Some cars will use a little oil and still go 300,000 miles. I've personally never had a car in our family that didn't use at least 1/4 a quart by 3000-4000 miles. Oh wait, we did have one. My sister had a 2001 Civic that didn't use a DROP after 12,000 miles of PP 5W-30. And, so far after 1200 miles of Rotella 5W-40 in my 5.0 F-150, it has had 0 consumption. Dunno if it will stay there until 3-4000 miles or not.
But, the rest are domestics. They might use a little oil, but I'll still keep buying my domestics. I think in my 1994 Thunderbird 4.6 manual, it said that it was 'normal' to use a little oil by 1500 or 2000 miles? Can't remember.