Changing world of ASS - a view

Most regular maintenance requirement of a modern hi-tech car is oil change.   A decade or so ago, owners changed oil every 5,000 Km, which is now every 10,000 Km for most cars driven in India.  If a car is driven more off-road (mud roads) or in very congested traffic or hills, it may require more frequent oil change.  However, most modern global engines require oil change at the interval of 10,000 - 20,000 Miles or more due to advance technology,  computer control and various advance sensors.  In West, normally owners don't go to dealer for oil change unless dealer gave a free oil change or there is some other problem which is to be fixed by dealer under warranty. 

Modern MPFI engines don't need tune-ups like old carburettor engines and it made big difference in car maintenance schedule.  Newer cars don't need lubrication of joints like old cars, because those joints are sealed with packed lubricants for life.  Other parts to be changed at regular intervals are air-filter, spark plugs and fuel filters.  New platinum tipped spark plugs in high-end cars need to be changed at the interval of 100,000 Miles or more due to high octane gas - no old style cleaning of spark plugs for carbon deposit by mechanic.  Most new cars don't need change of fuel filter like old car - please check your car manual.  It is better to put K & N air filter at the time of first air-filter change, which will last for 100,000 Miles or more and will improve fuel economy and engine life too.  What else - recharging of A/C every 5-7 years (depends on use and/or leakage).  For all tyre or brake or muffler or shock related job, you don't need dealer  to pay premium.  Car accidents and hitting a big Crater is different ball game.

IMO, the advantage, Suzuki enjoyed  of large ASS network for over 20 years may not be very significant in future.  Of course, we will need  dealer for repairs under warranty and some very specific problems.  Once, high quality regular parts become common in India to other vendors like West, things will change.  Moreover, modern cars don't require as much mechanic attention as cars of previous era.  A new auto service industry is growing up to take care of regular maintenance needs  of cars - independent of manufacturer, which will change decade old  mind set ofIndian car drivers - like what happened in two wheeler service industry and dealers decades ago.

Wish you a happy, safe and trouble-free driving  .

the fuel filter needing to be changed is more a function of the bad fuel available than the car itself. CRDI cars have far more complex (and expensive) fuel filters than the regular diesels.

And a K&N is not the one stop solution. Actually a stock air filter will do 40,000k easily if cleaned regularly, and changing the air filter is an easy job, as easy as replacing batteries in a remote control, only that you'll have to open a few screws

and given the mineral oils most dealerships use, its better to change it frequently than damage your engine

Good write up Amit

Great one there Amit. Over the years the way the automotive industry has been technologically advancing has been noticed by one and all. There was a time when diesel engines needed for a heater to get heated before they started. Then came the Direct Ignition(DI) for diesel cars and with time we have many more such as the CRDI, TDCi and the latest MHawk (another CRDi variant) from Mahindra. More than Petrol the technological advancement in diesel is more evident from this. Previously diesel cars and petrol cars had a good amount of difference between their prices and look at them these days, just a few thousands or maybe a bit more reaching upto lower figures in lacs. Maybe one day we would have "maintenance free cars" with only the fuel expense as a part of the ownership

@Amit Mudgal - glad you liked it.

@ Centaur - Thank you.  I have a surprise for you but you will like this surprise.  Your dream car with almost zero regular maintenance exists in West and USA.  These cars have electric motor and batteries.  They don't need regular oil change, air-filter change, fuel-filter change etc. (conventional concept of auto maintenance - as understood normally).  On the other side of coin, petrol (gas) cars sold in north of Toronto, Canada and north Europe come with engine block heater and people plug it to regular electric power overnight during peak winter (temperature sub zero degree F), otherwise car will not start in morning.  I have little technical understanding, so I will say moving parts at high speed will always require some maintenance NOT like TV or calculator  and tyres will always wear out with mileage.

Hey Thanks Amit but luckily this did not come as a surprise for me for 2 things mainly -

1. I was aware about the zero maintenance electric cars and I was actually intending about the ones that run on conventional fuel, not electric and
2. I was intending the Indian market

But the plug in thing for cars in Canada did add to me knowledge. Electric cars have always been known for very low or zero maintenance. Unfortunately they did not make up big in INDIA ( except the REVA which was a 2 seater but that too did not do well). I do agree that moving parts will require maintenance but I guess some day we have so little maintenance on our cars in India that it will be almost negligible. We are on the way to reach that day and should be there sooner or later. Thanks for the info and the write up though. Its a good reading material.

@ Centaur

I  always felt that you write in a very objective way here  and write it well (you COMPLETELY LACK BIAS towrads cars you own ).  You also keep yourself pretty well abreast with developing technology - keep it up.

BTW, your carwale icon resembles very well to famous 'Kinghts Rider' car.  Once I sat in that car in Universal Studio, LA but they will not let anyone drive this black beauty.  I have seen that car in action only on screens, like James Bond cars.  Technologically it is a very advance car in reality too but not sure if it can perform all stunts in real world.  But one thing I will tell you it has very advance signal processor and Fuzzy logic controller.  It asked my name and was able to welcome me to the car with my real name, which many Americans find hard to repeat -  so I was pleasantly amused.  I was able to talk to it easily and it answered to query, well.  I did not see any small and smart kid hiding under the hood  .

In agreement with your wishes, BMW has recently lauched a car (I don't remember model #) which will require oil change every 30,000 miles (48,000 km), like every 4 years in India.  What more you can ask for?

Nice write-up Amit.

I apologize if i offended you in anyway but I did not mean to. I was just putting ahead what I thought. Thank you for the kind words.

I must admit here that I too was a fan of the Knight rider car. I still remember watching those episodes which came at 9.30 in the night when I was school kid. Recently I saw that the same serial ( without David hasselhoff, the original knight rider actor) being aired on Star World, I guess on Thursday nights. Not sure of the time. The car is swanky and the serial is good but unfortunately I always miss it as I dont know the time. I also used to watch another serial name street hawk which was about a bike with similar features. Smart cars and bikes will definitely be a reality someday. Maybe thats why they have started retelecasting the serial to get us close to the "future" reality.

Unfortunately the BMW cannot be owned by most to take an advantage of this feature