maintenance schedule

[coratz]

my owners manual states that for my long/trip highway maint. schedule i can go for 12500km between oil changes. wow.!my nice little dealer mait booklet say that to change my oil every 5000km(the severe schedule). i know i will be getting those nasty don't you care about maintaing your car from the dealer. could this be a blatant cash grab for the dealer? i can see myself getting in hot water regarding my extended waranty.i should demand they redo my litle dealer maint booket

[Chris]

Pretty well all regular drivers should use the severe maint schedule. I'd suggest the only time you should bother with the 12000km schedule is if you're going on a long trip... start 'er up in the morn, shut 'er down 10 hours later If you're using synth oil, you can probably last a little longer but just monitor the oil colour and quality. While quality is hard to see, if the oil becomes discoloured, should have changed it earlier.Personally, after my first oil change (coming up soon!) I'll put synth in but still change it at least every 6 months. In our climate (big temp flux) we get lots of condensation and there's always some wear no matter what oil you use. To me it's cheap insurance... if you want to keep your car for a long time!