Oil Change seems way to long (m)... (archive)

I seem to see so many posts on this site on oil change intervals, types, etc. It seems that the consensus, though not by a landslide at all, is not to wait for the service lights to do the change, but rather to one about twice to three times as often.

I am still from more of the old school, and until I acquired my 2000 528 I was always using conventional oil and changing every 3/m miles fairly religiously.

I just hit 12,500 on my car and only today did the yellow oil change light come on.

I changed the oil at just under 7/m since it seemed that the car would go to about 12,000+ before I would get the computer go-ahead.

My issue is that I live in Los Angeles - I average about 20mpg in a lot of city driving, and my speeds are certainly not a lot of clear highway travel. I was told that the computer takes your driving style, etc. into consideration. But if that's the case, I find it hard to believe that in big city driving that it's ok to go to 12,500+ miles before a change.

I understand that the max mileage is around 15/m with the computer - yet it seems that my driving conditions should warrant a change not reaching 80% or greater of that of the maximum.

I plan to stick with my changes around 6/m and hope to run the car a long time.

Not really a question here, just a statement.

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