Steering You Right with Sharon Peter: Miles or Time?
Q: I am a senior and I recently purchased a 2016 Nissan Frontier truck. After seven months, I still only have about 3,000 miles on the truck. Should I wait for the 5,000-mile mark to change the oil, as recommended? And how should I adjust my other maintenance items?
A: If you check your Service and Maintenance Guide, which I did online, you’ll see that Nissan recommends that you do an oil change at 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first.
The reason for this is that oil degrades somewhat over time, even when it’s doing nothing but just sitting there.
Most of the mechanics I rely on also say low-mileage drivers should change the oil every six to eight months. That assumes you’re not living on a dirt road or in especially dusty area, where more frequent changes may be necessary.
As for other maintenance: Rely on the time lapse interval recommended in your manual for the same reason – hoses and the like degrade over time, especially if you live where summer temps are very high or where temperatures vacillate a lot over the months.
Q: What’s the status of the Tesla mass-market vehicle that was to have been on sale in 2017?
A: Tesla announced in late February that its Model 3 would begin to come off the production line this summer.
More than 400,000 people have reserved one and most will have to wait until next year because Tesla plans to gradually grow production over the summer to the point it will be able to make as many as 5,000 cars a week in the fourth quarter.
Q: My son recently bought a truck and he emailed about it. I tried to look it up online so I could complement his choice. But I can’t find anything like it. He said he bought a Taco Pro, red, with six-speed automatic transmission. Typo? Help, please, as I don’t want to admit my ignorance.
A: That was shorthand for the Toyota Tacoma. It gets high marks for its handling and off-roading capability.
Many reviewers have complained, however, about the windshield, which they say doesn’t provide broad-sweep visibility.