are you saying that a top quality synthetic oil breaks down far quicker with an infrequently used / low annual mileage car, that just doesnt make sense, and I'm sure Mobil,Castrol et al would beg to differ.

That is exactly the case. With a petrol engine is started from cold it is inevitable that you will get fuel and water in the oil. This is unavoidable. When the oil gets hot some of the fuel evaporates out, but some is left in. This causes the oil to oxidise.When the engine is hot, most of the fuel is evaporated and very little ends up in the crankcase.This is why mileage isn't a good indicator of ageing.

lubrication and oil quality should not be an issue, even if fuel economy is.

Oils have improved-but so have the demands placed upon them. Cylinder pressures are higher than they used to be and those loads are being supoorted by thinner, narrower bearings.

I often cringe at the noise made by engines for 5 seconds or so after a filter change when there is no oil pressure whatsoever. I'm pretty sure there's more damage done there than 100 cold starts.

You should cahneg your garage as they appear incompetent muppets.

Andy sensible one fills the oil filter before fitting to avoid that... or if impossible disconnests the fuel pump fuse to enable fresh oil to be pumped round before redonnecting the fuse and restarting.

Remember the Honda Concerto we bought new in 94 as a second car which was subject to services every 6 months/7500 miles. Good car, but cost us £850 for routine servicing only over the 3.5 years we had it. This was when you had to use franchised dealers for servicing to maintain the warranty cover.

Compare that to the Auris I swopped in October - cost £429 at my supplying Toyota dealer for the same period of ownership

Happy Blue, thats one of the best common sense posts about this subject i've seen in a long time, it also applies as much to abused neglected and unsympathetically driven high mileage cars though

One size does not fit all, it never will, one's loaf should be used when determining servicing as with anything else. Buying used you have to make a judgement call after exhaustive research into the probability of your chosen used car developing faults that may well stem from ridiculously long service intervals and/or poor driving practice, some German Diesel turbos for example but there are many others.

Edited by gordonbennet on 20/01/2013 at 10:57

The fleet buyers may not, but the manufacturer should give a monkeys.

It is the reliability of a car/brand when it is between say three and six years old that estabilishes its reputation. If a car doesn't sell well to the second hand end-of-lease market, its value will plummet and leasing costs go up.

Yes, manufacturers can tinker with the monthly lease prices to get cars onto the used car lot of their dealers, but there is nothing like strong second hand demand to reduce lease costs. It is often cheaper to lease a BMW than a Ford simply due to residuals.

It is a lot cheaper to lease a Nissan Juke than an equivalent Audi A1, or MINI, not becuase the initial price is lower (only by a small margin), but becuase the car is reliable and desirable to the second hand punter.