Originally Posted By: Olas
I agree with the posters who say you should buy an oil that meets spec, regardless of the base oil..
HOWEVER
I cant help feeling that you US guys are bending over for the marketers, in Europe, group 1&2 based oils are 'mineral' because they come out of the ground.
group 3 based oils are 'semi synthetic' because a naturally occuring product has been altered somewhat, and,
only group 4&5 stuff can be called synthetic, simply because.they do not appear in nature but have to be synthesised.
logic has a nice way of letting us label things, lawyers, unfortunately, have a very tenuous and profitable way of allowing us.to mislabel things..
You are right about group I and II oils, they are sold as mineral oils in EU, but group III are often sold as fully synthetic oil in EU ( UK included). Just go to Mobil 1 UK and you'll see Mobil Super 3000x1 advertised as fully synth, but oil is clearly group III with pour point of -39. Only in Germany an oil sold as fully synth must be real PAO/Ester base.