How do you know what needs doing each year at a service?

Then get a lower-viscosity oil - assuming its spec comes recommended by your car's manufacturer.
 
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Then get a lower-viscosity oil - assuming its spec comes recommended by your car's manufacturer.
Or stay with the oil and its natural degradation cycle. The manufacturer would have made allowance for that. Short-circuiting the cycle with frequent oil changes would likely to be outside the designed characteristics.
 
Or stay with the oil and its natural degradation cycle. The manufacturer would have made allowance for that. Short-circuiting the cycle with frequent oil changes would likely to be outside the designed characteristics.
What, your designed characteristics or the manufacturer's?
 
You will always get rip off garage owners and the like writing on here to scare folk into getting things done which are often not necessary. It will be interesting to see what tactics they adopt when everything changes to electric and their services are no longer required. N.B. An old friend has just finally disposed of her 26 year old Toyo Camry which was always serviced at two years because she didn't do the miles. That was at her husband's suggestion who had worked in the motor trade for most of his life; sadly he died a few years earlier and was my best pal. Now I know that I will get all kinds of abuse for writing this but I really don't care.
 
An old friend has just finally disposed of her 26 year old Toyo Camry which was always serviced at two years because she didn't do the miles.
Perfectly acceptable for a 26 year old, hardly used car worth a little over scrap value. I’d do the same myself. The car has served its purpose well into old age and wouldn’t be worth spending big bucks on if the engine or gearbox packed up - you'd just scrap it. A 5 year old £15k+ car though is another thing - you wouldn’t scrap that if it needed a new engine but it would bloody cost a few bob to put right. The very least you should do on a car of that value is change the oil and filter each year no matter how many miles you did.
 
You will always get rip off garage owners and the like writing on here to scare folk into getting things done which are often not necessary. It will be interesting to see what tactics they adopt when everything changes to electric and their services are no longer required. N.B. An old friend has just finally disposed of her 26 year old Toyo Camry which was always serviced at two years because she didn't do the miles. That was at her husband's suggestion who had worked in the motor trade for most of his life; sadly he died a few years earlier and was my best pal. Now I know that I will get all kinds of abuse for writing this but I really don't care.
Interesting view.

And if a garage didn't advise (not insist) on what is likely to be needed or is best for the vehicle, would you complain that they were not doing their job ?
 
And if a garage didn't advise (not insist) on what is likely to be needed or is best for the vehicle, would you complain that they were not doing their job ?
If the garage didn't cause the fault and can demonstrate the fault, then their advice is worth following. Often they can't meet both requirements. My experience has been that most problems were caused by shops. Hence, my car, and any car under my advisement, doesn't go to shops unless mandatory.
 
If the garage didn't cause the fault and can demonstrate the fault, then their advice is worth following. Often they can't meet both requirements.
It doesn't have to be a fault to give advice to a customer.

Suggesting a yearly oil change is sensible advice for most cars. You don't have to follow the advice.
 
I thought this thread was about car servicing?

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