Are modern cars making people too complacent?

One of my co-workers bought a used Hyundai Santa Fe, a 2019 with 70,000 miles on it. He got it certified pre-owned from Hyundai. It's a nice car, but I think he may have just killed it. 

2000 or so miles ago, he had the oil changed at the dealership. The GDI engine is well known for using a bit of oil. Yesterday, coming around a corner at work, a tight sweeper that many people take way over the limit, the check engine light started to flash and the engine began running rough. He pulled into the garage right after me, so we popped the hood and could not find any oil on the dipstick.

He kept saying that "I just had the oil changed!" And then mentioned 2000 miles ago. To me 2000 miles is not "just changed" that is half way to 3/4 of the way to the next change. Regardless, he had never checked the oil before. Maybe it comes from a lifetime of driving E36 M3boxes, but I generally check the oil with every fill up, every two or three weeks. This goes for the Landy, the Abarth, and my mother's Buick when I take her out shopping. 

Have new cars with their very precision machining, tight tolerances, and superior metalurgy, really made us all too complacent in checking basic things like oil? I know my Landy uses a quart every 1500 miles and the abarth about half a quart every 3000 to 4000 miles. I know this because I check.

With synthetics lasting 10K between changes, I wouldn't check at 2k. I haven't checked on my regular cars for at least 10 years, as they all say when it's due, and I've had dealers refuse to change it before 5%. 
 

if the motor is toast 2k miles after a dealership service, on a certified car, that's on Hyundai. 

I thought this was going to be about driving aids and such.  To answer that question, yes, I do think those things make people superheroes and drive way above what they should. 

Back to the question at hand:  how many new cars do not have a dipstick now?  With that said, tell him to jump on the class action lawsuit while he still can.  

2k miles is at most 40% of the way to a reasonable change interval, probably more like 20% if they don't run the car hard. Being a new purchase I'd probably check the oil every now and then at first, but being CPO should indicate that it doesn't burn/leak anything...at least not enough to empty the engine in 2k miles. So I wouldn't really fault anyone for not checking. Seems more likely to be a botched oil change (or CPO inspection) by the dealer.

jmabarone said:

I thought this was going to be about driving aids and such.  To answer that question, yes, I do think those things make people superheroes and drive way above what they should. 

Back to the question at hand:  how many new cars do not have a dipstick now?  With that said, tell him to jump on the class action lawsuit while he still can.  

I have, more than once, thought that the decline of manual transmissions is one of the prime factors in horrible traffic.

jmabarone said:

I thought this was going to be about driving aids and such.  To answer that question, yes, I do think those things make people superheroes and drive way above what they should. 

Back to the question at hand:  how many new cars do not have a dipstick now?  With that said, tell him to jump on the class action lawsuit while he still can.  

You read my mind, friendo.

I say yes on both accounts. It helps the masses and I get pulled into it too. I used to check oil on the reg and I never do it anymore. Even my pretty worn 6.2 that I know uses oil I don't check. I can hear the lifters when it gets low and then I have the oil changed, it's already at 2500 miles when that happens anyway, I only drive it ~3k a year. My CRV tells me when it's time, I don't even have them put a sticker on it so I know it's coming. 

The same can be said for road prep in the winter for us salt staters. Salt use was more sparring at one time, now they are salting when it may snow later in the day. People don't bother to change to snows anymore (generalization, I know some do) and the minute the roads get grimey they are complaining when they slide off. 

I bought my Mazda3 new in 2018; I remember checking the oil when it was delivered to be with 192 miles on the clock, and checking it again at something like 3000 miles...it was fine.  I changed it at 5,000, and have been doing regular 5,000 mile changes since then, and never once have I checked the oil in between changes since that first time.  It's almost due for it's 60,000 mile change,  and when I do check the oil before draining it, I'm sure it will still be at the 'F' mark.  

Mrs. VCH chides me about it, because I do check the oil on all of my old iron every time I drive them.  She says the "new" car is making me soft.  It's just doing exactly what I bought it to do- provide me with stress-free fun transportation that I don't need to waste much bandwidth on worrying about.  And I can concentrate on stuff like keeping the 1966 Jaguar on the road.  

I was just thinking about this, and how I look like an oddball checking my oil while waiting for the tank to fill at the gas station. It used to be common to check your oil while getting gas. It's always fine, until it's not. Which is why I check it. Especially on newer vehicles with warranties. If it starts using oil, I'd rather find out while it's still covered. I never had to add oil to my Subaru until at one check it used a half a quart over a tank of gas. Ringland #1. Not long after, it used a quart over a tank of gas. Ringland #2. I had to rebuild the engine, but at least I had something to rebuild. 

Most people didn't check their oil level even when they changed it every 3k miles, so now that most say 10k, there no expectation for looking at it at 2k. 

BTW, modern emissions rules pushed the 10k/qt burnt requirement. That to make the catalyst last to 150k. 
 

Several in my current fleet have ways to electronically check the oil. The VW tells you when it's low or you can check it through the infotainment system. It doesn't have a dipstick. The Bentley has a button you push that turns the fuel gauge into an oil gauge. The wife's Suburban has an idiot light. The H3T I checked it every 100 miles after I bought it to see if it used oil. It doesn't so I probably won't check it again unless I notice a stain on the driveway where it parks. 

I generally don't have to check oil levels so I would say yes, modern cars have made people complacent. 

Explorer is brand new still. It goes easily 8-9k between changes without using any. Avalanche has a leaking oil pan gasket but still barely loses a qt over 6k miles even at 260k. Mustang doesn't get driven enough to matter.

Lets just say, if you own a 4 cylinder Hyundai or Kia built since about 2010, CHECK THE FRIGGIN OIL!

In the last month, I've had one show up stuck, one with the oil light flashing, and one for his regular oil change that had less than 2 liters in it.    There's a reason Hyundai is buying so many people new engines.  Makes a Subaru look reliable.

Manual K24 TSX would usually burn 3-4 qts in about 4k miles. they only held 4 qts so that was a thing. The only hyundai/Kia I have owned that used oil is the current Rio. It's had a harsh life so I am not mad at it as it only uses oil when being pushed hard on track. The only other that did was the 00 Accent. It wouldn't burn any oil in the first 5k miles of the oil change, at 6k it burned a half quart and at 6500 it burned another quart. Holding 3.5 qts that gets dicey quick. At least it was consistent. 

To the OP, a 4-5 year old car with 70k miles isn't new. It's a used car with unknown history. You SHOULD be checking oil among other things the first few months with a used car. You don't know what it will do/does. 

Streetwiseguy said:

Lets just say, if you own a 4 cylinder Hyundai or Kia built since about 2010, CHECK THE FRIGGIN OIL!

In the last month, I've had one show up stuck, one with the oil light flashing, and one for his regular oil change that had less than 2 liters in it.    There's a reason Hyundai is buying so many people new engines.  Makes a Subaru look reliable.

Yes, because the government is forcing them to, and they don't want to have to pay those massive fines again.

You really have to know what you're driving. A Hyundai or Kia, checking the oil is mandatory, as is documenting every single oil change.

My friend went out and bought a 2014 Focus for his daughters first car (without consulting me).  Sure enough, a year later, he called me up asking what was wrong when it wouldn't move while in drive or reverse.  Managed to talk him out of fixing it, and trading it on something else.  Sent him nearly 100 links to Corollas and Civics.  He got her a Hyundai...

A week after getting it, a card came in the mail from Hyundai to replace the engine under warranty.  Maybe it will get her through four years of college, maybe not.

All that just to say... get it replaced under warranty!

jmabarone said:

I thought this was going to be about driving aids and such.  To answer that question, yes, I do think those things make people superheroes and drive way above what they should. 

Back to the question at hand:  how many new cars do not have a dipstick now?  With that said, tell him to jump on the class action lawsuit while he still can.  

^This.



Also, yes.

A local suby dealer had a customer burn up a new motor, it went thru the whole load of 0W and seized up.  Customer had oil changes at the dealer at specified intervals, customer complained that they should not have to check oil if they get it changed at recommended intervals.  Yes they got a new motor.

Unless the vehicle is electric it needs a dipstick.  What is next, removing tire valves so when the dash lites up you go to the dealer to get tires inflated?

I haven't had a car that used oil in over 20 years. The worst was the 3.1 in my malibu that started using almost a quart over 10,000 miles at around 300,000.  I stopped checking it regularly years ago.  

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Same. My 9C1 was tight as a drum. Focus, F150, 77 LTD, all of them. 

alfadriver said:

Most people didn't check their oil level even when they changed it every 3k miles, so now that most say 10k, there no expectation for looking at it at 2k. 
 

 

This needs to be emphasized more. People were complacent way before new cars w/self reporting oil levels, life, etc. 

The only one I check is the camaro. I really care about the truck and I know it burns and leaks a little, and i just wait for it to get clattery on a cold start to check it.

The real problem is most people dont check, it gets clattery and they still dont check then it gets knocky and they still dont check.

Peabody said:

Streetwiseguy said:

Lets just say, if you own a 4 cylinder Hyundai or Kia built since about 2010, CHECK THE FRIGGIN OIL!

In the last month, I've had one show up stuck, one with the oil light flashing, and one for his regular oil change that had less than 2 liters in it.    There's a reason Hyundai is buying so many people new engines.  Makes a Subaru look reliable.

Yes, because the government is forcing them to, and they don't want to have to pay those massive fines again.

You really have to know what you're driving. A Hyundai or Kia, checking the oil is mandatory, as is documenting every single oil change.

A forced recall is a good thing in my book. I know how much effort and money ford put into 10k/qt to make sure we could make the 150k target. If it's as bad as some have posted, it's really close to the VW scandal to me. So they should pay for it. 

I wouldn't check oil after only 2k miles unless I knew that the car was burning/leaking oil. Using 1qt in 2000 miles is a lot, burning off the entire supply of oil in that distance means something was ludicrously wrong and I wouldn't fault the guy for missing it unless there were huge clouds of oil smoke coming from the exhaust he should've seen.

Once I get a feel for how fast a car's oil level decreases I then know how often I need to check it in the absence of any smoke or oil spots. On the Toyobaru that means I can set and forget it until the next oil change. I might only check it before track days just to be extra cautious. So far the oil level doesn't seem to have ever moved on its own.

I've actually had 2 cars run low on oil while I was driving them, both times I caught the first flickers from the oil light/pressure gauge under braking and was able to save the engine. One was my Samurai that had a sudden increase in oil burning where it consumed most of the oil in the sump over just a few weeks (and this didn't produce an amount of smoke that was noticeable over typical old worn engine smoke), the other was the NB Miata my sister would've neglected to death if nobody else intervened, luckily I was driving it when the oil pump started to take its first sips of air.

Unless it's a track car, why would you check on a car with less than 100k on it at 25% of the recommended oil change interval?  Other than it being a Hyundai, of course ;)