97 ETC using oil

I have a 1997 ETC with 80,000 + miles and it has just started using a little over a quart of oil every 3,000 miles. There is no leaks. The car has not been driven hard or abused. Has always been maintained with oil change every 3,000 miles. Can anyone tell me what would cause this or what to check ? This car has the 300 hp northstar engine. Thanks

That's normal for a Northstar. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a performance engine and since they use low tension rings, it tends to consume oil more than a "normal" engine.
What can help is to not baby it like you say, and drive it hard once in a while. The rings can get carbon stuck to them, and that can add to the oil usage. A few full throttle runs to 60 or so can help lower the oil consumption.
The later Northstar engines used a different ring design to help with the oil usage, but they still use it. It's not a design flaw, just part of having such a high powered small engine.

Thanks for the info. I really didn't think there was much wrong because it runs so good .