Does Vancouver fall into the category of "Severe Maintenance Schedules" for cars?
 

My sister has a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer and just gets abused when she goes to Mitsubishi herself, so i decided to help her with the maintenance or send it to my friends shop.

Problem is I get different info from everyone about the car's service intervals


so should we consider ourselves to be applicable for the "severe maintenance schedule?"

thanks

Based on conditions, no. Usage should also be factored in though.

Check the owners manual. For my car, it states in the owners manual that owners in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada follow the "severe maintenance schedule". Basically due to the colder temps, salt on the roads, stop and go traffic, etc.

City driving should be severe maintenance schedule. Stop and go is more wearing on a car than highway cruising.

These are mitsu's recomendations, according to this i don't really think we fall into the severe maintenance schedule from a climate standpoint. I follow it on my RA though.

Follow the severe maintenance schedule only if your vehicle is frequently driven under one or more of the following road conditions.
• Driving on dusty, rough, muddy or salt-spread roads
• Towing or police, taxi or commercial operation
• Extensive idling and /or low speed operation
• Repeated short-trip operation at freezing temperatures (engine not thoroughly warmed up)
• Extended use of brakes while driving
• Driving in sandy areas
• More than 50% operation in heavy city traffic during hot weather above 90°F (32°C)

I think it says this on most cars.

But I think when they say Canada, it's probably just a precaution for them, taking it to the extremes with places like Fort McMurray, Yukon, hell, even Edmonton.

Vancouver is like this little oasis in Canada, relative to the extremes in the rest of the country. If you think about it, Vancouver is no different than Seattle.

And this is what my problem is with this, she obviously does stop and go driving, but nothing else really applies.

In the severe maintenance sched her manual tranny needs to get serviced at 48k and on the other one it doesn't need to be serviced.
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Almost every vehicle used in the city should be serviced under the severe service intervals. Any stop and go city driving will put almost any car in to the severe service category.
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Vancouver feels more severe on my suspension than the rest of Canada. The roads here are awful, at least in Onterrible they fix the potholes and repave every now-and-then.

Not 100% true, you have miles of highways (low rpm driving) in WA state, where you can actually hit the speed limit during rush hour, unlike the GVRD, which is mainly stop and go and is tough on brakes.

There isn't much difference in the Schedule 2 (severe) and Schedule 1 (regular) for my car. I tend to be more proactive and change my fluids more regularly anyways (DIY FTW!)

I couldn't agree more.
I got two years out of the stock suspension in my new truck before being forced to go with aftermarket shocks. The oem parts were toast after 40,000km.

This.
Stop and go city usage is considered severe usage.
Only cars that see mostly highway use should be on the regular maintenance schedule

City driving is 100% under the severe schedule. No questions asked. End of story.
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Severe use maintenance usually have to do with particles and heat. Particles that build up quicker in the oil and fluids because of conditions (sand, salt, etc), and Heat breaking down the effectiveness of lubricants etc.

If you can follow the severe schedule, do it. Preventative maintenance is the best maintenance. If you don’t follow it, the car isn’t going to fall apart. If you plan to own the car for 10 years, I would definitely follow it. It will make all the difference for an old high mileage car down the road. If you are only going to own the car for 2 years, its not going to make any difference to you, only in that someone might get picky about the resale if maintenance isn’t up to date.