system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do German luxury automobile brands such as Audi/BMW/Mercedes recommend oil changes every 15K+ miles whereas American standard brands like Ford and Chevy still recommend oil changes every 3-5K miles?

I have always owned American car brands and regularly changed the oil at the recommended 5K mile mark as part of the routine maintenance. I recently got a BMW X3 and found out that the recommended mileage before getting an oil change is around 15K. This lead me to ask:

What is it about the design of the German vehicles that allow them to go longer without changing the oil? Does the engine run at a slightly temperature than American models? Does it have to do with the fact that I am combusting higher rated gasoline in it(requires premium)? Do they use a superior oil filter? If anyone could give some insight, I would greatly appreciate it because I was genuinely curious and don't know enough about cars to formulate my own hypothesis.
gpt
Service contracts.

BMW used to recommend oil changes every 5000 miles or so, but then the marketing department got involved and offered free oil changes for the first X years, and once the dealers had to pay the cost of the service the interval magically tripled so you needed fewer of them.

The effect is that with the reduced servicing the car will still run fine for the duration of the warranty, but at the end of the warranty period it'll have more wear and tear and may need to be replaced sooner - another win for the marketing department.