California Attempting To Sway Consumers From Frequent Oil Changes

"It made sense years ago, when 'we had cast-iron block engines with cast-iron pistons that would expand when they got hot and older lubricants,' Mazor said."

ooh fancy, our engines don't expand when they get hot anymore? lol

I still do 5K though the factory recommends 10K. I am not comfortable with that long on a turbo motor and 105 degree summer heat. The pavement temps alone are over 140 degrees on the highway, no telling how hot under the hood sitting in traffic.

I do summer/winter oil changes. Apparently some cars on this site are being rated as high as 15k. Not sure I'd want to try changing it every couple years with my driving patterns... regardless of what I was driving.

I was just having this conversation with a girl in the USA about Oil Changes 2 days ago, She told me she was told to have the oil changed every 3,000 miles,{Chrysler 300c} but she does it every 4,500 - 5,000 miles. I was stunned.
It seems to me this is a racket designed to make money from vehicle owners.

In the last 13 years i have not once had to change the Oil in any vehicle i have driven {All German} They all have scheduled services but they are at long intervals like 12,000miles or 15,000miles {The vehicle tells you when its time}

For example the 120d i am currently driving has approx 6,400miles on it, ive had it since about 350 miles and all i've done is add 1ltr of BMW approved oil to top it up {Apparently Diesels are good at using up it's oil reserves}

BTW i did all those miles in about 7 weeks so if i were to do changes every 5,000miles i would be visiting BMW every 2 months for oil changes......

If you live in Arizona or Texas or someplace similarly scorching, i might understand, but otherwise it is just a waste of money and time.

since manufacturers sugest every 5000 miles OR six months , what about the cars that sit on the lots let's say for six to eight months, do the dealers change oil in them once they're sold, the answer is no, so why do customers have to do it ? some cars today require synthetic oil but the manufacturers still require the same time table.

it's not the oil that needs changing every 6 months if it has been sitting.....they check tire pressure, latches etc with every oil change. As for the synthetic argument....the dealers still want the business so they want the same schedule.

Is this an American thing? Because I can honestly say I've never heard of having to change the oil that frequently over here in the UK. I get my oil changed when my car tells me it needs an oil change, which is what, once a year?