On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:14:55 -0700, SMS wrote:
You have to wonder why, in Europe, the average oil change interval is
10,000 miles while it's 5000 miles in the U.S.

Hmm, most of Europe uses km, not mi - are you sure you're not mixing up
units? I used to do oil changes around 6000mi in England (on my modern
vehicles - I still did my vintage ones at 3000mi) - which isn't too
different from 10,000km.

That's still higher than the US, of course, but only twice as much :-)

Historically, I think the US was reluctant to change tried-and-tested
engine designs, at a time where much of the rest of the world was aiming
for better efficiency and power to weight ratios. That gap seems to have
closed these days, but perhaps there's a lot of inertia left in the
system - 3000mi changes used to be the norm in the US, so that's what's
still advised even though modern engines don't need it.

(My brother in law's a GM mechanic, incidentally, and I know he quotes
3000mi - I'll try and remember to ask him why next time I see him :-)

cheers

Jules