Meet a Shell Distributor at Wallymart

[David1]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts

Good conversation sounds like, but isn't what he said pretty much sound like what any marketing guy from a big company would say? I work for a big company with resources; it is no guarantee of a better product. Sometimes bigness is the greatest impediment to one.

No... NO No No.. R&D he said with Shell does tests with other products... I asked him the same thing. They say in the one link how the new pure plus cleans pistons a certain % more then other brands.... b/c they do R&D with other brands. ATF also. Look Im nobody.. It was not like he was selling me anything. We were simply talking oil and ATF.... Matter of fact I asked Valvoline Maxx Life FULL SYN or Mobil 1 HIGH MILAGE FULL SYN.. Without a heart beat, he said Mobil 1 also compared to Shell,, valvoline is a baby.. what did I read 8 Billion shell is over 280 BILLION USD... Thats 280 divded 8 billion.... think how much that is.. how much more worth. Hey I was just as shocked..... I mean why did he tell me to use a Pennzoil Product... I said I like HIGH MILAGE FULL SYN.. he could of said by pure plus and use oil stop leak that HM oil is s scam.. yada yada.. but he told me the Mobil 1 High Milage is much better Oil then Valvoline Maxx Life FULL SYN.. I looked on the bottle Maxx Life Full SYN is SN and Mobil 1 is SL... what difference and whats better in terms of SN and SL? However this guy was not acting like a sales person at all. He even knew about Supertech and how it was a good deal for the $ and is a good oil. I was surprised to hear him say that... Only thing he said about Valvoline is they are not as great as people think.. Its b/c they have great marketing.... and the MAXX LIFE marketing was the biggest in oil history since the creation of the oil filter.. Probably.

 

[David1]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell

The comment about MaxLife ATF hit home for me, and I imagine it would for those guys that believe their transmissions were possibly damaged by it. He is probably correct about the testing aspects between the companies as well. I doubt that Ashland has the ability to commit to the extensive testing that BP (Castrol) and Shell have. I don't think there is any auto manufacturer in Europe that uses their products as OEM, but there are many that use Castrol and Shell especially the transmission products ATF or MTF.

Size is relative. Ashland is small as compared to XOM, RDS or BP but it's an 8.4 billion dollar company, 307th on the Fortune 500 list, with 15,000 employees, so it isn't as though the company is too small to develop quality products. There are many of us who have had very good experience with Valvoline oils and ATFs. I'm aware of one poster who claims that his automatic transmission failed due to his use of Maxlife ATF. I don't think that he ever got around to telling what the failure mode actually was, though, so we really have no basis for evaluating his claim.

8.4 Billon and 15k empoyess look at shells worth Revenue US$ 451.235 billion Employees 87,000 There is a HUGE.... matter of fact no even in the same ball park.... Id rather have 451 Billion to 8.4 Billion.. and if it was not for the brilliant marketing of the Maxx Life products Valvoline did It would probably be more like 2.1 Billion. Thing is Shell has more $ to do R&D.... thats what he said.... Shell does major R&D and spends big $ on R&D.

 

[David1]

Originally Posted By: coolbird101

Thank you for sharing, it's always nice to talk with someone who shares your interests. But, after thinking about this for a moment, it's not much different than talking with a G.M. guy about how they must be the best because they are the biggest company, can anyone think of a better car builder than G.M.? Pretty easy to come up with quite a few. Not a knock against G.M., just an example of my thinking on this. One could argue Amsoil and Redline make the finest oils known to man, these company's are not so big. It's hard for me to get on board with this line of thinking. With that being said, in my opinion Shell makes fantastic products.

We talked about companies like Royal Purple and Redline and if I remember correctly he siad they do 1 thing only.... and there prodcuts are very good... Basically all he said about Valvoline is they are nothing special as some people think.... REDLINE is special. AMSOIL is SPECIAL ROYAL PURPLE IS SPECIAL The products above became special b/c of how they work and how its been proven by independent tests... Not marketing... but real world tests... Valvoline is special b/c of great marketing b/c of Maxx LIFE..... Valvoline is not BAD... its just nothing special as the products above. thats bascially what I got from talking to him and he told the reasons why, b.c I used Valvoline Maxx Life FULL SYN... I have used Mobil 1 HM FULL SYN a few times but always thought Maxx life was special b/c of the marketing from years ago. I tell you what.. next oil change... Mobil 1 HM.....

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Sam2000

Re the Valvoline size claim, market cap of the overall company is irrelevant. It is the size of the lubricant division that is comparable.

True, but Valvoline, like the smaller guys like AMSOIL and Redline, are a blender, not an "oil company". XOM and SOPUS both develop base oils from the ground up, they co-own INFINEUM....etc. And because of that, they are far more capable and have far more in the way of options than companies like Ashland because they actually MAKE the building blocks their products are made from, whilst Ashland has to buy them. And like we are seeing with SHELL and their GTL product, quite often the products used in producing their premium lubricants are not sold to other companies. That's not to say that a company like Ashland isn't able to blend a premium lubricant. Of course they are. They simply don't have the flexibility nor the access to the diverse portfolios of additive packages and base oils that XOM/SOPUS have, both through their development chains (XOM Chemical for example) and their joint ventures (like INFINEUM).

 

[HM12460]

Well, aint that a hoot?! I thought Valvoline was part of SOPUS. I thank you fellas for getting me straight on that one. To the original poster, sounds like you had fun!

 

[dave1251]

Re. MAXLIFE ATF synthetic. If I recall correctly Ashland could make the claim that MAXLIFE ATF is a full synthetic. Similar to GM and Dexron VI because Dexron VI is a blend of group III/IV/V base stocks. I do not believe this representative from Shell has the same beliefs as other representative's that are employed for Shell. If I recall correctly one of the top tribologist for Ashland was a former tribologist for Pennzoil and her peers do regard her with high esteem.