Quote Originally Posted by vt_maverick View Post
I'd say above average oil consumption is a very well documented problem with the 3.5 in the VX, Trooper, and Axiom (including the direct injection, one-year only version that I own). I've owned a Nissan/Infiniti, Honda, Ford/Mercury, Chrysler/Dodge, Chevy, and even a Jeep and never had oil consumption issues anywhere near as bad as with the Isuzu 3.5 engine. Now those cars all had much worse issues in other areas, but none were at the same level of oil consumption.

True, aggressive oil checking/maintenance can help stave off an engine failure. But just because the engine never fails doesn't mean that it is without design flaws.
But 1 quart per 3000 miles hardly classifies as excessive. Too many people just start the car and go and have totally ignore maintainance. There are tons of specialty cars that have more oil consumption and other unique maintainance requirements that if not followed result in catastrophic failure. Just about any real sports car for an example. Wile I agree it can be a design that could be improved upon I do not think it rises to the point of design failure otherwise a recall would have been done.