Several things come to mind here.
1) Big oil companies are very, VERY good at advertising. Look at some of the oil advertising over the last few decades. Advertising costs money. Money raises the price of the product to the public. We are conditioned to believe name brand oil is the best, and the kind of sad part is, there may be a shred of truth here, but it gets lost in all the hype.
2) You get what you pay for .. is a pretty good indication of marketing today, and it is pretty true. More additives, more research, etc, costs $$$, and that adds to the cost of oil. Cheap oil has to cut costs someplace. It's reality.
3) Now for the best part. Suppose, just for a moment, that
1) all the hype is not "exactly" true, that you don't "need" an oil with all the moly, Ti, and Boron to have an engine last over, and maybe well beyond, 100,000 miles.
OR
2) that some oil producers take the position that the vast majority of people don't keep a car past 100,000 miles anyway. So they don't really "require" an oil with such drastically good specs, but an oil will just "really good" specs.
OR
3) that with all the certifications oil must meet, for instance to meet SN, or ILSAC G5, not to mention the manufacturers specs, that the oil from even the cheapest oil producer would be plenty good enough for several hundred thousand miles all other things being equal.
THEN
wouldn't it make sense that you just don't need the slickest advertised oils, that have the hokie 300,000 mile guarantee, that don't claim 25,000 mile OCIs, not the pretties bottles, or whatever.
There is quite a lot of data that "cheap" oil will protect a car for an awfully long time, so it's kind of hard to believe that better oil will get you better longevity (diminishing returns). Suppose the difference is 250,000 miles with Rural King oil, and 400,000 miles with Mobil 1, how many of you would choose the Mobil 1? knowing you'll never have that car past the 70,000 miles? That's a hypothetical situation, so suppose the difference was only a few thousand miles, instead of our hypothetical 150K, then your choice just got a lot easier.
Well, boys and girls, the big oil companies know that reality. They know you don't KNOW which is best. You have very little, if any, reliable data to PROVE which is better, sooooo..... out comes the fancy advertising. The photos of pistons being cleaner, the sludge buildup engines, whatever. All we really have is the anecdotal data, that "mine is better than yours".
They're all good, probably well beyond anything we really need for them to be, but the advertising is too good, and even I fall for it sometimes, because of years of conditioning. I have yet to read about "RK oil killed my car".
Now for the last part, if you follow the ads, rebates and sales, then you can get "name brand" oil for really cheap. That is really the only "good" reason I can see for thinking Pennzoil is better that Super Tech, because you can get Pennzoil for $11 a 5 qt jug as opposed ST for $17. More confusion to the debate.
There's no doubt that "name brand" oil has more/better additives in them than most "house brand" oils, (with some exceptions), the question has to be, are they necessary? They probably have better base stocks in some cases, but again, what's "necessary" for 100K protection. If you knew, for sure, I bet the decisions would be quite different.
1) Big oil companies are very, VERY good at advertising. Look at some of the oil advertising over the last few decades. Advertising costs money. Money raises the price of the product to the public. We are conditioned to believe name brand oil is the best, and the kind of sad part is, there may be a shred of truth here, but it gets lost in all the hype.
2) You get what you pay for .. is a pretty good indication of marketing today, and it is pretty true. More additives, more research, etc, costs $$$, and that adds to the cost of oil. Cheap oil has to cut costs someplace. It's reality.
3) Now for the best part. Suppose, just for a moment, that
1) all the hype is not "exactly" true, that you don't "need" an oil with all the moly, Ti, and Boron to have an engine last over, and maybe well beyond, 100,000 miles.
OR
2) that some oil producers take the position that the vast majority of people don't keep a car past 100,000 miles anyway. So they don't really "require" an oil with such drastically good specs, but an oil will just "really good" specs.
OR
3) that with all the certifications oil must meet, for instance to meet SN, or ILSAC G5, not to mention the manufacturers specs, that the oil from even the cheapest oil producer would be plenty good enough for several hundred thousand miles all other things being equal.
THEN
wouldn't it make sense that you just don't need the slickest advertised oils, that have the hokie 300,000 mile guarantee, that don't claim 25,000 mile OCIs, not the pretties bottles, or whatever.
There is quite a lot of data that "cheap" oil will protect a car for an awfully long time, so it's kind of hard to believe that better oil will get you better longevity (diminishing returns). Suppose the difference is 250,000 miles with Rural King oil, and 400,000 miles with Mobil 1, how many of you would choose the Mobil 1? knowing you'll never have that car past the 70,000 miles? That's a hypothetical situation, so suppose the difference was only a few thousand miles, instead of our hypothetical 150K, then your choice just got a lot easier.
Well, boys and girls, the big oil companies know that reality. They know you don't KNOW which is best. You have very little, if any, reliable data to PROVE which is better, sooooo..... out comes the fancy advertising. The photos of pistons being cleaner, the sludge buildup engines, whatever. All we really have is the anecdotal data, that "mine is better than yours".
They're all good, probably well beyond anything we really need for them to be, but the advertising is too good, and even I fall for it sometimes, because of years of conditioning. I have yet to read about "RK oil killed my car".
Now for the last part, if you follow the ads, rebates and sales, then you can get "name brand" oil for really cheap. That is really the only "good" reason I can see for thinking Pennzoil is better that Super Tech, because you can get Pennzoil for $11 a 5 qt jug as opposed ST for $17. More confusion to the debate.
There's no doubt that "name brand" oil has more/better additives in them than most "house brand" oils, (with some exceptions), the question has to be, are they necessary? They probably have better base stocks in some cases, but again, what's "necessary" for 100K protection. If you knew, for sure, I bet the decisions would be quite different.
