My car says it needs 1.5 qt of oil, how much oil does the engine hold? A dealer told me 8-9 qts which I found very hard to believe.
Do you recommend Mobil-1 0W-40?

 

The engine does take in 8 to 9 quarts of motor oil.

The engine burns negligible amount of engine oil at a time. But if you rev high a lot, you will need to add 1-qt every week.

When engine oil goes below 90% or so, it will say -1.5 on the LCD. I think that's what your car is telling you right now.

Mobil1 0-40 is perfect.