Or close as possible. I have a 07 Honda Accord, V6. I like it, and my hope is to make it last as long as possible. I'm 21. Its paid off. The costs that go into it are: gas, maintenance, and insurance. Gas right now is about ~30 a month considering I'm at school and don't drive too far...but this will go up. Maintenance is every 6 months along with the oil change and whatever the maintenance schedule/service guy recommends (I'm cautious whenever they tell me something). As for insurance, I've gotten it done to ~80/month. I shop around for insurance every 6 months and have seen my rates drop dramatically. My hope is ~40/month. So how can I make this car last as long as possible? I do everything through a Honda dealership whenever the service light comes on. But I was wondering whether it was necessary to start using Mobile One or any other brand name over their synthetic oil? I've asked them if I could bring my own oil and pay only for labor, and they said that would be fine. Oil filter, air filter, and all that as well. Is this worth it? I drive fairly easy. I take care of it. Make sure tires are inflated and that it gets covered in the snowtime. I take care of the inside. My hope is to take this to 200k, maybe even 300k. What should or shouldn't I do? Searches have rendered me the same answer after the other (like all online searches...), so I want to know what some of you can recommend. Should I sign up for the valvoline challenge? Valvoline Engine Guarantee I think something like this would motivate me to keep my car for a longer time and see it through until the 300k. Lemme know
First off, if you really plan on keeping this car - learn to do your own maintenance. Changing your oil and doing even tuneups requires the most basic of knowledge and you will save yourself bucketloads of trouble and money by learning to do those simple things. And could even save you the headache of some dumb punk kid ruining your car by putting in old oil (seen it happen), among other things. If you insist on having them do it, buy all your own parts. They are overcharging you a lot with their parts. OEM parts through stealerships are incredibly expensive. And never, ever under any circumstances start trying to think about modifying it to make it go faster. Once you start getting into aftermarket upgrades, you can seriously damage your cars reliability. Other than that, if you keep with regular maintenance, theres no reason the car won't last to see 200-300k.
My problem with self-maintenance is regarding warranties. I've taken a shop class, and I know how to do most of the minor things. I'm very technically/motor(motor) inclined, so I should be able to pull off all the minor things as long as I have the tools. Should I take the time to learn this instead of giving it to pros? Can I also ask to watch them put the oil in as well? Or would they not let me due to insurance issues? I'm a follower of the stock marketing and have been involved in consumer finance since the age of 17, and I know that a car is the worst investment ever. So I got that out of the way when I was young (why its paid off), and I have no plans on "souping it" or becoming a ricer any day soon. A car is the worst investment IMO you can make in your life (marriage is up there ) Stock cars are fine as long as they have a long life. I think an Accord should get me those 300k. In short, should I really take the time to do so the smaller stuff or give it to the dealer? Its an opportunity cost, and I don't want to fuck anything up myself. I also plan on paying for my car maintenance, gas, and insurance cost through dividends Also, whats the best motor oil? I prefer synthetic. It seems to me, after you get into the upper echelons of motor oils the differences aren't that dramatic. Thanks again
If you're okay with paying the dealership their labor rates, then I'd let them continue to take care of it until the warranty runs out. If you're looking to save some money, doing oil changes and other basic things yourself is still better. Afterwards, pick up Bentley (or equivalent) manual for your car. It will teach you to do anything that you would ever need to know about your car and you can always use the internet as a resource too. There's a few brands that claim superiority as far as motor oil goes, but most of the oils are bought from the same place, just rebranded. Mobil 1 synthetic seems to be a pretty good overall choice for synthetics. The most important thing with oil is to just not change it up. Your car becomes accustomed to a certain oil and you want to keep with that.
Its a Honda.. Great engines.. Read your manual and figure out the service requirement.. When she goes over 100k change the oil and filters more often. Friend of mine has one with 250k miles.. Drives it as a hackney taxi ..
honestly, if you keep it under warranty and keep getting it serviced at the dealer it will last forever. Blew a head gasket? great! you have extended warranty and the dealer will fix it. also, it seems your doing a really good job keeping up with all of it's general maintenance. just make sure they get everything done according to it's mileage, time is practically irrelevant assuming it's your daily driver, so disregard the 3 or 6 month oil change in the 6 month/6000 mile intervals, only go by mileage. Say you are around 75k and your scheduled for a trans. flush. You take it to the dealer and they look at it and say it's fine and no need to change it, get them to change it anyways...do this with any service. If you don't want to pay for extended warranties, definitely learn to swap fluids and do basic maintenance yourself, and save up if something decides to give out on you unexpectedly. You can also browse through accord sites and look for common problems it has...
As alluded to above, the v6 they use in accords (obv not just used in this one car) are famous for their reliability. As far as how often to change oil... before it gets dirty. You can see how translucent it is on the dipstick pretty easily, much more reliable than counting miles.
I have a Honda too. Not Accord v6, but a CRV. But what I want to say is, the car is 8 yrs old now, and it's gone 320,000 Km, and it's still new. Or close to new. Yeah it's got a bit of rattle on the compressor (for the air con), but it's no big deal. The rubbers around the car is worn out though. But you can replace them with new ones and they'll be good for another 5 years.
Definitely use Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil and change it every 5000 miles, thats what I've always done to my cars and I've never had any major engine problems. And Honda makes awesome durable little engines that can take a lot of abuse, so that's always a plus.