Are modern cars making people too complacent?

All three cars in my driveway are on manufacturers recommended oil changes - 12 months or 20,000km's - and none of them ever budge on the dipstick between changes. A lazy person, my owner/trainer, is probably a good example would never bother checking and as per the OP would be fat, dumb and happy until Armageddon.

I hate dirty windscreens and use washer fluid in Exxon Valdez like quantities so consequently need to top it up every couple of weeks, since the bonnet, sorry hood, is up it's no big deal to eyeball brake, clutch and coolant levels and pull the dipstick at the same time. While I'm at it I'll walk around and do a visual check of tyres and lights and if I'm planning anything over a couple of hours away I'll actually check the pressures.

Funny story from the past - when it was originally released the Austin / Morris 1800 family, aka landcrabs, quickly got a reputation in the UK for blowing up their engines, strangely down under the problem was much less common. The problem was traced to wrongly marked dipsticks leading to too much oil in the crankcase, however while the engine would burn off the excess quite quickly the thrashing by the crank while over full was not conducive to good oiling. The reason the problem was common in the UK and not down under was because we (generally) only rarely checked the oil whereas the Poms checked and topped up much more rigorously.

I've put ~527,000 miles on three different rotary power cars so yes, yes I do check the oil frequently.

The only car in our fleet that rated that kind of extra attention was our old 2008 Honda Accord with near 200k on the clock. It was as good for a quart of oil every 1000-1500 miles. We barely missed a recall on that one. We were over the mileage limit. Nothing else has come close. 

Some of our old cars might have needed a quart at 3-5k intervals, but I would be doing an oil change at that interval anyway. I did check them every few fill ups. Our 2019 VW seems to need a little extra attention on longer highway trips. 

I have heard a few people with cars using 0W say they use oil between changes.  Anyone here see that?

porschenut said:

I have heard a few people with cars using 0W say they use oil between changes.  Anyone here see that?

Its not because of the oil. The 0W relates to the thickness when cold. The oil is still a 20 weight oil at temp. What is more likely is vehicles designed for 0W-20 have less ring surface to reduce resistance to improve that last 0.01% fuel economy. This is more likely to allow oil past the rings and either into the combustion chamber or into the intake via crankcase pressure. 

The 2018 Mazda3 runs Castrol 0W-20.  Zero oil consumption for 60,000 miles.  

So, thanks to this thread, I decided to check the oil level in my wife's 2008 Odyssey Touring with 185+K miles. It burns about a quart every 1,000 miles or so. Took 2 quarts to top it to the top of the full range. Oops. 

To answer the first, the average consumer is so tuned out from their appliance that looks like a car that most of them have no idea how to open the hood, let alone check the oil.

And as for the rest of you whose cars do not use oil, so you are in the habit of not checking it.

What if the car develops a leak and you don't notice it?  Just asking.  

Look, I don't check my oil often enough either.