Oil level 3/8" above top dimple on dipstick

It is an economic problem - (most) dealerships aren't willing to pay for experienced techs to perform the oil changes - it is usually the new guy who may have just been hired last week.

A good idea in any event.

 

I think it's just because the oil takes a little while to fully settle and to make its way down into the crank case. To get it just right on the top dimple they'd need to stop adding when it was reading somewhat under full and then wait 15 minutes for it all to settle into the sump.

The problem is that some people might complain just as loudly (or even louder) if their "fill" was 1/8 to 1/4" under the mark. So they probably do starting adding slowly when it's nearly full and stop when its close to right on the dimple, even though there will always be a little bit still making it's way down to the sump that will make it go a little over the mark.

Lets face it, you cant always have something exact with zero tolerance, in the real world there's always a +/- involved. Sure most people here realize this and would like the tolerance to be say +0" / -1/4" or something like that. Sure I think that makes sense and agree with it. But the service guys know that there's plenty of people out there who are going to feel aggrieved if they get any kind of underfill, any at all! So they probably feel that if there has to be some +/- then the safest thing for them would be +1/4" / -0" or something like that.