re: Does anyone here really do the 20,000 mile oil change here? Pros? Cons?

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Do it every 4-5k even with synthetics.

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That's an absolute waste of money and oil unless you're overlanding in the Sahara.

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I do my Lexus every 7k and my Merc every 10k. Just like I’m supposed to. And I have zero problems with both.

There’s a reason cars come with manuals and maintenance schedules.

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I dont know if I trust that. There have been quite few known issues in the past where a manufacturer made a recommendation about service intervals and it was found to be faulty.

One example is the ZF 5-speed automatic was supposed to be a black box, no maintenance ever needed. It got out of warranty just fine, usually made it to 100k, but trouble after that.

Another is the Maserati SMG from the first gen Quattroporte. It was a total dud whatever the recommendations were. There are more junk maseratis with low-ish miles.

High interval sounds nice but at what price? It's a gamble and even Toyota has advise if you fairly common "special cases" like short commute in cold weather to drop down to 5,000 miles. I don't know how special I would call that example, seems like half the country fits that description.

I drive somewhat older cars so I change the oil a lot as a preventative measure, it's cheap insurance in my book.

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I had an old Camry that I'd change about every 15k. I sold it still running with 250k~ miles on it.

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Same here.

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Not sure why you bother with synthetic.

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Manufacturer wants it

How Often Should Oil Be Changed?

The Sad Truth (about extended oil changes)

Been driving 40 years and owned dozens of vehicles. Even back in the days of dino oil, I didn't change but every 10k miles (a practice i got from my old man who was a poor farmer). I put 200k plus on every vehicle and never have had an engine issue. Frequent oil changes are a marketing gimmick.

My 2008 Chevy Avalanche gives me a “change oil soon” light at around 10,000 miles, I change my oil and filter when I get that warning, I’ve used Mobil 1 oil and Fram or AC/Delco filters through the life of the vehicle, it turned 242,000 miles last month and is still running strong and uses virtually no oil between changes.
Our 2020 Suburban and 2020 Silverado give the warning at 7500 miles and I use Mobil 1 oil and AC/Delco or K&N filters on them.
I worked maintenance in an industrial environment for over 35 years of my career, I maintained an oil analysis program on hundreds of pieces of rotating equipment in that time period and used multiple brands and types of oil and lubricants. The best oil we used for severe or high heat gearbox conditions was Royal Purple synthetic and Mobil 1 synthetic was good and was used more than any other synthetic, it was used more than Royal Purple because there was a significant price difference.
There is not an oil made that I’m aware of, nor a filter made that I’m aware of, that I would trust a $70,000 vehicle that I’m paying for to protect the engine life for 20,000 miles.
I would come closer to trusting Royal Purple or Mobil 1 oil to last 20,000 miles than I would trust any filter to last over 10,000 miles.

Service shop tried to tell me I need a 3k mile interval still even though the manual, onboard computer, etc all say 10k miles. Gotta make their money somehow I guess.

I had a 2012 Ford F-150 and I changed the oil every 30 000 miles.

Sold it for $2000 with 457,000 miles in it.

I had a Corolla I was really sick of, so I just stopped changing the oil. I don't think it quite made it to 20,000 miles- probably more like 15,000.