Oil ads

[John K]

There seems to be a trend here. Latest R&T

"Use Castrol GTX for 57% better sludge protection than the leading oil."

"Cleans out up to 46% of engine sludge in the first oil change." PP

"Valvoline SynPower offers 4X better wear protection than Mobil 1." "SynPower is the only leading full synthetic formulated with more durable anti-wear additives that stay in oil longer."

Interesting....

 

[Johnny]

Good creative advertising. At least they think it is good. 99% of the population believe this stuff.

 

[Iain]

Originally Posted By: John K
There seems to be a trend here. Latest R&T

.....

"Cleans out up to 46% of engine sludge in the first oil change." PP
......


If I had a sludger, PP would be last on the list of oils I would use for this reason alone.

Quote:

Interesting....

Indeed.

 

[ericthepig]

From my surfing thru various forums (mainly Mazda, Toyota & Honda) - it seems like it's an M1 and GTX world. M1 is by far (in my readinigs) the predominant oil of choice for those who want synth. And concerning GTX, I don't see it getting much ink on BITOG, but per the forums it seems to be doing just fine in the general population.

So good luck to Synpower and the others who want some of this market share.

 

[Johnny]

It's all about market share and nothing else. Pennzoil/Shell and Valvoline want some of Mobil 1's market share and Castrol want some market share with their GTX. Castrol is tired of being in 4th place.

 

[buster]

Agree with Johnny. It's marketing. Some oils excel in some areas better than others, for example the Valvoline ad. Synthetics are becoming more popular due to the demand for better oils by OEM's so the competition is heating up. I usually look for specifications met and who is using the product as that is a good indication of the quality of an oil IMO.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Good creative advertising. At least they think it is good. 99% of the population believe this stuff.


And quite a few on this board.

We see it all the time.

"You get what you pay for"

"I want the best"

So if you are paying $6 for a quart of oil, it has to be 3 times better than the $2 quart of oil.

Like I said in the other thread like this one, it is the new math.

 

[ericthepig]

Castrol can only blame themselves. When I first started using Syns, Syntec was 5w50 - which was such a bizarre range that it scared me off. Apparently they were very proud of being able to get that range with a synth, but I'm not sure it helped them. Then later they made the move to grp III, before making that move was cool (mainly since they charged PAO prices for their early gIII offering). And finally, in recent years I've read of the performance shortcomings of the Syntec line. You know they create a great product (GC) - but Syntec has been a series of marketing and technical blunders (imo).

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: buster
Agree with Johnny. It's marketing. Some oils excel in some areas better than others, for example the Valvoline ad. Synthetics are becoming more popular due to the demand for better oils by OEM's so the competition is heating up. I usually look for specifications met and who is using the product as that is a good indication of the quality of an oil IMO.


Who is using the oil *is* part of the marketing.

And as far as the specs, *who* made up the specs?

Take care, Bill

 

[Johnny]

If your interested, the last NPD report I looked at rates overall market share sales as follows.

Regular PCMO
#1 Pennzoil
#2 Quaker State
#3 Valvoline
#4 Castrol
#5 Havoline
#6 All the rest

Synthetics
#1 Mobil 1
#2 Pennzoil Platinum
#3 Castrol Syntec
#4 Valvoline Synpower
#5 All the rest

In the regular PCMO lines Pennzoil has a very large market share lead and the rest have a lot of work to do if they are going to catch them.

In the synthetic PCMO lines Mobil 1 has such a large market share lead that they would probably have to go out of business in order for the others to catch up.

 

[ccs v2.0]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
...the last NPD report I looked at...

How recent? For the PCMO results, that's really not a surprise, presuming it counts bulk oils. I wonder how much the PCMO survey results would change if bulk oils were excluded.

 

[Johnny]

About 3 months ago. Each market segment has different reports, the one above is the over all combination. Bulk oil sales accounts for about 55% of the total numbers.

I might add that bulk sales is anything that is not packaged in a quart or gallon container.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
About 3 months ago. Each market segment has different reports, the one above is the over all combination. Bulk oil sales accounts for about 55% of the total numbers.


Do they show how much of the market is syn vs conventional?

 

[Johnny]

Right now synthetic is around 12% of total sales. It's climbed quite a bit in the past 4 years. About 4 years ago synthetic sales accounted for about 5% of total sales.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
Right now synthetic is around 12% of total sales. It's climbed quite a bit in the past 4 years. About 4 years ago synthetic sales accounted for about 5% of total sales.


Bet they love that. No wonder they spend so much on syn marketing.

I'd think that there is a ton more profit in syn oil over conventional.

Thanks for the info!

 

[buster]

Bill I often think you just like to argue.

In a few years, all oils will be synthetic and what will you be saying then? Many conventional oils are all ready Group III based or contain some amount of Group III base oil.

Not all oils meet the more demanding spec's such as GM4178M etc. It's also been said that only 64% of the oils on the shelf actually pass the API SM/Ilsac GF-4 requirements.

I don't advocate synthetics unless you need one in which case most people do not at this time.

 

[Johnny]

buster, the GM spec is 4718M, not 4178M.

 

[ccs v2.0]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Thanks for the info!

Second that! Great info.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
buster, the GM spec is 4718M, not 4178M.


My bad. That is what I meant.

Btw, thanks for the info Johnny.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: buster
Bill I often think you just like to argue.

In a few years, all oils will be synthetic and what will you be saying then? Many conventional oils are all ready Group III based or contain some amount of Group III base oil.

Not all oils meet the more demanding spec's such as GM4178M etc. It's also been said that only 64% of the oils on the shelf actually pass the API SM/Ilsac GF-4 requirements.


I really don't. I like to ask questions!

I'll take some of that action. (not in the state of Utah.. It's illegal to wager

)

I'd bet in 10 years, conventional oils will still be more of the market share. True, a lot of conventional oil will have some syn in it, but overall the market will not be syn.

And *if* the 36% of the oils don't meet the spec I'm betting there will not be a problem.

If you can go 200k, 300k on yesterdays oils with a carburetor (which ran rich and dumped fuel in the oil like crazy) just think with unleaded gas, Fuel injection and todays oils will do.

How do cars go down the road for so long?

88% (today's numbers. 5% 4 years ago) of them using oils that are not considered premium. (ie. Not meeting all of the specs, tests, or recommended by the manufacture. Or in other words.. The ugly conventional oils

)

Take care, bill