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Something to consider on oil change intervals...
A strong factor negatively influencing (extending) a manufacturers published maintenence schedule is (believe it or not) a marketing need. You see, a "true cost of ownership" figure is generated on auto research sites, and there has become a great deal of pressure on all auto manufacturers to write long service intervals to bring down published cost figures like routine maintenence, and total ownership costs...its for nerds who do a bunch of comparative research and get their panties in a wad over that nonsense. That's exactly why you see absurd intervals like 100,000 or more miles on spark plugs. I could go into a big long rant about how this is another example of things being dumbed down for the masses, but I think most everyone in here gets the idea (except maybe the people doing photoshops).
In the end, your approach to oil changes is going to depend on your personality type....
Tightwad/By The Book personality approach - These are the people who drank the kool-aid, they'll say "Oh BMW knows best and they wouldn't possibly publish anything but the ideal and absolutely correct interval, and that's what I'm gonna follow." In that case, you'll think you're doing yourself a favor by driving around on thickened oil for 15,000 miles with many suspended particles, soot, and acids that form as a result from by-products of combustion...negatively affecting fuel economy, engine wear, and costing you more in the end.
Then there's the more pragmatic approach, you know, the mechanically oriented people who understand that the oil is the lifeblood of the engine, and it just pays in many ways to keep up a more agressive service interval. Modern BMW inline sixes generally hold 7ish quarts of oil, therefore with synthetic oil, you can go 5000 miles pretty safely between oil changes. And for the price of an oil change, there's just no margin in being a tightwad.
There's alot of people in the first group who could never be moved into the second group, and that's fine...I'm not trying, or even advocating it, because you can't fix stupid. I'm simply illustrating that in the end, its your personality style that is going to determine how well you are going to look after your car. Or really, if you possess the cognitive skills to think independantly and recognize where the true value is, and I'm not talking about a hardware store.
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