this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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It seems to be mostly a euro thing. BMW stopped using oil dipsticks nearly 2 decades ago. Land Rover also somewhere in the late 00's.
But I agree it's a moronic idea. Not only does it prevent you from checking oil condition like you said; if it's after an oil change, it takes about 15min just to check the level (and another 15 if you messed it up). At $150+/hr shop rates, that adds up.
I was about to make this joke: "That's just not true. My 2008 BMW had a... holy shit, that car is nearly 2 decades old now." Then I went to confirm, and that car did NOT have a dipstick. The car came with 5 years of "free" service and never gave me a day of trouble, so I never realized it didn't have a dipstick. That's probably a major reason it was removed, since even a DIYer like me who likes to work on things myself never even tried to use the dipstick in 4 years.
Do you take it to the shop for oil changes then? I check my dipstick every time?
I used to be a lube tech in a different life 15 years ago and would occasionally see vehicles without dipsticks. Like you said the German brands like BMW and Mercedes but also Chrysler vehicles like the 300 and Magnum had a tube for the transmission dipstick but no dipstick inside of it just a cap on the tube.
At that time, Chrysler was owned by Daimler and shared a lot of stuff with Mercedes.
The NAG1 transmission some 300s used in Europe at least, is in fact the venerable Mercedes 722.6
That transmission was used in the US as well, before they switched to a ZF trans.
Isn’t that the point? The service department makes more money.