Castrol is a frustrating company for me with my enthusiasm for cars and picking the best oil.
There seems to be ample evidence that Castrol has people working for them who really know how to make good oils, like GC.
Castrol seems to be on top of the manufacturer's specs and makes oil that meets VW's and BMW's approvals , or that is labeled and sold by the manufacturer's dealer network.
But the marketing side of Castrol seems even stronger, with all kinds of nonsense ads and claims and buzzwords.
Castrol, IMHO, has a heavy reliance on using additives really well to make a cheaper oil perform almost as well as a more expensive oil and selling at the higher price.
I would rather know that I'm getting the full benefit of Castrol's ability to work with manufacturers and use the best additives and basestocks to create the best oil for a given engine and pricepoint. Most Castrol Syntec is, IMHO, a mid level oil that performs almost as well as a top level oil but sells at top prices.
And that is the problem.
When I buy GC I think ' Thanks Castrol for making such a good oil at a reasonable price. GC is good value '.
When I look at other Castrol products like GTX, High Mileage, or other Syntec grades... I think: 'I wonder how much I'm overpaying', and that I'd be better served by buying Motorcraft, Troparctic, Valvoline Maxlife, Pennzoil Platinum, Shell Rotella 5W-40 synthetic, Mobil 1, or Redline.
When I see Castrol Syntec on the shelf, I think that I can get the same level of oil performace for less, or better oil for the same price or slightly higher..from companies that didn't pull a synthetic switcheroo.
GC shows that Castrol can make a cutting edge oil.
I presume the same is true of the Transynd synthetic ATF for Allison transmissions, and the European 5W-40 for VW's.
With Castrol you really have to be an enthusiast to know which bottle, which label, which date code to buy, because few oil blenders seem to change their oil blends as quickly as Castrol.
Mobil 1 has had many versions of Mobil 1 in the last decade, but each change has had a label and name change.
And good 'ol Redline was so far ahead of the pack that I suspect that Redline is the same formula now as it was 7 years ago...and it is only now that other brands are beginning to catch up.
The fact that Castrol may have good UOA's means little to me, if the oil is overpriced and constantly being reformulated.
I can't count on the Castrol brand name alone to give me the best oil and fair value.
[ June 15, 2006, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Thatwouldbegreat ]