Totally ridiculous and all to steer it to the dealerships …
Well, I get not having a dipstick on sealed transmissions, the idea is that whatever oxygen is in the air inside quickly gets used up during the initial fill oxidizing, leaving mainly inert nitrogen. This definitely makes it so fully synthetic fluid can last a "lifetime" (or about 100k miles) and it's not a big deal because transmission fluid doesn't burn off like oil and really shouldn't leak, simply measuring the amount drained and adding that much back in is easy enough.
Sure … but even FCA and ZF are not on the same page … and what ZF says is pretty much what many have used for a service interval for years …
Transmissions also have some method of venting the case so the oxygen is always being replenished.
No, but that doesn't change the fact most people will never even bother to have their transmission fluid changed and the idea of removing the dipstick is it's one less entry point for contaminants. Doesn't mean it's a good thing, people really should be changing atf frequently just like they do oil, but I know way too many people who are lucky they even get around to having an oil change done on time. I'd say 80% of people just get in their car and drive it, if it quits driving correctly then and only then do they even get it checked out. Unfortunately this is who the manufacturers are designing for. People want low maintenance vehicles so manufacturers, for better or worse, do everything they can to make their cars seem as low maintenance as possible.
