First, let me say that I prefer synthetic oils, but consider this:

Do you remember all of the Toyota advertisements for the 2wd truck from the late 70's and early 80's? Those trucks simply ran forever. I remember seeing a couple of them over 400,000 miles with nothing but oil changes. The majority were 200,000 miles plus. Why do I bring this up? I'm willing to bet that they were all running conventional oil.

I know a guy personally that changes his conventional oil every 2,000 miles and put over 300,000 on his Ford Bronco.

I also read a New York taxi test that compared conventionals to synthetics (of several brands)over 100,000 miles and when the took the engines apart the difference wasn't nearly as significant as they expected. I tried to find the story online, but the only thing that came up was an Amsoil test. I remember thinking that I would have expected the comparison to be much more conclusive.

What about Mobil 1 Clean 5,000? It is garunteed to go 5,000 miles and the synthetic blendis good for 7,500 miles. Maybe blend is the best option for the budget? You would have to run your synthetic closer to 10,000 miles to use the budget argument.

In the end, I will probably change my oil at least every 5,000 miles with whatever synthetic I choose to use. It will likely be Mobil 1 in my 4Runner and either Redline or Quaker State in the MS3.

The evidence for synthetics is not so absolutely clear that one cannot make an educated choice to run conventional oils.

 

so when why do all Corvettes and Mercedes come with Mobil1 right from the lot? BMWs with Syntec?
its definatley less wear on the engine. how much less wear. THATS debateable.

so ur recommending 5000miles/change? i might consider that actually, because i do drive pretty aggresively. (im only 17, so that means no, i didnt see the toyota pickup ads in the 70's and 80s )

 

Like I said before, I choose to run synthetic oil, but I don't think that the case for synthetic over conventional is cut and dry. I change my oil at 5,000 miles even with synthetic, but I am a bit conservative.

Mobil 1 advertises their conventional oil for 5,000 miles, the blend for 7,500 miles and now the extended life synthetic for 15,000 miles.I thinkthe Mazda standard service plan is in 5,000 mile increments for the MS3, but I have not seen the manual yet.

It all boils down to what makes you the most comfortable.

 

One reasons some of these autos come with Mobil1 is that Mobil pays them a fee, and gives them the oil for next to nothing, because its great advertising. I'm not saying these oils are not great oils, but Corvette, Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc are not telling all the buyers of their automobiles all about the brand name of the oil for nothing in return, believe me.

One other interesting fact to pay attention to is the wording on oil containers. Manufacturers have to say, their oil "meets" or "meets or exceeds" or "exceeds" the requirements. By law, in order to say "exceeds," the oil must surpass the standards by asignificant margin. Castrol conventional, for example, says "exceeds"(note: I did not receive a fee for saying this ...). So if your going to go conventional, I would recommend yougo with aconventional that says "exceeds" on the container.

I would also use 5w30 (not 5w20), see: http://bestsyntheticoil.com/dealers/...w20-cafe.shtml

 

Did not know this distinction, thanks!

 

Synthetic Oil is way cheaper if you factor in your time saved by the extended change intervals. Some circumstances would not allow that (dirty, dusty places where only trucks roam), but my 90% highway driving is the perfect environment for it. WhenI switched to syn around 1995 with my '93 Eagle Vision TSI, it had around 80,000 miles on it Synthetic oil consumption immediatly was halved, to one quart in around 10,000 miles. (Yes, that is right). It took twice as long for the oil to develop the dark color that makes you want to change it. That tells you that syn isabout twice as chemically stable.

I switched to 10,000 mile change intervals them from 5000, and have saved my self about 2 hours a month for the 12 years since. Whether you add that back to work time or family time, it's a great deal!

Each of my last 3 cars were stillrunning wellwhen I sold them with 249,000, 242,000, and 274,000 miles respectively. Oh, and they were all American cars.

 

and btw, lets say your watching a movie, and you see someone drinking a coke (say, at a party, and everyone's drinking a coke).
coca cola would have most likely paid for that.
its a form of advertising