Woo boy, I feel a little guilty as my comments
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=012679;p=1#000013
appear to have provoked a bunch of this. At least I did label part of it as Off Topic
Anyhow just to clarify:
1. Yes Russia as defined in any sense of the last 300 years or so spans Europe and Asia. The Urals seem a reasonable demarcation point, but YMMV.
2. I did not intend to include Russia in my version of European Oil standards. Part of this is my age. I do have to remind myself, not of the geography of Europe, but of its role in the Political Economy of Europe. Part of this is just old thinking of divided Europe of my youth. But hey I was in East Germany 14 years ago just after unification and lots of people were driving two stroke Trabants, so maybe I can get some slack for not rolling my expectations of modern industrial standards eastwards immediately. We had a ton of Russian Ladas in Canada in the late 1970s. While the russian mafia and nomenclatura no doubt drive new BMWs I think that shabbily assembled versions of 1960s Fiats held together with carpet glue is probably more representative of the average Russian vehicle. So asking what standards are good enough for the Russian motorist seems a tad excessive. I admit I was not really including former communist states in my expectation of industrial and consumer standards. Although I think it would probably be reasonable to include the Czech and Slovak Republics (yes...I had to stop myself from writing Czechoslovakia)or Hungary in a discussion of states in which you might find modern standards, I don't know that the same would apply to Russia or Romania or Moldova. Perhaps I should have said "Oil standards of EU member states" or "Oil standards of Western Industrial democracies of Europe".
As an analogy, and I am not trying to be glib here, but I would not consider an opinion of American standards to be invalidated because American nations like Mexico or Bolivia or Belize used were not included. Okay I guess including Belize is evidence of glibness...mea culpa.
3. The RANGE of temperature conditions is broader in a huge and heavily populated stretch of Central North America than in Western Europe. Someone mentioned Stockholm. Excellent.Thank You.Take a look at Chicago or Toronto. The Average high in July is 5 or 6 Degrees celsius higher and the average low in February is 5 or 6 degrees lower here. I won't even start on the humidity.
4. The RANGE of driving conditions here is enormous. Distances can be huge meaning long trips are common. Traffic in cities is horrifying but public transit as a useful service for the non-indigent is almost non-existant outside New York City. People can, will and must drive their cars through a huge range of services.
My aunt in England freaked out when I just wanted to jump in the car and drive two hundred miles. We think nothing of that here. In England that would be covering half the country. European city traffic is a nightmare but there are alternatives used by many. Most people I know who live in suburban London would barely ever think of driving right into the city. They take the bleedin tube Guv'nor.
All that I was saying was that in advertising to a common market that stretches from the deserts of the Southwest to the Permafrost of northern Canada, you are going to have to cover a lot of bases. People reading your marketing in their native langauge of English residing in Houston Texas or Fort MacMurray Alberta will be looking at the same propaganda and expecting it to meet the needs of their climate. People in Buffalo will expect it to address their Winters (brutal) and their summers (sweltering). Drivers in Boston and Butte and Bakersfield and Boca will be expecting you to cover their mix of city and highway driving.
All the discussion of where the border of Europe and Asia is and how cold or hot it is in Stockholm kinda misses that point.
I think that most current oils of most reasonable grades would actually do fine for most drivers in most conditions. But variables like range of temperatures, range of driving conditions, cost of raw materials, space to do your own work and tradition all contribute to influence these regional differences
I could stir up another hornets nest with my doubts about the "thinner is better" mantra and I drive European cars with at least a 40weight oil, so I am not even really challenging the technical basis of Euro oil standards. I think it has to do more with the market.
I hesitate to bring it up now but what about fuel quality? I have always been led to believe that European diesel is much cleaner than here in North America. True? It seems to be, judging from my limited experience generally confined to driving rentals in Europe. Does Euro diesel dump less crap into oil? What about gasoline? My recollection was that leaded gas lasted longer in europe, which while not cleaner at least could have some anti wear effects.
