That's not what I asked you for.
Too bad. We all have these little disappointments in life. Especially since the study you linked doesn't show the stats for the general public at all - the study said, and I quote:
To investigate barriers to HE filter technology use, staff mailed surveys to 1,987 fleet managers. Two hundred and sixty-two surveys were returned (a 13 percent response rate) including responses from several State agencies, and other public and private fleet operators representing a broad spectrum of vehicle types and sizes.
Four State agencies, two local school districts, and one local transit agency partnered with DTSC for the study?s demonstration phase.
This data is based off of
fleet managers' actions, not the general public. Fleet maintenance is on the average, far more meticulous and regular than private individuals' maintenance. Fleet managers usually use the much shorter "severe service intervals" listed in the manuals if they don't have an even more paranoid regimen worked up already from an earlier era. It's unheard of for a fleet manager to wait for the service indicator to come on. There are various reasons for this, but the bottom line is they just about always service earlier than anyone else would. My CVPI that I recently sold was run in the police fleet of a small town in Texas. They ran 2500 mile oil changes - *nobody* would do that in the private sector.
So you haven't presented anything to support the argument that the average US car is having its oil changed that soon. Remember, fleets make up a tiny minority of the cars in the US.
All it says is "40% of people are putting off maintenance to save cost". It doesn't provide any numbers on when they actually change their oil. Here's an example: If a driver still has his job he changes every 3k. Now he loses it and instead flips burgers, so he puts off the oil change until 5k. Going by what the study says, that's entirely within their scope.
It doesn't say they change it that early, either. It says that they're putting it off. Most people (assuming they even know there's a set interval, which many don't any more here) now change at the recommended extended interval. If that's what they're doing, then they're blowing off the extended interval. This would be borne out by many of the incidents of engines ruined by oil gelling due to people blowing off the extended interval by a bit. (Not the ones caused by bad design or bad specifications, though.)
Also, some other evidence - if people were changing their oil that frequently, the formerly ridiculously profitable quick oil change places in the US wouldn't be
filing for bankruptcy. The JiffyLubes and QwikLubes of America that used to be 'just oil changes' were licenses to print money until the extended interval cars showed up. Now they've been decimated because of the lack of custom. Most have been forced to become general repair shops with the oil changes as a sideline.
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I'll never understand why you people insist on putting "a new diesel car" into the argument. There are used ones too, you know...some very cheap and good deals. And suddenly you're doing 50+mpg in a car that cost you not all that much... Exactly what I'm planning in the future. Diesel is always a bit cheaper here (not the case in the US, I know) and a hatch with a 1.3 or 1.9 turbodiesel gets awesome mileage on long trips in 5/6 gear; exactly what I mostly do. Chiptune it and you have a little rocket on your hands. It's just win all over the place.
But I know what responses await me after my thoughts, so...fire away. :lol:
There are exactly three diesel car types available in the US market between five and fifteen years old. Note - cars, not trucks.
1. Diesel E-class, 3.xL diesel - only one diesel engine size offered per year.
2. Diesel Golf/Jetta. 1.xL diesel - only one diesel engine size offered per year.
3. Diesel Beetle, see above.
Two if you want to combine the Beetle as a 'Golf/Jetta Type With A Different Body." And they didn't sell very well so there aren't that many used examples available out there. Diesel cars have been gone from the US mainstream for a very long time. Thanks, GM!