Your starting to sound like a railroad manager.
Once again.....this is merely conjecture, but I am pretty sure that it is the oil manufacturers who are charging the high prices for their GIII stuff. If retail stores were marking the stuff up that high, then I think we would see serious competition and price slashing occuring occasionally to outdo each other. I think the reason the GIII oils are priced so high, is so most people won't realize that they are not the same as Mobil 1 and the other "true" synthetics.quote:
Originally posted by pscholte:
More than once, I've voiced my suspicions over Castrol's "business model," but I do have a couple of questions (if these have been asked before, please steer me to the thread): (1) do we know FOR CERTAIN that there is nothing in Castrol's Group III formulations (e.g. specially derived base oils or a very special additive package, some portions of which might not be identified in UOAs) that make them more expensive to produce, hence distancing them in price from Group II and Group II/III mixes? Seems to me I recall when I lived in Europe in the early 80s that a certain well-known worldwide oil company was selling hydrocracked oil at the same price in Europe as Mobil 1 (then called Mobil SHC in Europe)...maybe it was an expensive formulation even though it was hydro (2) do we know FOR CERTAIN that it is the Castrols, the Valvolines, the Pennzoils etc that are the "pricing bandits" with their Group III "synthetics," or are the auto parts places taking advantage of the situation and getting a little more markup themselves?
When it comes to the German made 0w30, I really don't think there's any skullduggery afoot on Castrol's part. I think several people have hit on what actually happened: Castrol realized that they didn't have a Syntec grade that could compete with Mobil 1's 0w40 for European applications. I'm sure there was some internal talk about reformulating the domestic 0w30, but in the end it was decided the most cost effective solution was to import the SLX and bottle it as Syntec.quote:
Originally posted by pscholte:
I don't want to drag this discussion on ad infinitum, nor do I want to make this a "world hunger" issue, but I still think it is important to understand what might be going on with a major player (of historical significance, by the way) in a area that is important to the people on this board.
Yuk, a "good" Group III based oil can APPROACH the performance levels of a PAO/ester based synthetic, but it can't match it or beat it. Keep in mind that I'm talking about an oil that is primarily Group III. I'm still persuaded by my own supposition (how's that for hubris?) that the SLX 0w30 is probably an ester/Group III blend—say about 80% esters, and 20% Group III. The fact that the oil has a pour point of -81°F means that the primary component of the base oil blend has to be esters, but the remaining portion would not HAVE to be PAO for this oil to still have outstanding specs and performance.quote:
Originally posted by Yuk:
Does the fact that a group lll synthetic has an A3 rating mean that a properly made groug lll can be as good as a PAO/ester blend?
Your a sick, sick manquote:
Originally posted by Patman:
I'm still shocked that out of all the places they could've sold it in Canada, Castrol chose Walmart! And it also shocks me that we got it first, since most oils come here 6 months later than the US (such as Mobil 1 SuperSyn)
Hey look, my post count equals a typical oil change interval!
I think that the reason Syntec 5W-50 meets A3/B3 specs is because of its weight. There are quite a few Group III oils that meet ACEA A3/B3 specs but they all are at least XW-40 oils. Magnatec and Dynatec sold in Germany meet these and most manufacturers specs.quote:
Originally posted by G-Man II:
[QB
As for Syntec 5w50 being an A3 oil, it is, but no currently produced European car sold in America recommends that grade. And the Syntec 5w50 doesn't meet any of the more stringent OEM specs (like MB 229.3, Porsche, and BMW LL) that the 0w30 Syntec does (as does Mobil 1 0w40). [/QB]