Ford Repair: Synthetic fluids, synthetic motor oil, drain intervals

Question
Ok, what's the real deal on synthetic motor oil and ATF?  I mean, I know it's better since it costs more, but does it last for longer drain intervals or what? I'm using 0.69cent special 5w30 and change is out every 3mo/3,000, but based on oil companies they suggest to stay around that or follow Automobile manufacturer, what's the real deal?  I came across this one company, Amsoil have intervals of 1yr/25,000 engine oil change out, that seems long.  Have you heard of this, or any experience in this area? The way I see it, every one has an interest in saying whatever benefits them, like oil company would prefer the customer to buy more oil and would suggest more frequent change out; and auto manufacturer would prefer for customers not to have many problems or have the vehicle last just enough to have them come back for a new one in several years[5-10yrs]. I recently seen an article that quoted an engineer from one of the "big-three" that said, "most modern cars don't benefit from synthetics and regular petroleum are all that are needed, and when manufacturer runs tests on their engines they put them thru extremes until they fall apart, and regular oils work just fine." But I wounder, how accurate is that? I sure wish I could figure out what's going on here, please explain.  Thanks.

[2001 Ford Explore V6]

Answer
Joe-

  Sure, auto companies will always tell you to use 5w30 because it's so thin that it will give a slight increase in power to bolster their engine's power numbers.  But then there's a trade off of protection from friction.  As for SAE vs. synthetic oil, I will always choose synthetic.  Auto makers will usually stick with SAE since it's cheaper and they can stock more in their service station.  Synthetics will *usually* reduce the engine's coefficient of friction on internal parts over the same grade of regular oil.  For normal everyday cars I'll always recommend 10w30 or 10w40 synthetic from companies like Mobil 1.  Amsoil's stuff is great...probably better than Mobil 1.  That said, it's expensive and sometimes hard to buy.  I think 1yr/25K miles is a bit of a stretch with Amsoil's stuff...but you could certainly double the usual 3 month/3K mile standard.  Synthetics will usually last longer against viscocity breakdown longer than regular oil, making your change intervals fewer.  Even with synthetics I try to change the oil every 3K miles but have been known to let it slide for 5K miles from time to time and the oil honestly still looked fairly good.  It's really a matter of preference, but I'll always take synthetics given the choice.  Hope this helps.

Steve