Those recommendations are to provide general policies for dealers and owners to follow so there's some standard of reference for wear items.
If you own a 10 year old BMW and you're doing your own work, those recommendations aren't all that relevant. Physically looking the car over to determine what's worn, and keeping a log of when parts were last replaced makes a lot more sense. If you are unsure of when fluids were last changed or when a part with a high failure rate was changed, change it.
As a side note, I used to daily drive an Integra GS-R. I did all my own maintenance and always used OEM stuff from the dealer. I had a very good relationship with the parts guys there. Because they had my info, I would get mailers from the service department...
"Hello Nick, our records indicate that it's time for the 213,517 mile service for your 1998 Integra GS-R. Please contact us to schedule an appointment.
These letters always cracked me up. I owned the car for over 10 years and put over 150,000 miles on it. I knew far more than the dealer about what parts were in it, when they were last changed, and when they needed to be changed again. I sold the car with 215K on it, and gave the new owner a burned CD with the spreadsheet of maintenance records and he picked up where I left off. He didn't pick up the owner's manual and start going based on the recommendations in there. Ya know what I mean?
