[bch]

I had a friend who had a Honda (edit: actually, Toyota iirc) for ~15 years that didn’t know it had oil; So when they sold it and was asked how often the oil was changed, the potential buyer was met with a quizzical look. Tires and gasoline and window washer fluid was its maintenance.

[jabl]

I coworker of my mother some 20-25 years ago bought a new car. Drove it until it stopped and refused to go further. Called some road service who upon inspecting it announced that she had run out of gas. She was surprised, "Cars still need to be refueled??!!".

[throwawaylaptop]

I find that a bit hard to believe. Someone in that family knew and took care of it sometimes.

The longest I've seen a used car go without an oil change was 40k miles and it was changed when it started making noise instantly on startup. That was basically 90k to 130k. Sure 0 to 40k would go a bit better.. but not 15 years of typical driving.

Between carbon blowby, gasoline dilution, oil burning at the rings/cylinder walls even if minimal, no car is making it 15 years if the person drives more than 5k miles a year IMO.

[bch]

I wouldn't believe it either unless I heard it directly from my earnest friend who learned at that moment:

1) cars have oil

2) said oil should be changed regularly

[throwawaylaptop]

Unless they were driving very very low miles per year, they are simply incorrect. A car isn't making it over 100k miles without an oil change IMO, even a Toyota.

Similar to how this person went most of a lifetime without noticing and wondering what oil change businesses, advertisements, coupons, etc were for... They also didn't notice someone in their household or a service provider of some kind (brakes, tires, idk) changing their oil.