Originally Posted By: Brenden
You probably won't be as jealous when you see the 20 euro price PER quart.
We are getting what we pay for in the states, we get oils formulated to be in a certain price point, not the best they can come up with, but I would rather have what we have now than over the top oil only at 3x the price, but to have the option to have really well formulated oil would be nice.
CAFE and API regulations are not helping either....
For what it's worth, there are plenty of very well formulated oils here in the US of A. Some call them "Boutique Oils", some call them "Snake Oils", but in the end, you pretty much do get what you pay for (disregarding sales).
I can PERSONALLY attest to the quality of both Royal Purple (5w40/5w30) and Redline (5w30/5w40/0w40), which are Group IV and V respectively, and have done an amazing job in keeping my BMW engines in great shape! These are cars that see stop and go traffic in 100*F summer days, autocross courses that vary in size from ~30sec/lap to well over 2:00/lap (the latter is an old GM Factory's parking lot... must be 20 frickin' acres!), regular street driving, and Road Course racing at Mid-Ohio among others...
This success has been with M52TU, M54, S14, S52, S54, and S62 engines with mileage ranging from under 10k miles to over 150k, and every single one has been cleaned and maintained with either of these oils.
Now, I'm SURE/POSITIVE that others have had excellent experiences with both these and other oils, and I am NOT here to tout one product over another. In fact, I've learned a lot of what I know about oils from here! That said, while some people practically worship Amsoil, Mobile One, and German Castrol... I have had NOTHING BUT BAD experiences with all three... Perhaps it wasn't the oil, perhaps it was something else (although in Castrol's case, it WAS the oil... that is BMW OE oil, and it sludged up an engine in under 40k miles... RP and RL subsequently cleaned the same engine very well).
At the same time, I have had nothing but fantastic results with Redline SI-1, Redline Water Wetter (actual 11*F drop on track), Royal Purple Ice, Redline D4 ATF, Redline 75w90 Gear Oil, Royal Purple Multipurpose Grease, and more... (I also like Seafoam and Techron, and I am looking forward to actually trying MMO).
Keep in mind, these are simply my opinions, which have been formed around my experiences over the past, well, while... I also do professional detailing and I am the guy all my friends come to for car fixing, so I have gotten familiar with a multitude of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Toyota, and other engines... None of which have EVER had a problem with Royal Purple or Redline Fluids or Additives.
I hope this is of some use, and if it is not, then I apologize.
