Oil dipstick difficult to read

[JCL]

The danger of over-filling is that the level is high enough for the crankshaft to whip up the oil into a froth, like a blender. If the oil isn't frothy, being slightly over-full won't hurt it. If it is frothy, the problem is that the air bubbles don't lubricate very well.

6000 miles without adding is certainly possible. I put a litre in our X3 two days ago (3.0si). 22,000 km since it was changed, first oil added. I put one top-up litre in during the first 24,000 km oil change interval as well. Pretty low consumption.

I don't have to worry about the dipstick legibility, they eliminated it in favour of a dashboard oil level display.

[NextGen]

Thanks for the info JCL. I drove my wife's car over to AutoZone and purchased a hand transfer pump. It only cost $11.99. It came with a long tube that is designed to go into the dipstick holder. It worked very well. I was able to hand pump a quart out in about 15 minutes. I then re-checked the oil level and it was a little under max. So maybe I was a little under to begin with and just didn't read it correctly. I should be good to go now.