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- 16 CX-5 Tour'ngAWD
In the VW world, "lifetime" in regards to fluid is about 7 years. Why 7? 7 (years) is about the average age/lifetime the first owner will have the car. The owners manual doesn't say this, but why should it; "lifetime" sounds better and most fluids are recommended at some of the major services. My manual trans fluid is lifetime, but I changed it our at 7 years (57,000 miles).
Plus, at that point in time, most cars are approaching 100k miles. No matter the fluid location, it (the fluid) has been subjected to some of the most extreme operating conditions one could imagine and changing out said fluid couldn't hurt.
Most people rarely own a car for more than 7 years and now with leases so popular, most people won't own the same car more than 3 or 4. And if this new subscription service takes off, I see people in cars for under 2 years.
If your definition of lifetime fluid is different, great. For me, I will stick with lifetime fluid as meaning change at the 7 year point.
However, all bets are off if your car sees submerged under water conditions, whether intentional (crossing a river) or not intentional (flooded street courtesy of Mother Nature).
