03-04-2010, 06:23 AM
davester wrote:
Also note dad that his car only has 70k miles on it. Despite the age in years, that is not an old engine by any means so changing the oil for that reason would be inappropriate.
Just because it has 70k miles on it doesn't mean it's not old, especially in a place like Southern California where the time spent idling in traffic is significantly more than in other parts of the country.
My parents in NJ have a 2001 MDX with about 45,000 miles on it. They spend about as much time in their car per day as I do per day on average, and my 2003 already has 107k. I put 40mi on mine almost 5 days a week. They take weeks to put 40 miles on thiers. They maintain it well, but the driving situations are vastly different. Also consider idling probably the worst operating state you can subject a car to.
Miles has always been an horrible indicator of just about anything related to a car. I don't know why people put so much stock into it.