My father knew a guy in Spain, a doctor, who had a Seat (it's part of VW) and ran it 50K miles and never put anything in it but gasoline and it finally clunked out. Amazing that other components of the vehicle did fairly well (brakes, other fluids, etc.), but what was more amazing was when the guy was told by the dealer, "did you ever change the oil?"

It happens, people just don't remember or get so mired down in what they are doing, but when you post in a forum (not just BMW, but goes for any car forum), you shouldn't see something like that. Sludge and oil is another story, but just plain negligence of any kind of oil change is another.

 

I wouldn't do it but 60K on the original oil is pretty impressive if you ask me. And if it is true that the car started right up again after a clean and fresh oil I'd say the owner got their money worth no matter how we all feel about it. Most owners dump their cars before 100K miles anyway, so if you can get away with 1 oil change in the time you own the car with no break down you did good.

 

Disposable car, a bit expensive for that treatment.

 

What's their reasoning for this? "We'll save $400 in maintenance costs and there's a slim chance we might not end up with a $30,000 paperweight before we get rid of it."?

 

I've known a handful of owners (oddly enough, luxury brands) that just do not maintain their vehicles are recommended. They're mostly leased of course, and they just figure that within the 32K or 36K allowed, that nothing is going to break on them and they're not buying it anyway.

The sad thing is, most of those vehicles probably went back into Certified programs too.

CPO buyers beware of those carfax that have no record of maintenance.