FiveO

You don't need synthetic oil to safely reach Honda's recommended service interval.

However, I'm not disputing that synthetics work well. I used to use Amsoil back in the day, and I would go 30,000 to 40,000 km between full oil changes on it, with only a filter change and oil top-up between. That was on a car I used to solo race several weekends a year. I know synthetics work well in severe service, but for most owners not stressing their engines on a regular basis, synthetic is overkill and not cost effective.

While I say that for most users, I've been using Shell Rotella synthetic diesel engine oil in my garden tractor over the past couple of years with good results in actually solving that tractor's prior high oil consumption problems. I posted on this just a few weeks earlier.

Since then, I've started to move my other vehicles over to it as well as oil change intervals come due. Assuming that my winter experience with Rotella in my other vehicles works as expected, the truck will get its shot in spring.

For my vehicles I wasn't really that concerned with "extra protection". It's just that I was already buying the Rotella in 20-litre pails for the garden tractor to minimize costs. The "bulk" price just made it somewhat more economical to use if you have several vehicles to service.

Cablerat

I agree with FiveO in regards to the oil change requirements. I've been preaching this for many years.

my gf's 94 civic hatch receives oil changes no sooner than 10K. The stock airbox sticker even speaks to 12K oil changes. Now has 296K on it and doesn't have any problems whatsoever.

Oil changes sooner than recommended under normal driving conditions is not money spent well.

x2knight

I went there awhile ago and had a really disappointing experience. The sales guy which had barely any automotive knowledge made up a bunch of BS and it caught up to him lol. Told me a bunch of S*** my car NEEDED or it'd be unsafe to drive (tuneup items), and most of the stuff that he tried push were stuff that I also had recently done too! I saw this poor woman just get ripped off with the amount of useless things they told her that she needed. Definitely not a place to recommend for family/friends lol.

BlitzSix

What do you mean "who does that"? Anytime you get an oil change ANYWHERE they write down the exact km or date when you should come back. They don't just say "yeah come back in a few months ya know...". I don't know how to make it anymore obvious to you that he is not going by the 12k interval. He would have said that for sure, and not tried to weasel his way out of it by pretending that you're not supposed to go by the "whichever comes first" rule.

I'm actually not reaching at all. The service advisor knows ZERO about her current and past driving habits and how the car is used, he can't simply magically know everything and give her an accurate time to bring in her car for an oil change. He didn't ask her ANYTHING and just said that right away, to get out of doing it, with no real reason. If there was one he would have explained it, like a service advisor is supposed to. In fact, if you must know, the driving period between Oct 17th and yesterday included a long trip over the holidays (out of town) which is made rarely. So really, if she brought it back in Feb, it would be WAY under your 12000km .

And he was not trying to get out of it because it was not due yet, it was clearly due, since, again, for the 50th time, they wrote it on the sticker, that it was due at X km, or Y date, whichever comes first. My friend hit the milage before the time, so yes, it was due. They should write it for 12k if they want people to come back after 12k

I'm not confusing anything. It's one thing to try to upsell car washes at a gas station, or better products (ie trying to get customer to put synthetic oil vs dino because it protects better etc) but it's another when a service advisor at a dealership is dishonest about the required maintenance to get more money out of the customer. He is an "expert" in the field, and it's his responsibility to give his honest opinion. So if say the oil change wasn't supposed to be free, and my friend called in advance and said "hey, I went 6500 km in 2.5 months, am I due yet"? He would say yes, since he's getting more $, but since he wasn't in this case he said no. THAT is unethical.

If you hire an electrician in your house to add another light switch or something, and he goes and tells you that all the wiring in your house needs to be replaced (cause its old or something) so he can make more $ and it's not true at all (and the wiring is fine), it's unethical, simple as that, because he's an expert who you trust, just like you should be able to trust a service advisor at a Honda dealership. Just because it's a "cash cow" doesn't mean they should lie to customers regarding their maintenance needs. I know shops do it, but that doesn't make it right, espeically from a huge dealership named after the capital of Ontario, from one of the biggest automakers ever..