Oil life indicator

I own an 2007 Saturn Aura XR with about 59,000 miles. I've had the
car since July of last year and so far I've put on about 23,000
miles. I drive on average of about 950 miles per week. I've only had
the oil changed twice in the nearly 6 months that I've owned it. Both
times that I've had it changed I've waited until the "oil life"
reading on the DIC had decremented itself down to 0%. Today, when I
was in for my most recent oil change, the oil change tech scolded me
for not bringing in the car sooner. I specified that it had been
nearly 11,000 miles since my last change but that the oil life reading
had only very recently went all the way down to 0%. He told me that I
can't use that as an indicator as to when the oil should be changed if
I'm using standard oil. He said that I'd need to be using a premium
type oil in order to go that long without a change. I double checked
my owners manual and reread the portion that talked about oil
changes. As I expected, the manual said that the car uses the onboard
computer to determine when the oil needs to be changed. As well, the
manual didn't say anything at all about only using high grade
synthetic oils. My question is this - if I'm using regular grade 10w
- 30 oil should I "trust" the car and only get my oil changed when the
life meter decrements itself all the way down to, or near, 0% (even if
this means that 10 or 11 thousand miles have passed since my last
change) or should I religiously change my oil every 3 months or 3,000
miles as has been preached to us since time immeasurable. I think
that the oil change tech was probably just regurgitating what he was
told when he was hired - "tell everyone that has gone more then 3
months or 3,000 miles since their last change that this is a bad
practice and that it should be done every 3 months or 3,000
regardless." Thanks for any help!

On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:16:40 -0800 (PST), Shawn >
wrote:

>I own an 2007 Saturn Aura XR with about 59,000 miles. I've had the
>car since July of last year and so far I've put on about 23,000
>miles. I drive on average of about 950 miles per week. I've only had
>the oil changed twice in the nearly 6 months that I've owned it. Both
>times that I've had it changed I've waited until the "oil life"
>reading on the DIC had decremented itself down to 0%. Today, when I
>was in for my most recent oil change, the oil change tech scolded me
>for not bringing in the car sooner. I specified that it had been
>nearly 11,000 miles since my last change but that the oil life reading
>had only very recently went all the way down to 0%. He told me that I
>can't use that as an indicator as to when the oil should be changed if
>I'm using standard oil. He said that I'd need to be using a premium
>type oil in order to go that long without a change. I double checked
>my owners manual and reread the portion that talked about oil
>changes. As I expected, the manual said that the car uses the onboard
>computer to determine when the oil needs to be changed. As well, the
>manual didn't say anything at all about only using high grade
>synthetic oils. My question is this - if I'm using regular grade 10w
>- 30 oil should I "trust" the car and only get my oil changed when the
>life meter decrements itself all the way down to, or near, 0% (even if
>this means that 10 or 11 thousand miles have passed since my last
>change) or should I religiously change my oil every 3 months or 3,000
>miles as has been preached to us since time immeasurable. I think
>that the oil change tech was probably just regurgitating what he was
>told when he was hired - "tell everyone that has gone more then 3
>months or 3,000 miles since their last change that this is a bad
>practice and that it should be done every 3 months or 3,000
>regardless." Thanks for any help!

If you are using regular oil you should change it every 6 months or
6000 miles. There is no reason to change it any sooner then that. If
you use synthetic like Mobile 1 you can change it every 12 months or
12,000 miles. I just read an article quoting some GM engineers about
their oil life monitor and they indicated the average interval is 6000
miles. Your high weekly mileage is easy on the oil so 6/6000 should
be no problem. Our fleet of thousands of vehicles does 6/6000 with no
problems. It is possible that the technical specs for the oil in your
owners manual is actually a synthetic oil although it seems rather
unlikely for a Saturn. They do spec synthetic in the Corvettes.