Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
I'm going to assume it's because synthetic oils have actually come a long way in the past 30 years, and don't break down as easily. Electronic fuel systems with more sensors and smarter management reduce soot buildup and all the nasty crap incomplete combustion leads to, meaning there are far fewer contaminants getting into the oil.
I don't think this is any sort of conspiracy for the environment. That makes no sense.
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It's not that it's some grand conspiracy for environmental reasons but the really thin oils today do help with very marginal increases in fuel mileage. It's a fraction better but at what long term longevity cost?
If you look under a lot of new cars the amount of covers, shields and more plastic in the way of major components is crazy. This allows marginally better airflow for an increase in mileage but it also is incredibly wasteful from a plastic perspective and harmful for an owner as you can't see fluid leaks very easily until sometimes it's really late. It also makes it a lot harder to do very basic work on your own and increases the cost of shops doing work as the panels all need to be removed for basic maintenance.
There are other innovations for environmental reasons that just add cost, complexity and reduce overall service life and costs for little to no value. Cartridge style oil filters, start/stop feature that reduces battery, starter, engine life, non serviceable CVT transmissions that are not really repairable and become throw away units but on paper save 50 cents in fuel per tank etc.
The extended life oil changes and more are more marketing gimmicks to lower cost of ownership. Some coolant says it's good for 15 years and 300k. In reality you can drain and fill a radiator for $40-50 in coolant cost from a dealer a lot of times so why risk the investment on expensive, modern cars with expensive repairs?
I own a fleet of cars from 98-2025 and I can tell ya which ones are my favorite and the 2025 model (RAV4) is at the bottom for reasons above. At the end of the day it's consumers that are paying huge costs for things above when that wasn't the case before. This is systemic and it's bankrupting the working people with nonsense.