.
Like lion9car said, look in your owner’s manual and look at the severe driving list for maintenance
Thanks for the input!
Personaly I’d do it every six months. For one thing it is a chance to have the rest of the car looked at for any problems. A year is a long time to go with no one taking a look at the rest of the car.