Philip said:
How a person will lay out the money to buy such a techically
sophisticated car yet remain so woefully ignorant of basic maintenance
is a bit beyond me.
While I agree that one of the most important and first things a new car
owner should do is thoroughly read the owner's manual and adhere to it,
I think a Volvo dealer should adhere to it as well. Besides, we do not
know exactly what is written in this particular manual in regards to oil
and oil changes - maybe Shelby would like to provide this info so that
we can settle this once and for all - was the Volvo dealer not following
the manual, or was the information not even in the manual? In both
cases - I'd blame Volvo. Not everyone has to be a car mechanic in order
to drive one.
Do you check your OWN oil for level and color on occasion? Black = no
good.
That's not quite true. The color of oil is no indication of its state.
Oil turning dark is just doing its job by suspending tiny dirt particles
in itself. However, this does not mean it's "no good" anymore. Many
oils turn dark rather fast (within a couple of thousand miles), but
their TBN is still relatively high, showing that there is plenty of
additives left to fight acids and prevent wear. Truthfully, only a used
oil analysis could determine whether it's time to drain it.
Interstingly, in her case, an oil analysis after the first 7.5K miles
would have shown a high level of insolubles giving an indication that
something is wrong and preventing the disasters that followed. Alas,
her case is so clear-cut (to me at least), that it doesn't take a rocket
scientist (nor an oil analysis) to figure out that
turbo + dino oil for 7.5K miles = big trouble
But again, not everyone has to know this. And as you well pointed out,
in this case the learning came at a rather high price. With time, more
cases like these will surface, and will eventually force some
dealerships in the US to start using better quality oils with those
extended drain intervals. For now, extended drain intervals are a
selling point.
"One of the selling points during the transaction was the 7,500
mile recommended oil change intervals for Volvos."
Now, if the dealership also informed her that you need to use a more
expensive oil ($5/quart for average fully-synthetic oil vs. $1.50/quart
for a dino oil), then suddenly it would not be a good selling point, so
they conveniently forget to mention that part. And for that they should
have their hands slapped, IMO at least.
Cheers,
Pete
