[manaboutown]

The OP brought back some memories. I bought a brand new 1979 L82 Corvette. For whatever reason, its dipstick never clearly showed the oil level in the engine. It would just come out with an indefinite coating of oil after I had extracted and wiped it, then reinserted it. Back then I changed the oil myself so I took care to measure how much oil I poured into the crankcase after draining it. As I changed the oil fairly frequently I never had a problem, accumulating many miles over seven years as I frequently drove it back and forth between Los Alamos and Albuquerque. I sold it for $600 less than I had paid for it at the dealer.

I bought a 2016 BMW X5 xDrive50i new and because it was serviced by the local dealer under warranty never paid much attention to checking the oil. After a few months I planned to take a long trip and thought I ought to check the oil. I looked under the hood but could not find a dipstick! So I went to the internet and found oil level was electronically monitored and used the instructions in the owner's manual to check the oil. I still own the vehicle and it has never needed oil added between 10,000 mile oil changes. My 2023 X5 M50i has no dipstick but at least I expected that. How does one check the oil level if the battery is dead? lol

A friend of mine had a 1964 Dodge Hemi back in the day. It went through a quart of oil every 500 miles.