One oil for a whole year, 0W-30?

True. Should go without saying if his son doesn't know which end of a wrench to use, a commercial oil change place "may" be better. Heard those places don't always get things right either. The changing for a waist length blond hair person? Yeah, that can be trouble too 😁.
Wasn't clarified what cisgender or gender identified as. :unsure: :ROFLMAO:
 
No it’s not. Only guaranteed to be pumpable down to -30 or so. If it was better than that it would be labeled as a 0W.

Ok……ai was off a bit, AMSOIL is tested down to -40.

Still…….. northern Michigan does not get an ambient that low.

5w30 is still a good choice
 
I'm going to be the contrarian here and say I would go with a lesser oil and change it twice as often, if she's short tripping the car that often in a colder environment. Amsoil is a great product, no debate there, but having gas in the oil is bad whether its Amsoil, HPL, Redline, or run of the mill Supertech. A few blasts down the highway isnt going to remove it either. Running 5 miles at a time twice a day in a cooler part of the country is going to have this poor car in open loop most of its life, and thats not good.

A Corolla will run forever on just about anything you can buy at Walmart for $26 a jug.

It does not need a once a year Amsoil change. It needs a twice a year change with run of the mill Supertech, Mobil 1, or Quaker State. And the cost to do so wont be much different. And tell her to stick $1 a week into a jar. After a year, there's another paid-for oil change.

Sometimes the best oil isnt necessarily the better choice.
 
I'm going to be the contrarian here and say I would go with a lesser oil and change it twice as often, if she's short tripping the car that often in a colder environment. Amsoil is a great product, no debate there, but having gas in the oil is bad whether its Amsoil, HPL, Redline, or run of the mill Supertech. A few blasts down the highway isnt going to remove it either. Running 5 miles at a time twice a day in a cooler part of the country is going to have this poor car in open loop most of its life, and thats not good.

A Corolla will run forever on just about anything you can buy at Walmart for $26 a jug.

It does not need a once a year Amsoil change. It needs a twice a year change with run of the mill Supertech, Mobil 1, or Quaker State. And the cost to do so wont be much different. And tell her to stick $1 a week into a jar. After a year, there's another paid-for oil change.

Sometimes the best oil isnt necessarily the better choice.
Your analysis makes a lot of sense, but personal experience makes me prefer a 0W-x for winter, and a xW-30 for summer.

Super Tech is not available in 0W-30, so if I went that way, I would have to stock two weights of oil - 0W-20 for winter, and 5W-30 for summer.

I'd rather pay a little more for a 0W-30 to use through four seasons.
 
We get hot summers and cold winters here (Canadian Prairies), and I've settled on a 0W-30 year round, which will allow me to stock one oil only.

Michigan is probably less extreme at both ends of the temperature spectrum, but you won't go wrong with a 0W-30.
Out of curiosity, what temp range do you see? I feel like your cold is COLD.

I am located in Northwestern Tennessee, and we see a max range of about 105°F to 0°F (40°C to -17°C). Thankfully, we have extended spring and fall weather, so those extremes are short lived.
 
The problem with the 6 month recommendation is that the oil change is being done by a shop. That labor makes the 6 month plan cost a lot more than a 12 month change with AMSOIL.
 
Super Tech is not available in 0W-30,
Did not know that. Mobil 1 ESP 0W-30 then. $28, can't go wrong.
The problem with the 6 month recommendation is that the oil change is being done by a shop. That labor makes the 6 month plan cost a lot more than a 12 month change with AMSOIL.
Thats what drove my suggestion to DIY. Don't know if thats feasible in his case but would definately save some cost.
 
Thats what drove my suggestion to DIY. Don't know if thats feasible in his case but would definately save some cost.
I have this challenge, now, with my daughter’s Volvo XC90. It gets driven out of Boston once a week, long highway runs for skiing, hiking, etc., which is a great pattern for usage, and I go with HPL so that her oil will require less frequent changes, because she has to either pay a local shop in Cambridge, MA, or cajole her brother into doing it up in Vermont.
 
Out of curiosity, what temp range do you see? I feel like your cold is COLD.

I am located in Northwestern Tennessee, and we see a max range of about 105°F to 0°F (40°C to -17°C). Thankfully, we have extended spring and fall weather, so those extremes are short lived.
Garrison Keillor wrote about the weather in Minnesota, something like "It's unfair that the nation's icebox is also it's oven".

Moreso here ... The coldest temperature I've experienced here was -45.x°C when I was a child. That's around -50°F.

In early 1996 we had a prolonged cold snap, hitting -42.4°C (c. -45°F) one day in early February. If I recall correctly, we also set records for the number of consecutive days under -30°C (-22°F) and the number of consecutive days when the temperature did not get above -20°C (-4°F).

All of those are still-air temperatures, with windchill not taken into account.

Those temperatures are extreme and not common, but we do get below -30°C (-22°F) several times each winter, and it's not unusual to hit -35°C (-31°F).

The summers can be very hot, with temperatures over 30°C (86°F) and sometimes (though rarely) hitting 38°C (100°F).

Due to our clay soils there's often a lot of standing water, and thus the humidity in the summer can be pretty bad.

The oceans are like large thermal capacitors, moderating temperatures. We are about as far away as one can get.
 
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