Hyundai Repair: Black oil, hyundai tucson, changing oil

Question
I Have a Hyundai Tucson 2litre diesel Crdi comfort.
I have dipped the oil and it is black in colour, is this a secial oil that Hyundai use, or have I been hoodwinked into the garage saying that it has had an oil change.
The last service was back in November 2006, should the oil dicolour in this short space of time?

              Regards Geoff.

Answer
Oil tends to discolor as the amount of contaminants in the oil become greater.  This doesn't occur very much in relation to time, but rather in relation to how long the engine has been running and the conditions under which it was run.  Most oil will be significantly discolored after 5,000 km, and the industry recommendation for changing oil is about 5,000 km.  If your driving is similar to the much of the driving in the U.S., I'd suspect you've driven about 10,000 to 12,000 km, quite a long time to travel between oil changes.  If that's the case, you should expect the oil to be quite dark.