I love all the different opinions and why each guy does what he does...and you what, each guy spent $xx,xxx amount of dollars, so he is doing what he chooses to do because it is his money. You can't disagree with that.


I'm only in 8300 miles on my truck and I go with the 5k OCI. It's a DD and doesn't tow anything...yet...and I will get a snow plow for it. I know that I can go more than that because I did 7.5k on my older 4Runners, do 7.5k on my 99 XJ and my wife's 09 Escape. I do it for the convenience because at my dealer, every other oil change is free, I don't have to dispose of the oil from my house, they rotate my tires which I do on my XJ and Escape, they check the DEF ( a small point I know ) and it's for the convenience.


I'm not against doing brakes or changing filters ( fuel and air) but I'm getting to the point where the convenience of having the oil changed early (5k) outweighs the additional cost of having the oil changed early.


But this is for me...not for anyone else. As to a synthetic, I'm all for using a synthetic oil, using oil analysis to see how oil is doing (if you wanted to go beyond the 7.5K if you're out of warranty ) and using the IOLM. For now though, I'm using Motorcraft 10w30 and the 5k mile change interval. Down the road, I'd probably go with a synthetic because I use a full synthetic in the wife's Escape for 7500 miles. I'm a believer in synthetic oils but for now...my process makes sense to me.