When you factor in the cost per quart for the Euro spec oil and the labor rate at a high end dealer lik BMW or Benz, the cost per change can be high. If someone follows the 15,000 oil change interval, it will occur half to a third as often as with most cars.
I agree the BMW oil change will cost more…but not significantly more.
@MikeInNH
"You could be lucky or just ignore the issue…or like I did (and many others) didn’t realize how unreliable the vehicle I was driving was until I switched to something else."
Then that explains it! I’m lucky. For the past 30 or so cars that I’ve owned and operated that needed practically nothing except gas and oil changes, I’ve lucked out. 
I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, but It never has occurred to me that my cars are unreliable or maybe I was ignoring it [?] (except some surveys in my magazine telling that). I foolishly keep going by my research and the actual performance of my quiet, comfortable, reliable, economical cars and just continue to luck out, over, and over…
In my opinion, aside from certain blunders or mistakes that are made by all manufacturers, there’s not a hill of beans difference in “reliability” or “maintenance cost” in main-stream, moderately priced, modern cars.
Sure, I could cite some examples of cars I owned long ago (including Asian & European), but the times have changed.
I see no argument here.
If surveys, charts, “reliability” and “maintenance cost” charts work for some folks then they should continue to use them.
If I have blind luck buying cars that I carefully research and check out and they are extremely reliable and bring me great satisfaction then I’ll continue to do that.
See that little Grand Prix in the little picture? I love that little thing.
Problem solved, eh? (applause…) 
CSA
Before I retired, convenience weighed more heavily than reliability. I had friends who bought Mazdas. The cars were quite reliable, but the dealer was 30 miles away. I had another friend who owned a 1977 Mercedes-Benz 240D. The car was really trouble free, but the Mercedes-Benz dealer was 65 miles away. He made a big deal out of taking it to the Mercedes-Benz dealer. He would make an afternoon appointment, and he and his wife would take the car in for service, go to an expensive restaurant and then take in a show before coming home. I don’t know if I could afford the maintenance on the Mercedes-Benz, but I know I couldn’t afford that kind of upkeep on Mrs. Triedaq. Financially, it was within my means to take our Chevrolet Uplander down the road a half mile to the Chevrolet dealer and then treat Mrs. Triedaq to a McDonald’s Big Mac right down the street. As far as maintenance and repairs are concerned, the Chevrolet Uplander that I owned and the Toyota Sienna have been about the same. The tires lasted longer on the Uplander. I ran 55,000 miles on the original Goodyear that came with the Uplander. I only got 35,000 out of the original Firestone that came with the Sienna. I put Michelin on the Sienna and got about 40,000. My son bought the Uplander from me and put the same model Michelin tires on the Uplander that I put on the Sienna and got 60,000 miles from his Michelin. I keep my tires balanced and rotate every 5000 miles. My guess is that the tires specified by Toyota for the Sienna may have been marginal for the weight of the vehicle plus load. Also, the fabric used on the seats of the Uplander wore better than the fabric on the Sienna seats. My minivans are heavily used. Last Thursday, as an example, there were 6 of us in the Sienna with 4 French horns, one tuba and one trumpet for a 30 mile round trip to a band rehearsal. I carried similar loads in the Uplander and my previous Ford Windstar and Ford Aerostar, so it is not that I use the Sienna to carry more weight. I would like to see a ranking of repair and maintenance costs comparing minivans. Just comparing specific makes isn’t sufficient for me.
We have several Uplanders in our fleet, and I feel they’re slightly underrated
Would I run out and buy one . . . no, because I don’t need a van
I find they have sufficient power, the seats are comfortable enough, and the ride is just fine. And they’re not constantly breaking down
I’ve never driven a Sienna, so I have no opinion about that
We also have a few Freestars in our fleet, and they’re also just fine. They get the job done
Kind of makes me wonder if the Odyssey and Sienna are THAT much better . . . ?
@db4690 I owned a Ford Windstar and a Chevrolet Uplander before I bought the Toyota Sienna. I can’t say that the Sienna is really better. If you’ve driven one minivan, you’ve driven them all. A minivan is a minivan. When I was ready to replace the Windstar, Ford quit making minivans, so I bought the Uplander. When I sold the Uplander to our son who needed a better vehicle, I would have bought a new Uplander, but GM quit making minivans. I have never been able to deal with the sales department at the Chrysler dealer, and gotl a good deal on the Sienna, so I went with Toyota. I did have the use of a 2016 Dodge Caravan for a week while the Sienna was having a dent removed from a parking lot mishap. The Dodge Caravan was o.k.-.just like any other minivan. I had requested a Duke Ellington Caravan, but was told that a sophisticated lady had rented the only one on the lot
(I love the Caravan tune from Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady”).
My 6 cyl tblazer takes 7 qts. Never seen the change oil soon warning. 3 to 5k between changes. 170k and no oil consumption. regular, not synthetic.
Exactly what is the reason that Ford and GM no longer make minivans?
Low profits, compared to trucks and SUVs . . . ?
Were they not selling well?
@db4690 I think automobile manufacturers have learned that I am bad for their businesses. I cause manufacturers to go out of business. I used to drive Ramblers and AMC went under. I drove Oldsmobiles and GM dropped the division. I think Ford and GM saw the light just in time to get me away from their products. The CEOs at both GM and Ford are delighted that I now am driving Toyotas. They are sure I"ll cause Toyota to go under. I see minivans all over the place, so it can’t be the lack of sales.
I see a lot of minivans, too
I’m wondering if GM and Ford minivans were selling poorly, compared to Toyota, Honda, etc. . . .
Then that explains it! I'm lucky. For the past 30 or so cars that I've owned and operated that needed practically nothing except gas and oil changes, I've lucked out
That could explain it then. 30 cars tells me you don’t keep them that long. I’ve owned only owned 12 cars in the past 45 years. And only since 1990. I tend to keep them well past 300k miles.
Ford and GM were late to the minivan business and couldn’t produce them cheaper than the Asian manufacturers. GM and Ford took longer to design them and then had to contend with higher marginal costs to produce them. The minivan market operates on small margins and those two couldn’t make money. That led to longer life cycles and they got even farther behind. Chrysler stuck around because they were the originator and had built a following that allowed them to make money. GM and Ford can operate in the truck market because there is a lot of profit there and their inefficiencies don’t keep them from making money.
@MikeInNH
"That could explain it then. 30 cars tells me you don’t keep them that long. I’ve owned only owned 12 cars in the past 45 years. And only since 1990. I tend to keep them well past 300k miles. "
We must drive more mile than you, but that is understandable when a trip to the store (town) is a forty mile ride and a commute to work and back is 100 miles. I was counting 4 drivers (I’m now down to 3, daughter goes to school 500 miles round trip).
Anyhow, our Impala has passed the 300k mark (We’ve had it 9 years) and the Bonneville is still young at 175,000 miles and rolling…
I’m not sure why it matters because I don’t have problems with my cars, but I’ll play along…
@MikeInNH…
Mike! You have used and cited CR as a good source for learning the “reliability” of cars. Is that a good place for me to look?
Mike! Please give me a straight “Yes” or “No” answer, otherwise it could negate any references you’ve made to it’s veracity in the past.
@Docknick… Help him out, here!
CSA
Agree; thirty is a lot of cars. Since 1958 I have owned 11 cars and we have been a 2 car family since 1972.
Volvo used to run ad about a guy bragging about how good his US big car was and he concluded: “I’ve owned 20 of them”! The ad then said “Now you’re ready for a Volvo since Volvos last 17 years in Sweden”…
The only good thing about those Volvos was their bodies, which were better protected against rust and the fact that Sweden used very little salt on its roads.
I worked with an engineer who loved VWs; he traded every 4 years and found them nice to handle cars with good seats. If you trade that often and don’t worry about cost, most cars will do.
Correction!!
I forgot my very first car, a 1948 Chevrolet purchased for $125 plus a case of beer from a fellow student. That makes it 12 cars.
Mike! You have used and cited CR as a good source for learning the "reliability" of cars. Is that a good place for me to look?
I use it as ONE source. As I said several times so far…when there are multiple surveys and reviews saying the same thing…then ignoring it isn’t real smart.
Mike! Please give me a straight "Yes" or "No" answer, otherwise it could negate any references you've made to it's veracity in the past.@Docknick… Help him out, here!
CSA
Reading comprehension problem…or just ignoring it…I’ve said multiple times here…that there are MANY…and I mean MANY different surveys and reviews all saying the same thing. If CR stood alone in their reviews then I’d agree with you…but they don’t. They all say the same thing.
Do I follow CR? No…I do read it as just ONE opinion. What do you use? Weegie board? Because I can’t find any survey or review that says GM produces reliable vehicles.
I'm not sure why it matters because I don't have problems with my cars, but I'll play along...
Good for you…I’m really glad for you…but you don’t match the real data of all the other surveys or reviews. As I said you must be the lucky one.
If you want to count reliability…wifes 96 Accord was as reliable as it gets. We had a total of $4 in repairs for the first 240k miles (no counting PM). Then another $200 between 240k miles and 300k miles. Gave it to our Niece for college…She drove it another 5 years put another 150k miles on it and only had one repair (radiator). I had more then triple those failures/repairs then that on my 84 GMC pickup long before it reached 100k miles.
@Docnick
"Agree; thirty is a lot of cars. Since 1958 I have owned 11 cars and we have been a 2 car family since 1972. "
@MikeInNH
"I’ve owned only owned 12 cars in the past 45 years. And only since 1990. I tend to keep them well past 300k miles. "
I buy some cars and don’t keep them for a long time and “flip” them. I have had success in finding fantastic deals on cars that I don’t really want. Example: (One that stands out) I actually bought a Dodge Neon once, cheap, when it was fairly new and sold it at a handsome profit.
Another car that made a big profit was a Dodge Stratus. I bought that one to keep (way below book), but realized it was too small for my needs and sold it fairly early. I bought an Intrepid that I had for 15+ years.
Other cars I keep forever. Example: My 84 Fiero was purchased in 1986.
Anyhow, don’t get hung up. None of this is the point of “reliability” surveys, however.
CSA
Uh, Uh, Uh! …
Mike! Please give me a straight “Yes” or “No” answer, otherwise it could negate any references you’ve made to it’s veracity in the past.
Mike! You have used and cited CR as a good source for learning the “reliability” of cars. Is that a good place for me to look?
Yes or No ? It is a good place for me to look or it isn’t? “Reading comprehension problem…or just ignoring it…” At any rate, you should be able to comprehend this.
CSA
What’s your problem @“common sense answer”…I’ve answered you multiple times.
I use CR as ONE source…Not as THEE source…Can you comprehend that. Is that too difficult for you to understand? I hate to tell you this but other people read this and can follow the conversation…and understand that I have answered you.
I’ve followed this and agree . . . Mike has answered the question as to whether CR is a good source