I for one agree with jsisabella.
Not only does the Crossfire have a printed maint schedule, the car's onboard computer inputs info to the FSS that let's you know when maint is due. It calculates how your car is driven along with a few other things that determine when maint is due.
My car was built in Jun '03. It now has 3.5k on the odometer (it sat on the dealers lot not being driven much before I took it home in Dec). The FSS tells me I still have another 4k to go before service is required which takes it up to 7.5k miles. I don't think DC put the FSS in the car for sh-ts and grins. It's there for a reason. Read about the system in the owners manual... pretty cool what it does.
I "used" to be an oil change fanantic changing it ever 3k come rain or shine. I always noticed the oil was not dirty at all at 3k, but I still changed it anyway.
I finally decided this is silly, throwing away good oil... and extended the oil changes out to 5k figuring an additional 2k could not make a big difference. Although I never had the used oil analyzed, it looked and felt no different.
The Crossfire uses "synthetic" oil. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the synthetic stuff supposed to be alot better for the engine as well as extending oil change intervals???
Not long ago (I can't quote a source from where I read the information) I saw an article that stated how the 3k oil changed was basically industry hype. I also heard one of our "radio" mechanics on a Saturday call in show say the same thing.
My dealer even has gone as far as to print up his "own" recommended service schedule. Think about it... the manufacture provides a maint schedule, the car has a computer that tells you when service is due and the dealer comes out with one of his own going from 7k to 3k??? There's money to be made there folks, and it's your money they're taking.
I take good care of my vehicles, much better than the average person and personally feel 7k is fine. Heck, the 10 year old Honda still gets parked on the far end of the parking lot... you can't ask for more "TLC" than that.
Bottom line... go with the schedule you feel is best. Me, I'm tired of all the big corparate rip-offs along with the consumer hype they put out and throwing money away... blame it on old age (gotta start saving those pennies so I can afford that Viagra stuff in a few more years). :wink: :wink: :wink: