I think most of us assumed Amsoil OE was compared to the off the shelf synthetics you see at Walmart...regular Mobil1, etc.
Yes and no. That was XL originally. I'll explain more below.
Be interesting to find out exactly if that is the case or not, but then again I’ve never purchased Amsoil, and not sure if I ever will. But I have a friend that buys the OE and puts it in his wife’s KIA for manufacturer specified intervals (think it’s 7,500), and he believes he’s buying something a little bit better than the name Brand synthetics at Walmart.
There's no way to "find out", because this is mostly just perception.
"Back in the day", AMSOIL had two tiers of oil, XL and SS. XL was designed for quick lube shops and people who couldn't justify the money for SS and weren't interested in the sort of extended drains offered by the SS family. This was an oil directed squarely at the "Mobil 1" crowd. Your Castrol Syntec black bottle...etc. This was at a time when synthetic oil offerings from the majors were not as extensive as they are now. There was no "Supertech synthetic" for example. During this time, XL was API approved.
Formulation-wise, it (XL) was a Group III oil and, honestly sold as being a solid offering, but less premium than SS, which had more expensive bases and was designed around greatly extended drain intervals.
With the focus on approvals becoming more prevalent and with more competitors entering the market, particularly with lower priced offerings, AMSOIL re-shuffled their product portfolio, bringing in the API-approved OE product line at the bottom slot, bumping XL up and removing its API approval. They also introduced some Euro-specific oils with formal approvals, which are slotted in there somewhere between XL and SS, muddying things further.
OE was priced below XL and was geared at not only the same audience as XL had been originally, but also at "Joe Consumer", who was interested in having a quality AMSOIL product but not at all interested in going beyond the OE interval or whatever was dictated by their OLM. Formulation-wise, this is almost assuredly just a Group III oil with an OTS pre-approved "turn-key" additive package purchased from Lubrizol. This is the same approach taken by Warren for Supertech, Kirkland...etc. AMSOIL may use a more premium base oil blend, or they may not. They may also buy a slightly more robust additive package, but options are limited within the API approval envelope. In terms of how you get there, this is it. Pour Point (an admittedly poor metric) for OE 0w-20 is -48C, while it is -45C for MAG1, the same oil as Kirkland/Supertech. Pennzoil 0w-20 (not Platinum) has the same Pour Point as OE at -48C. XL also has the same pour point (-48C). You have to step-up to SS to get into the lower pour point territory of M1 EP (-54C) with ASM being -53C.
During this period, Mobil of course introduced their "Super Synthetic" line of oils to slot below Mobil 1, also aimed squarely at the "Supertech/Kirkland" group. They also increased the Mobil 1 suite of offerings by adding EP and then later AP, designed for 15,000 and 20,000 mile intervals respectively. These would later be consolidated under the EP banner with the higher 20,000 mile interval retained. I've already covered how these slot compared to the AMSOIL offerings. AMSOIL does shoot for a bit higher mileage for each of those slots, but it is not by a considerable amount. 12,000 vs 10,000 miles for example, and 25,000 vs 20,000 miles (EP vs SS). Philosophically, it's the same approach.
Now, of course once you broaden your comparison beyond Mobil, it's not as simple. Pennzoil offers multiple tiers and none of them are advertised for extended drains, so it's not even clear what's "more premium" about them as you spend more money. Valvoline also doesn't market an extended drain oil.
Castrol on the other hand, does line-up somewhat like Mobil. Their EP, like with Mobil 1 EP, is indicated as being capable of 20,000 mile intervals, while Edge, like regular Mobil 1, indicates 10,000 mile intervals. Unlike Mobil however, Castrol doesn't offer an "Entry Level" synthetic.
Now, if we look at the issue of cost, that's a problem inherent to all small blenders and the majors are far more insulated from. The cost of raw materials is far bigger of an issue for those that aren't vertically integrated and that means of course that when those costs go up, the price of the product must too, even if the quality hasn't changed.
