Buckshot Bob

This guy has a decent explanation of the difference between how the manufacturers and the consumers and mechanics think

Nothing changed for me. On my wife’s new car for the first 1000 mi we didn’t put any heavy load on it and didn’t use the cruse control. A number of mechanics I know recommend varying the rpm as much as possible “ avoid the highway” , not towing and an early oil change. 500 to 2000 mi , so I just went with 1000 I changed the oil on her car at 1000 then at 5000 on the odometer. Now I plan on every 5000. I would say that tolerances are better today but they do definitely try to make them spin easier for their fleet mpg stats for the government. I know a few of the manufacturers have tried to increase their MPG’s through the use of low tension compression and oil rings and had it come back to bite them in the butt, and made enemies of some of their customer's because of oil burning issues with new cars and oil rings sticking on 60 to 100 thousand mile cars causing excessive oil use, Subaru actually tried to sell it as a feature telling customers that increased mpg’s they were getting were saving them money over the amount of oil they were adding to their vehicles . In many cases they now use roller bearings and roller lifters . I’ve seen lab oil analysis data from first and subsequent oil changes and in most cases there is significantly more contamination of metal particles in the first oil change. So I can’t see leaving it in there for the normal interval the first time. The only argument I’ve heard for leaving the oil in is that some manufacturers put break in lube on the cam/lifters and bearings that helps with the initial wear . If you’re going to drive the wheels off of it fluids are cheap compared to replacing a major component.

Different Models they do different things, also don’t know if you get “special cars” in CA still? Is CA emissions still different than the rest of the country? When I moved there in the 80’s to go to school the state forced me to become a CA citizen and register my car there. I remember the charged me $500 extra for not having CA emissions.

Both the coolers are there on mine, they are not huge but they’re there . The whole reason I started investigating it was because the wilderness edition and the trd both have a higher tow rating than the rest of the trim levels “not that I’m going to tow with it” , and that’s how their archiving the rating . There’s also a plastic plug in the dash where the other trim levels have the switch to turn off the engine start/stop function. My Aunt has a Buick that stops the engine, it irritates the s##T out of me when I drive it and I don’t see how they can honestly claim it’s not going to wear out the starter, battery, engine sooner doing it. If I remember right it was about $5000 more for the hybrid option, but with the long term maintenance implications and the fact I can buy allot of gas for that money even at the Brandon price I opted for the wilderness edition, my wife and I drove the TRD , the suspension was quite a bit firmer and 99% of this cars use will be on paved roads. We also looked at Honda , she liked the Toyota better and I was glad about that because the Honda is putting in a smaller turbo 4 to get a little less hp than the naturally aspirated Toyota 4 . I’ve had turbos and superchargers in the past and never had a problem but one less thing is one less thing to go wrong.

That’s refreshing, my uncle used to own a dealership years ago and he said the extended oil change intervals that many manufacturers recommend were driven mainly by the cost of ownership/pollution numbers that the manufacturers have to report to the government. And I’m guessing a little planned obsolescence thrown in . I saw an interview with a retired Toyota engineer where he recommended 10,000 if you’re leasing “because then you just don’t care”. If you’re planning on 200,000 for your length of ownership changing every 5,000 and if you’re one who wants to drive it forever every 3,000 . Also every six months even if you’re at less than 3000. He did mention that a diesel can go longer than a gas motor, mileage and time wise being that diesel isn’t a solvent like gasoline. He also recommended changing all fluids at least every 50,000. And mentioned that while most plugs the manufacturers install now will last 100,000 many times you can have them seized in the head if you leave them in that long , so at 50,000 at least break them loose. When I was a kid before the days of synthetic oils I remember most places always recommended 3000 for engine oil. I found it interesting that this engineer would recommend the same with today’s synthetics . But car maintenance is another one of those things that you can start a bar fight over .