The recent thread on the lawnmower warranty issue motivated this:
New car warranties are typically written in terms of e.g. 15000 mi or 12 mo WHICHEVER COMES FIRST describing when you should (must?) have certain work done. Yet if you don't drive much and have just 5000 mi when 12 mo. come up, it seems such a shame to pay the large amounts for that periodic scheduled maintenance esp. when a large part of the task is INSPECT as opposed to REPLACE/PERFORM (no way to know if INSPECT was actually done).
What things should(must?) be done on a time basis even with low mileage?
I could see oil/filter changes on the grounds of low mileage associated w/ city driving being more harmful than high mileage related w/ freeway driving being in this category (besides it doesn't cost that much). Does coolant system flushes belong in this same category? What else belongs here?
If you did just the tasks clearly related to time on a time basis and left the others to be done on a mileage basis, what do you think the manufacturer would do if you had a warranty issue with the latter?
New car warranties are typically written in terms of e.g. 15000 mi or 12 mo WHICHEVER COMES FIRST describing when you should (must?) have certain work done. Yet if you don't drive much and have just 5000 mi when 12 mo. come up, it seems such a shame to pay the large amounts for that periodic scheduled maintenance esp. when a large part of the task is INSPECT as opposed to REPLACE/PERFORM (no way to know if INSPECT was actually done).
What things should(must?) be done on a time basis even with low mileage?
I could see oil/filter changes on the grounds of low mileage associated w/ city driving being more harmful than high mileage related w/ freeway driving being in this category (besides it doesn't cost that much). Does coolant system flushes belong in this same category? What else belongs here?
If you did just the tasks clearly related to time on a time basis and left the others to be done on a mileage basis, what do you think the manufacturer would do if you had a warranty issue with the latter?