To go synthetic or not? In a new car

Well in the time the board was down I got another car a 2004 Dodge Stratus, and other than a few problems it's been ok. A major change over what I have had, but a welcome change in the fact I can count on it.
I plan to switch to synthetic oil after my next change which will be 6k so that on service schedule B (dealer recommend 6k intervals) I don't have to worry about the dura-blend breaking down. My question is what are you guys thoughts on synthetic in the long term? Also the recommend change with synthetic seems to skip between 5 and 6 thousand miles which is it?
Read the archives and saw some good stuff but figured I would ask anyway
Thanks
Dan

[LK1]

I run synthetic in every vehicle I own from my cars, motorcycles to my snowblower. Transmission, differentials everything. Usually change it at 6K miles in my gas cars, 4-5K in the diesel.

[Kuan]

What's up Dan? I see you found time to post. Probably because football season's over for you huh?

Dude, congrats on the car. Knowing you, go synthetic, that's my gut feeling.

Kuan, your 100% wrong on the football season thing since it never started for me as my Cornhuskers are 5-6 and no bowl and my Chiefs are 3-8 (I went to jacksonville only to see them lose )
Glad to be back, so what did I miss?
Thanks guys on the thoughts

[Hatterasguy]

It depends on how long you plan on keeping it. If your going to run it past 100k miles then yes go synthetic. If not buy what ever is on sale for .99 cents a quart. Save the money for something else.

[shane]

Synthetic is really only beneficial in extreme temperatures. Being from florida I would think it is not an issue. Just use regular oil. If you plan to keep the car until the motor goes then change the oil every 3k to 4k miles. If you plan to get rid of the car by say 70k miles then just change it every 7k or so.