Thursday, Mar 08, 2007 at 22:05
So true Steve. I think tour operators like us have an obligation to keep their cars in good condition - unfortunately many don't - seems NT has more of them that class than elsewhere, and I won't name names but you probably know.
I know that if you have your car serviced by your regular passenger vehicle
shop, they will largely service it by the book. For me, I like to regularly (5-10 ks) change the oil, and filters because it is easy and inexpensive, and gives me opportunity to see first hand what is going on.
Interestingly, when I take it to a Diesel specialist working mainly on commercial vehicles, their approach is much more analytical - they assess the sort of work the vehicle is doing, have the oil analysed, and are much more aware of what the real duty cycles are of key components, rather than the manufacturer's worst case, humping the kids to school and back each day, toorak taxis or whatever, schedule suggests.
I think this could be a major part of the OP's observations - manufacturer schedules are ultra conservative for many long distance biased vehicles which have far fewer cold starts, short runs, stop/start traffic etcetera - except at Uluru at sunset ;-)
Cheers
Andrew.
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