Frequency Oil Change & Tire Rotation for low mileage city streets driving?

I’m wondering about oil change frequency under following conditions, mainly due to low mileage driving and short trips in cold temps. Dealer has actually recommended against more frequent than every 5,000 miles or 12 months but I’m really unimpressed with local dealer I’ve dealt with for a whole slew of reasons. I’m also wanting to double check tire rotation changes are supposed to happen based on mileage/wear not time? That’s what dealer said too and I believe that is correct but checking here.

We live in the NYC area and have what’s technically a 2022 Prius AWD-e but actually bought it August 2021, so it’s about 3.5 years old. Most weekdays during school year (September to June here) it’s driven only 5 miles a day in light to moderate traffic on city streets (stop and go, not over 30 mph) for a trip that takes around 30-40 minutes per day. On the weekend, sometimes one day or both, it’s driven on round trips for outings that are usually about 5-6 miles one way and that takes 20 to 40 minutes one way. First couple years We were going on 100 mile round trips once a month maybe and longer trips once or twice a year and getting 5000 miles per year but last year and a half using much less for longer trips and only about 4000 miles in last year and a half.

Winters are cold-ish here but not below freezing cold all the time and only a few months of the year any more anyway (this winter had more cold spells than last 2 or 3), so not sure how much below freezing trips we are doing.

So should we be changing oil just once a year like dealer has told us, or more often? Should we be only rotating tires every 5,000 miles even if that’s every two years as long as no wear signs noticed indicating something else as dealer said, or more often?

I’m also going to add something here that I may eventually separately post about — but I feel like this winter in particular during colder weather (under 50 for sure, more under 40 though) I really noticed that SOME TIMES the engine’s idle could be loud and cause vibrations more and for longer, and even seem to quiet down then come back when at a stop or while parking, and that transition between electric to gas could seem subtly maybe a little rougher, compared to when temp is above 40-50 degrees….I’m not sure how much anything really that abnormal is happening though because it may be after a handful of obvious oddities I just became hyper-attuned to noticing the shift from the electric to gas and back...also battery might not be charging as easily or holding charge when colder but not entirely sure on that one…it’s all a sort of subtle on and off thing, thoughts on how much should I be concerned? Nothing else notable whatsoever, great car overall.

 

Thank you. Just FYI for fullness I added this to description of usage in original post. I honestly don’t even know what future use will be, this could become moot point in not too distant future. "On the weekend, sometimes one day or both, it’s driven on round trips for outings that are usually about 5-6 miles one way and that takes 20 to 40 minutes one way. First couple years We were going on 100 mile round trips once a month maybe and longer trips once or twice a year and getting 5000 miles per year but last year and a half using much less for longer trips and only about 4000 miles in last year and a half."

 

Thank you. Just FYI for fullness I added this to description of usage in original post. I honestly don’t even know what future use will be, this could become moot point in not too distant future. "On the weekend, sometimes one day or both, it’s driven on round trips for outings that are usually about 5-6 miles one way and that takes 20 to 40 minutes one way. First couple years We were going on 100 mile round trips once a month maybe and longer trips once or twice a year and getting 5000 miles per year but last year and a half using much less for longer trips and only about 4000 miles in last year and a half.” If this affects your advice in any way let me know. One thing that has to be kept in mind is that living in NYC it takes an hour to drive 10-20 miles most of the time no matter what direction you go!

Many factors went into buying this when my wife had to go back to work in person amidst both a global car shortage and a pandemic that was still very much raging and for which there were still many society-wide precautions impacting life in various ways here at the time.

We would have gotten a Prime most likely if there was much chance of ever charging it but wouldn’t have gotten much use out of the charging capacity most likely because we can’t charge it at our apt. building and there really are very very few charging stations in this area and none particularly convenient to us — I researched it. We would have lost storage space with it we gathered and there were some other things at the time. Maybe we should have gone that way but too late now. Anyway 48 mpg overall so far still not too bad . Live and learn!

 

Thank you. Just FYI for fullness I added this to description of usage in original post. I honestly don’t even know what future use will be, this could become moot point in not too distant future. "On the weekend, sometimes one day or both, it’s driven on round trips for outings that are usually about 5-6 miles one way and that takes 20 to 40 minutes one way. First couple years We were going on 100 mile round trips once a month maybe and longer trips once or twice a year and getting 5000 miles per year but last year and a half using much less for longer trips and only about 4000 miles in last year and a half.” If this affects your advice in any way let me know. One thing that has to be kept in mind is that living in NYC it takes an hour to drive 10-20 miles most of the time no matter what direction you go!

I’ll see about the feasibility of getting my wife to do what you said during her drives to work.

So the screen rarely shows 1 out of 8 bars for the traction battery, usually was in the 2-4 range though during the cold weather, and down around 2 very often. Though I’m not entirely sure it’s that different now but it can get up to 6 or 7 more often now that it’s warmer. We basically had 2 record cold months (but I’m not sure if they were a lot colder than the first winter we owned the car) and now an unusually and maybe record March if seems like so far.

The first time I remember thinking the ICE was unusually loud for a long time I actually was having to run the defrost the whole time during a 30+ minute long city streets drive in moderate to heavy traffic in below freezing weather back in late December when the weather suddenly turned cold.

Yeah I do check every month or so under the hood and get regular factory maintenance.

 

thanks can you say more or provide link about tires needing to be replaced before treads wear out? 6 years sounds short. How would one know when to replace?