How often does everyone change their oil? I drive 120 miles a day all Hwy, so I don't think I'm in the extreme class of every 5000 miles, I think every 10000 miles would be ok.
Just want to get some opinions my Honda dealership doesn't seem to understand Hybrids, they told me to come back in 3000 miles. I made sure they put the 0w20 oil in and showed them the manual, they seemed confused and had no answer for me.

Does it say every 5000 miles in the manual? I'd think if you don't oil up at the proper interval, you may have warranty or trade-in issues, no?

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Strangely, this is one area where the Prius is not as green as it could be, IMHO.
Toyota recommends changing the oil every 5k miles. Yet, as computerized as the Prius is, it would be so easy to monitor the number of cold starts, and a few additional parameters, and have the computer indicated oil changes as required. If you combine that with synthetic oil, you can easily stretch change intervals to around 15k miles.
My MINI Cooper S had that, 1st change was at 12k miles, and subsequent ones at about 17k mile intervals. All BMWs do that, and they do build the best conventional ICEs in the world, afterall.
Reducing oil changes would make the HSD just anotehr tad greener.

Yes, it says 5K miles under "severe" or "Extreme" conditions and 10K under "Normal".

However according to my Honda dealer "Normal" only applies to conditions created similarly to the little old lady who only drives to church on Sunday.
I get my oil changes for free from them so this tends to be more believable to me.

It's been a year or so since I've read the manual but I remember it seemed the normal conditions would apply only for a chosen few.

The manual reads that you should change the oil every 10k. It also read that you should replace the cvt fluid at 30k or every two years. I've heard a lot of talk about this one, I still don't know what to do. I think I'll do it by the book. It also reads that you don't have to replace the oil filer until 20k. There's a suggestion of roatating your tires every 10k. These are all recommendations for a car driving in normal conditions.

Here it is out of the book...

US Owners - Follow the Maintenance Schedule for Severe Conditions if you drive your car MAINLY under one or more of the following conditions.

• Driving less than 5 miles per trip or, in freezing temperatures, driving less than 10 miles per trip.<
• Driving in extremely hot (over 90 degrees F) conditions<
• Extensice idling or long periods of stop and go drving, such as a taxi or commercial delivery vehicle.<
• Driving with a roof rack, or driving in mountainous conditions.<
• Driving on muddy, dusty, or deiced roads.<

Note, if you only OCCASIONALLY or NEVER, drive under a "severe' condition, you should follow the Maintenance Schedule for Normal Conditions.

Now the question is what qualifies for MAINLY and OCCASIONALLY???

I would probably say Occasionaly would be synonimous with Ordinarily and occasionally would be synonimous with less often than not.

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Regarding those 2 specifically...
"driving with a roof rack" is that merely having a roof rack installed or having "stuff" in the roof rack??
What is considered "mountainous conditions"? I gain/lose about 3,000 ft in 1/2 hr of my average 1 hr commute - would this qualify?
muddy, dusty or deiced roads - the last 1 mile of my 40 mile (one way) commute is on unpaved roads but the rest is on paved....


Other than the "Mountainous" conditions I don't think that my personal commute would qualify as "Mainly" severe. Now, granted I don't have my hybrid yet, still waiting that magic call from the dealer telling me my HiHy is in

I go for a happy medium between 5,000 and 10,000. I have always changed my oil at 7,500. Always used synthetic too. I do a mix of city/highway driving which is my reasoning for the 7,500. I'm just about to hit 36,000 miles now.

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

I got my first oil change for my HCH at close to 5K, but they said I should get my second at 8K. I thought that sounded unreasonable for my vehicle, so I'm waiting to find a day that I can get it changed — with work it is pretty hard to get the time and also my dealer is nearly 40 miles from where I work. I'm at a little over 11K right now. Is this bad? I really do feel like I'm being ripped off everytime I go to my dealer. I'm on an extremely tight budget, being only out of college for a year now. Sometimes when I'm at the dealer they don't seem to know the difference between the Hybrid and a normal Civic. I tried to explain to them what I read in the manual and they essentially told me I was stupid — I think it is because I'm 24 and I look like I'm 15...nobody really takes me seriously, but that is an issue for a different time.

Anyway, long reply made even longer, are there specific things I should be watching for on my HCH — ya know, besides the usual "check the fluids" routine.