If you are still using old fashioned, “natural” oil, you may want to consider switching to synthetic oil. Yes, a good quality synthetic oil is more expensive than traditional oil, but here are several benefits that can more than make up for the higher price:
You can go longer between oil changes. You can typically go 7500 miles between oil changes on a good synthetic (vs. 3000-5000 on regular oil). Changing your oil half as often offsets the higher price AND saves you the time and hassle of frequent service appointments.
Synthetic oils can increase the life of your engine. Synthetics contain fewer contaminants than traditional oils that, even with frequent oil changes, can cause wear on your engine over time.
You can get better gas mileage. Synthetic oils lubricate your engine better and handle higher temperatures. This helps your engine run cooler and more efficiently, increasing gas mileage by as much as 3%.
They are better for the environment. Because you need fewer oil changes when using a good synthetic, you are putting less waste into the environment. If everyone switched to synthetic, we could reduce the amount of waste oil in our environment by billions of quarts a year.