I'm sure that by now Chrysler's nomenclature mirrors that of other makers, but I'm glad that for our '05 they didn't force me to choose between being "Normal" or "Severe." I'm much more comfortable being a "3,000 miler" rather than a "6,000 miler."

Interesting that your second link affirms my owns sense that in the past most drivers qualified for the "severe" service interval, but that due to automakers' changing definitions, today most drivers merit the "standard" interval. I wonder if that has anything to do with the widespread adoption of synthetic oils?

Cheers,

Don

 

I'd say no, as conventional oil was still the standard OEM fill when the rewording was done. Use of synthetics was exclusive to very select group of cars in the early 2000's. Still today the majority of cars come with conventional oil.

 

The Mighty General Motors 5 years ago instituted Dexos1 for gas, Dexos2 for diesel, to set a benchmark which requires at least a semi-synthetic, and recommended it as the default fill requirement for all prior year GM autos.