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- Plano, Texas, USA
So you want to play maintenance schedule on oil change against Mazda’s recommendation? What other maintenance items do you want to make your own change schedule?Relying on a computer to calculate and tell you when to change your oil is not good practice IMO, and should not be used unless you like idiot lights. Too many people have absolutely no idea that oil is the life blood of their engine and it needs to be clean and functioning properly to protect their engine and for their engine to be reliable. Change your oil at a fixed Interval regardless and sleep well with extra insurance that your engine will be a reliable machine.
If you have your own opinion on maintenance schedule, that’s fine. It’s your own car. But in OP’s situation he has doubt about how often he should change the oil. The easiest way for him is simply to follow the recommended “Flexible” OCI. He drives 5K miles per year, you really believe he should change the oil 2 ~ 3 times per year? If he follows “Fixed” OCI instead of “Flexible” OCI which is only applicable to Schedule 2 in severe driving conditions, the interval is 5K miles or 6 months whichever comes first. OP still need to change the oil at 6 months interval where the car has only driven 2.5K miles. Most people would think OP should just change the oil once a year, which is exactly the “Flexible” OCI calls for.
Flexible” OCI is based on oil life monitor and the computer calculates the proper OCI with the cap of 7,500 miles or 12 months. Many CX-5 owners use 7.5K-mile Fixed OCI which most likely have longer OCI than “Flexible”. If you feel relying on computer is a bad thing, you still can change the oil anytime you want, using only the oil life monitor calculation as a reference. You have nothing to loose.