We just got back from our annual France trip this past weekend and I had the good fortune to have access to my Father in Laws 2000 Impreza GT for the duration of the trip this year. We decided to Baptise our Daughter in France and instead of taking the TGV from Lyon to Reims, we decided to take a road trip. We started in St. Olive, France, at my in laws place.... We drove North on the highway toward Reims, I took this pic in commeration of one of our most controversial posts... Gypsy camp...think Brad Pitt in Snatch.... At the B&B in Reims (It was raining thus the blurry effect...)... On the way back we stopped at the now defunct Circuit Reims. An old F1 Track that stopped operating in the early 70's.... Yes I am sporting my vintage WRXAtlanta T. When we got back down to Lyon I had to find a Scooby Dealership!!! I wanted to look for the new shift knob I had seen online. It was noon so they were closed for lunch. We went and ate our selves and came back to find a WR1, or Peter Solberg Edition STI on the rack... The Tech was really cool and took us into the show room to look at what products they had on hand... We arrived back in St. Olive and to thank my Father in Law for letting me drive around France for two weeks with his car, I washed and waxed it. Here are some post cleaning pics... This was on the driver side door. Apparently thier engines either run cooler and don't stress oil as badly as ours do, or Europe has some ultra cool, long life oil....
My 98 Civic EX said to change the oil at least every 7500 miles. I still changed it every 3000 to 3500 though.
STI WR-1 "Solberg Edition" check it... http://www.seriouswheels.com/top-2004-Subaru-Impreza-WRX-STi-WR1.htm http://www.carpages.co.uk/subaru/subaru_unveils_special_edition_impreza_wrx_sti_14_01_04.asp
engines are engines, they don't run cooler in a different hemisphere, the temperature is different there, that's all, also in europe they drive less and change thier oil less, I'll see if I can find the article on it. Also our highway driving is a lot more stop and go, etc. we are much harder on our cars in the US.
I was totally kidding about the sticker. There are a variety of factors that encourage the USDM to stick with the 3500 or 3 month oil change cycle...mostly economic reasons..