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This might be a stupid question but i would like to know what to do. I bought a 2012 Toyota corolla le with 40,700 miles. it has an automatic transmission and it says there is no need to change the transmission fluid it is good for the life of the transmission. should i trust that it never needs changed or should i still change it normal intervals to be safe???????
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this is just me but I always say service service service. I no that on a few of the newer cars they say that the fluid don’t need to be changed but for me the last 20 years say to always service for the best results and long life.
I have to echo Wayne613’s comments here – it is just a gimmick. Most people won’t keep a car past 100,000 miles so for them this is the lifetime of the car. Most any automatic, unless abused, will go that far without being touched. But for maximum life it needs regular service.
So, what it comes down to is what are your plans for the car; trade it in in a few years or drive it until the wheels fall off?
To make matters worse, there may be no way to drain the fluid. My neighbors 2006 Tundra has no way to drain, it needs to be sucked out the fill I guess.
I think that’s a great question, not stupid at all. Since I have breathed a lot of air in my years I have learned one thing. Car manufactures make money selling cars. They don’t want you to keep your car for 15 or 20 years. The next thing is all car manufactures want you to believe that their cars are cheaper to maintain than the next ones. Longer service intervals save you money. I believe regular service intervals save you more money in the end especially if you keep a car like myself, until it’s worn out or rusted away.
Manufacturing and engineering have come a long way in the past few years. In addition, so has the manufacture of lubricants. That said, as many have pointed out, it’s mostly a sales gimmick. Perhaps gimmick isn’t the right word. When a company sells a car they are in competition with many other makes for your hard earned dollars. They know this and as a result try to keep their maintenance cost as low as possible. Brand ‘X’ may cost more, but our vehicle has lower cost over time. As a result, the trend in the past few years seems to be cutting maintenance costs. I witnessed that very thing working at the dealer. When I started we did a LOT of service work. 8 years later, it was mostly tire rotations and oil changes and that was it. Manufacturers have moved toward a disposable mentality where the vehicle has a shelf life, and as long as they fulfill that shelf life, they’re in the clear. Vehicles are appliances these days more than anything else, and I think this non-servicable mentality is testament to that. Don’t look for this to go away anytime soon. In fact, I envision a time where vehicles become more and more modular. Meaning, instead of getting a brake job, you replace the entire front suspension/brake assembly at given intervals. If a transmission goes bad, replace it, why bother servicing it if you know that’s what’s going to happen anyway? I believe serviceability will become a thing of the past in the not too distant future.
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