Their are Bitog members that exercise adn try to watch what they eat but that would be another web site would it!!! I mean this is about lube's and car's and planes and train's etc.....
Just a few weeks ago I saved over $500 in labor and about $50 in fluids by replaceing the wife's transmission on her buick myself. I can change my oil with synthetic oil for $10-$20 an oil changes depending on sale's like Bogo of full price at Walmart etc.... The cheapest dino oil change I have seen lately is $15 and that usualy does not cover the additional shop fee's etc....
Seriously when AAP has BOGO you can get 4 quart's of Penszoil or Valvoline SYnthetic for around $10-$11 dollar's and that is not with any stupid mail in rebates. When then have their brand of oil filter on sale and BOGO you end up getting a good filter for about $1 each.
As for wax's I wait until summer is almost over and I can buy wax's and such that would normaly sell for $28 a bottle for $1-$4. So I stock up on the exotic stuff then. You can do this stuff the smart/cheap way or the expensive way. Heck when I ordered VP full ester based raceing oil includeing tax and shipping to my door step I was paying something like $3.56 per quart for an oil that normaly sell's for $9-$13 a quart.
As to driveing for 500,000 miles I doubt I will ever own anything that long but 300,000 is easily doable. Maybe if I had something with a V8 or turbo I6 I would consider 500,000 but I really do not want to be stuck in my 4 cylinder any longer then I have to. Ilike power. Seeing how i do all of my own non-warranty work I like to keep the engine clean and as close to desposit free as I can get. This makes life easier for me since it usualy mean's fewer part's failure's and when you do have to work on it gasket's come right off and are usualy reusable. The part's do not have to be hammered apart due to build up glueing the part's together.I do not have to use much if any solvent wich is better for the environment. I have never in my life had a transmission ,diff. or transfer case fail even though I used to go four wheeling every weekend from 1986 to about 2006.As soon as I get another 4x4 I will be at it again. In fact I have never even had a wheel bearing go bad. I always repacked them once a year or after a deep or long water crossing so even on a 16 year old truck with timken's they were still like knew 16 year's latter. To me that is not excessive that is proper maintence. In my eye's what most call preventive m,aintence I call neglect and the worst abuser of this are the OEM's themself's. They have consistently pushed back the maintence interval's on a lot of things and it is clear that this is in their best interest. First it lower the intial cost of ownership but right around 100,000 miles the car need's expensive plugs,fuelfilter,expensive fluid changes from front to rear, transmission and power steering pumps are starting to fail and the car need's it third starter and 2 alternator etc.....Most people will trade it in and refinace a new car!
