I don’t usually, except for big stuff. Mostly because I’m lazy.

At first, changing the oil, yes. Once the engine is properly broken in, I switch to a synthetic oil.

I have not and paid the penalty when another shop changed out my 02 sensor and essentially blew my engine up. In future, any off the lot cars will be serviced and repaired at the dealership regardless of cost.

Fairly close. Not to the day, not to the mile, but in the ballpark.

My cars are older and I have a local repair shop so I will take them in there or ask them when the notifications come up.

I just bought a new car in February, and bought a 4 year maintenance package with it (I got a deal) so it will cost me nothing to adhere to the recommended schedule.

My last car was a BMW I bought used through a car broker who is a certified BMW mechanic. The BMW computer reminds the driver at every fill up how far to the next maintenance, and I followed that. It was every 10,000 miles.

The car before that was a 1999 Honda and I usually serviced it about the time I had gone past what the sticker from the previous service had said. I had that car for 19 years.

I do it the first time or even the second time if it is included.
After that, I change the oil myself, get tires rotated occasionally at the neighborhood garage, when I get the mandatory state inspection.
I occasionally send oil samples for analysis at Blackstone Laboratories. The report tells all sorts of info about the car engine and whether or not an oil change is necessary. (Look at the sample report.) Cost is about $30. Well worth it for a data guy.

I always use a good synthetic oil. At 7000–8000 miles the report says it is still good – but I change it anyway.

I used to get those checks at the dealer with cars I had long ago. They were a lot of money and most of what was done was some bullshit checks. The most recent cars I had were Honda Civic and now Honda CRV. I have always pretty much had all of my cars serviced at the dealer.

With the Civic and CRV, the car tells you when you need an oil change. I have been putting synthetic in the CRV and so it goes longer between oil changes. With the oil change at the dealer, they check all kinds of things, included, because of course it makes them money if they find other things that you need. They check tires, brakes, filters, windshield wiper fluid, other fluids – all kinds of stuff.

When they tell me my car needs this filter or that filter (so many filters now – oil filter, fuel filter, cabin filter, HEPA filter, air filter), I ask how bad is the filter if they don’t tell me first, and then I decide whether to do it now or to wait, depending on what the guy tells me.

My tires are from Costco and I am pretty good about getting new ones when I need them, because I don’t want to get stuck with a flat.

” . . mundane checks such as water levels, windshield washer level to drive train check.” don’t cost $900 something was broken or not working correctly.

I’m pretty close to targets mileage at the dealership, I have one car that only had 7000 of that model for the entire model year. It is special and gets a specially trained tech to work on it, the dealership has three techs that have had advanced trainning.

Our warranty depends on it. If we don’t follow the guidelines the warranty is void.