bratsantom

I have had some high mileage rentals and never thought about oil changes, but I am curious what others have done or what the car rental agencies think about this.

I have put 5000 miles on a car in two weeks once and just put 3000 miles on a car this last week. So from my basic maintenance understanding, if you dont change oil for long enough the engine could light on fire as happened to a friend of mine... So if I know I will put thousands of miles on a car should I be asking them about an oil change when I take the car out?

cordelli

Edited to fix my "overgeneralization"

The cars we have owned for the last seven years have told us when they need an oil change, and they have been every year or 12,000 miles which ever comes first. Other cars may of course be different. While I can not speak for every type of car in National's fleet, I do know that many of them, even the lowest cost Aveo, have oil change indicator lights, and the system's OBC determines the change interval based on the way the car is driven. In the GM cars it's in the info section of the display, in the Prius has an indicator on the dash, Fords have a light, and unless your rented Jeep or Chrysler's is before 2007 (not likely renting from National) it will display it in the odometer or in the optional Vehicle Information Center when a change is required. Not really sure how most of the fleet can be considered a small percentage of what's out there, but that's a different story.

I would not mention to them that you are going to be putting 5,000 miles on a car when you pick it up, they would probably give you a car they don't really care about that kind of miles on in a short period, and save the brand new one for the guy who will put on 75 miles over the week.

I can't picture what you need to do to an engine to get the oil to light on fire, but it's not just going a few miles past the recommended oil change interval.

4now

Many, many years ago I rented an historic apartment with radiators. If the maintenance guy didn't shovel in the coal; I called the owner of the building. I did not pay rent and shovel the coal.
The rental cars are supposed to be roadworthy when they are rented to you.

Cambria

I wouldn't think a modern car would develop a noticeable engine problem in the time frame of a normal rental, even one that is 3000 - 5000 miles. Any issues would develop later in life when seating surfaces wear out early. Even then, it may be 80-100K instead of the 150-200K you can get out of a well maintained car.

I've had a number of rentals that displayed the message about oil life being exceeded when I picked them up. National doesn't seem that worried about it. If looking at the message bothers you, stop at a National location and swap out the car. I had a check engine light come on 400 miles from where I picked up a car. Traded it out, no questions asked.

bratsantom

ok, well thanks for the info. I guess I was just concerned since I still own one of the 3000k oil change cars that does not have any oil change indicator either

dtremit

I think you are overgeneralizing a bit...cars with oil change indicators are a fairly small percentage of what's out there. And many cars have recommended intervals of 6 months/7500 miles. But realistically, there's nothing for a rental customer to worry about.

Tuneman1984

I'm glad somebody posted about this. I have a 3000 mile rental coming up next week, and will possibly have a 6000 mile drive next spring. I figure for the upcoming rental I should be fie so long as I pick something fairly low in imles, which I'm likely to get at YVR. For the 6000 mile rental, I honestly don't mind taking it in to a dealer at one end of the trip for a quick LOF. I can just go have lunch, get a freshly serviced vehicle, and then save the receipt for reimbursement of what National would've spent anyways. If they instead wanted me to swap cars at one end of the trip, I'd be fine with that too.

As for the Oil Life Indicators, those are very easily reset. On Chryslers you turn on the ignition, stomp the gas pedal three times, and switch it off. GMs and Fords require some toggling with the key. There's nothing to stop a rental agent from simply doing this to get rid of any "Change Oil" messages, leaving the customer none the wiser. On the flip side, very few rental agencies that I've seen take their cars to the local dealer unless there is a warranty issue. My local National franchisee uses a Shell station in the neighbourhood. These independents don't know (nor care really) to reset the OLI every time the car goes in for service, so the message could be going off in error. The OLI doesn't monitor the oil itself and relies on user input to function properly.

Cambria

I didn't realize the indicators were so easy to reset. Makes me wonder how consistently the average car is serviced.

jackal

Consistently. It's tracked by mileage in the rental agency's computer system. When a car is returned that has passed the set mileage interval, it is flagged for maintenance. Usually the return agent will toss a card or a rear-view mirror hang tag or something into the car to signal to the detailers that the car needs service.

The mileage interval is usually determined based on either a specification from the manufacturer or, for leased cars, on requirements from the leasing agency. Generally, manufacturers specify an oil change interval of about 6,000 miles. With the EHI acquisition of National, most cars are now owned outright by EHI rather than leased, so you can figure cars need (and are getting) oil changes approximately every 6,000 miles. The OLI warning light is mostly ignored, since not every car has one and some cars will pop the light on every 3,000 miles regardless of the condition of the oil. It also can only be reset when the light is on, so if the mechanic performs the service at 6,000 miles but the light isn't scheduled to pop on until 7,500 miles, then it will pop on 1,500 miles after the oil is changed regardless. The agency will just reset it and move on.

Most rental offices with more than about 500 cars or so will have their own on-staff mechanics to perform oil changes, tire changes, window chip fills, and other light maintenance. Anything heavier is usually a warranty issue and is outsourced to the dealer. And honestly, aside from oil changes every 6,000 miles and tire replacements at about 30,000 miles or so, there's not much cost involved to a rental agency's fleet maintenance department: pretty much any sort of repair or service can either be traced back to the manufacturer (in the case of warranty work) or to the customer (in the case of damage, including tire and glass).

In emergency situations, cars due for oil changes can be reused, although this varies by company and location. It will be caught at the next return, though.

Ritz

As most of you Nat forum vets know, I am in a "permanent temporary RA set-up" where I have rented 365 days a year for over 5 years now continuous (corporate relo). I usually switch the vehicle out every 6 months or so.

But occasionally I put on many more miles than would be considered normal in that time frame. One or 2 drives up the East Coast, and the oil change indicator comes on. Once, a couple of years ago, I felt that maybe it would better to have the oil changed than take the chance of anything happening, so I did. When I did my usually vehicle switch a couple months later, I turned in the receipt to the location mgr for reumbursement on the rental. The mgr told me it was better to not have any work/service done on the vehicle since it voids the warranty National has with the manufacturer. Don't know how relevant this is to all vehicles and all locations, but I hope this helps the OP with their decision.

jackal

I really can't imagine that. I have never heard of light maintenance like oil changes voiding the warranty, even if performed by non-warranty techs. For leased cars, the rental agency has to account for every oil change--where it was done and the time and mileage at the time it was done. The manufacturers can easily see that the service was done by a non-warranty tech, and I've NEVER heard them squawk about this.

National doesn't lease many (any?) cars anymore due to EHI's business model of an all-risk (owned/financed) fleet, but if anything, the restrictions are looser on non-leased cars.

I suspect it's related to the following: National, via EHI, has a national contract with Sears (and possibly one or two other vendors) for oil and tire maintenance. They have negotiated rates with these vendors (and actually, if you call them, they'll usually schedule you to go to a local Sears and get the change done there, often even without anything out of your pocket. National probably prefers this because they'll get the oil change done for $20, whereas you'll pay full retail at $40 or whatever. That's my guess as to why the managers are told to discourage customers from doing their own oil changes.

Student_Flyer

As has been said before, the mileage and repairs are tracked automatically. At BWI, cars that need oil change will pop up as "P:PM" in the handheld when the return agent checks the car in.

We have our own maintenance shop where basic services are performed (oil changes, tires, check engine light, etc...). More serious problems are outsourced. While I don't know about other locations, in our area you will see a sticker on the inside of the driver side door that says when the next oil change must be performed.

If you are concerned about the mileage you will put on the car and oil, let the employee know and they can grab a car for you with lower miles.