[CiprianS]

Guys, this is Europe, where the oil changes are at every 30k km. They also had the same on the G30s. In the States, we have the oil change at 10k miles (16k km) or 1 year.

[Blue Sky]

Originally Posted by MiGs550e

It's my opinion that BMW or probably any other Car manufacture does not want the vehicle to last longer than 6 years let alone probably not even 3 years. In BMW's case this aligns with warranties they give you and extending the service intervals between maintenance items. The Ultimate Care service plan frankly isn't very ultimate for the customer its more ultimate for BMW. They will say things like well the data shows this or that and that is how we came up with the internals and items to perform services on. (and will only get worst with AI figuring those things out if not already). In reality they want the consumer to think of them like Apple, to purchase a new iPhone/vehicle every couple years type industry. How do you get there? They start by using cheaper plastics, cheaper parts, just-good-enough materials, throwing the latest bells and whistle of haphazardness technologies that are never well supported or 100% functional before the next model, and make the repair and maintenance side outrageously priced to nearly force your hand to buy a new vehicle. And it works because here we all are.

Unfortunately this is true. If you have been buying BMWs since the ‘80’s you will notice a marked shift in how the maintenance and longevity expectation of the car is considered by BMW.

Long ago, the user’s manuals kind of used the language about keeping a car like a E23 7 series for a long time, maybe for your lifetime if you are an older person, and had instructions for carefully putting it into storage for extended times (seasonal weather, travel). In the 90’s and 2000’s, Mike Miller of Roundel started carping about how recommended maintenance (and then free included maintenance) started to amount to no maintenance. Longer motor oil change intervals (true, oil did get better) but things like 100k miles differential oil change (and then finally no differential oil change). Basically, the recommended or even free included maintenance is just enough to keep the car going during the warranty period, which is usually the same as the lease period. After that, car manufacturers don’t really care, they aren’t making cars for second-hand buyers since of course, they don’t make revenue from those transactions. Service at dealerships on out of warranty cars doesn’t profit BMW corporate really, because that’s just a dealership business. Then we started to see a move to remove parts from ETK from older cars (first classified as “classic” to put them into a different catalog, then simply shown as no longer available). It’s been pretty clear that BMW would rather not endlessly support older cars and having to order those parts be manufactured and deal with the logistics of world wide availability, and since the after the end of the 4-digit models changed to the original 3-digit 3/5/7 proliferated into numbers 1-8 with M, X and Z variants, plus Mini and Rolls-Royce, it’s understandable that a company would not want to carry this legacy baggage forever. Probably better for newer owner’s they do not, so as to reduce the overhead costs in the newer vehicles to support all those legacy vehicles.

BMW specifically does have a huge percentage of leasing vs. buying and I think that the strategy is to keep offering something new to retain leasers after their current 3 year lease is up. Certainly the servicing is timed to just keep it working over the lease period without regard to after that, so typically you need to deal with all the “deferred maintenance” when aquiring a used BMW (I know, I’ve had many BMWs, none of them new).

As far as changing the oil after break-in, I’d do it pretty early, after a couple hundred miles. I did this early on my new Corvette and the oil had an unreal sheen to it in the collection pan, from microscopic metal flake I presume. Could be it was some kind of assembly paste or something, or truly metal shavings from the moving surfaces wearing in. I was very glad I changed the oil before the 1500 mile (?) dealer break-in oil change, and never had any trouble with this engine. I recommend.