The oil change reminders are for the most part, bunk. If you’re going near 10k miles without changing the oil you have shortened the life of the engine.
Ever heard of engine sludge? Well, oil change intervals like this are the reason for that.
Nonsense. You obviously know nothing about the GM OLM. You obviously also no nothing about the various maintenance monitors at all. All the sludge stories can be mostly attributed to negligent common American consumers that treat an automobile like a cheap appliance. VW/AUDI had issues around 2000-2002 when they over sold their cars and had too few service centers with approved oil. They charged a fortune and your average nitwit went to Iffylube and had common conventional oil put in it.
Now the Toyota sludge stories are a little more valid. They had to cut back the numbers, but still “Toyota’s are built to last”, right.
None of this had to do with any oil monitor. It had to do with engineering, marketing, and immature Americans buying Euro-Alloy since it was so chic to be continental when you’re a busy achiever.
The GM OLM is a masterpiece of design. It’s all software. Nothing to wear out. About the only thing it cannot account for is driving in dusty conditions. Idling, towing, short trips, highway, WOT for long distances …it sees it all and factors it accordingly.
Do you think taxi service is “severe”? Not at all. It’s quite easy on an engine. One cold start a day, etc…etc. What makes it fall under the severe schedule is that an odometer is a lousy way to measure usage and so far we don’t have an accurate accumulative fuel usage gauge.
The OLM takes all that into account. Load, speed, time in warm up, trip duration, ambient air temp, total revolutions.
It’s the greatest advancement in car maintenance since the creation of synthetic fluids.
Now, if you happen to be one of the numb nitwit immature American consumers who can’t manage to check their oil, then you’re doomed in any car. Don’t blame the car if the driver doesn’t deserve to have a license.
To the OP: “Contour” your oil changes to the OLM. That is, if you’re nervous, draw your line at 10%, 15%, 20% …whatever. That should still give you the advantage of the system. It’s far superior to static mile/time schedules. Even at your reduced rate, you’re saving a ton of time and money compared to your former 3-5k prison that you were trapped in.