What is most popular oil brand in Europe?

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by weasley
Maybe also worth mentioning that the DIY oil change is largely dead over here - most cars get their oil changed in a workshop, either an OEM franchised shop or an independent, so oil choice is largely left to the workshop to decide, not the driver.



I think that's mostly due to extended service intervals that are standard in Europe. For example, Ford were suggesting 12,500miles or 12 month service intervals over 30 years ago. I found an old service book for my parents '91 XR2i a few months ago which was on 12,500miles/12k intervals. Most cars now are 18,000miles or two years.

If you had to pay to change your oil every 3 months, you'd probably try and save some money and do it yourself. If it's only once a year, pay and put it in a garage!

That, and unlike the US, to maintain your warranty you have to have your car serviced with OEM quality parts at a tax registered garage.

My Volvo is on 18,000miles/1 year service intervals. I change the oil and filter in the middle of the service interval myself and people act like I'm insane!

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted by ChristianReske
In Germany it is Liqui Moly, followed by Castrol, Shell, Mobil.

My local parts shop also caryys Motul and, as budget brand, Eurolub.

Total is almmost not existent. Ravenol is also almost not existent, it is unknown to most people. It is only available online.

ROWE is starting to get more and more popular and is producing very fine oils, the first shop in my region carry it.

Rowe oils has produced constant very fine UOAs, compared to Ravenols many not so good ones.... https://oil-club.de/index.php?board/153-gebraucht%C3%B6l/

That the reason why i dont understand the constant Liqui Moly bashing and love for Ravenol here on BITOG, but that is a different story.


When I go to ATU, Stahlgruber or the Metro the shelves are pretty much Castrol, Liqui Moly, Shell and Mobil. People here get PO'd when you tell them Ravenol is nothing special and a mid level product because a lot of US import parts sellers push it and claim it as something special. I took these a few years ago just to show the prices but I will take more in Dec and check out the new offerings.

Metro.

ATU.

I never saw a bottle of Ravenol or Mannol on the shelf that I can remember, they seem more like brands you would more likely to find in Obi, ATU and Stahlgruber have their own house brands or no name Baumarkt type stuff. I do remember Aral being a lot more popular than it is now at one time years ago.
Louis shops house brand oil is Total previously Total Fina.

 

[FCD]

Originally Posted by Bailes1992
Originally Posted by weasley
Maybe also worth mentioning that the DIY oil change is largely dead over here - most cars get their oil changed in a workshop, either an OEM franchised shop or an independent, so oil choice is largely left to the workshop to decide, not the driver.



I think that's mostly due to extended service intervals that are standard in Europe. For example, Ford were suggesting 12,500miles or 12 month service intervals over 30 years ago. I found an old service book for my parents '91 XR2i a few months ago which was on 12,500miles/12k intervals. Most cars now are 18,000miles or two years.

If you had to pay to change your oil every 3 months, you'd probably try and save some money and do it yourself. If it's only once a year, pay and put it in a garage!

That, and unlike the US, to maintain your warranty you have to have your car serviced with OEM quality parts at a tax registered garage.

My Volvo is on 18,000miles/1 year service intervals. I change the oil and filter in the middle of the service interval myself and people act like I'm insane!


Ford were already recommending 6000 mile intervals back in the early 70s.

 

[Bjornviken]

Thanks for the info and pics!ðŸ‘

 

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by ChristianReske
Ravenol is also almost not existent, it is unknown to most people. It is only available online.

ROWE is starting to get more and more popular and is producing very fine oils, the first shop in my region carry it.


In the area of Germany where I live I can buy Ravenol at two local shops, but could only get Rowe oil online. I have no idea what would be the most popular oil, Europe wide, but the local hardware stores seem to carry and sell a lot of Mobil, Liquimoly, and castrol products.

I had never heard of Ravenol or Rowe until I found this website: https://oil-club.de/
Currently have Rowe DPF in a Skoda, and Ravenol TGO gear oil, SFE 5w-20, and ATF+4 in a Jeep Wrangler.

 

[Lowflyer]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
The "love" for Ravenol is that their label explicitly states PAO. Much like ROWE.
And Ester. Not so much like Redline, but more than Motul in car oils

But does not bring 75W-110 in non-HC

Rowe have for me FOUR extraordinary excellent products. The both Synth RS in 0W-40 and 5W-40 and the both GL-4+ Topgear S in 75W-80 and 75W-90.
The remainder is a good average things. The 75W-80 is THAT oil for VAG MTs.

 

[Trav]

Yes, their MTF2 seems to be very good in VW.

 

[barryh]

Originally Posted by Tikka
Hi
Not really sure as to most popular Oil here in UK. I suspect people are cheap so will chose what suffices for their engine and costs the least money. Most people doing their sunday oil change on the driveway will get the shop own brand stuff ( Halfords for example over here) or small companies like Comma or Granville.

Odd thing over here is just about the cheapest MB 229.51 is the genuine stuff from the Mercedes main dealer.


The genuine MB oil is certainly cheap if you buy it from an MB main dealer on ebay. Current price if you buy 20L is £3.28/Litre and you can't get anything like Helix ultra for that price. Before I found out about the genuine MB oil I used whatever 229.5 approved oil I could find like Helix ultra and Gulf formula GX.

 

[Tikka]

Originally Posted by barryh
Originally Posted by Tikka
Hi
Not really sure as to most popular Oil here in UK. I suspect people are cheap so will chose what suffices for their engine and costs the least money. Most people doing their sunday oil change on the driveway will get the shop own brand stuff ( Halfords for example over here) or small companies like Comma or Granville.

Odd thing over here is just about the cheapest MB 229.51 is the genuine stuff from the Mercedes main dealer.


The genuine MB oil is certainly cheap if you buy it from an MB main dealer on ebay. Current price if you buy 20L is £3.28/Litre and you can't get anything like Helix ultra for that price. Before I found out about the genuine MB oil I used whatever 229.5 approved oil I could find like Helix ultra and Gulf formula GX.


Hi Barry
Yes from Mercedes Newcastle for me. My 229.51 works out slightly cheaper at £3.10 a litre.

My Jeep dealer charges £150 for an oil change the robbing dogs. At least **** turpin wore a mask when robbing people . The profit margin on oil changes is astronomical.

 

[Trav]

£150 for an oil change is outrageous, they might as well just knock you off the head and take your wallet.

 

[Bjornviken]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by ChristianReske


That the reason why i dont understand the constant Liqui Moly bashing and love for Ravenol here on BITOG, but that is a different story.


LM only gets a hard time in the U.S. due to the cost ($USD) relative to competing products (ex, Castrol 0w40, M1 0w40). Keyword is "relative".

The "love" for Ravenol is that their label explicitly states PAO. Much like ROWE. I've seen ROWE advertised in the monthly magazine published by BMWCCA (BMW Car Club of America).


Pretty low pao content in Rowe. And it dosent carry any real approvals. I think its a overrated oil.

 

[Trav]

Thats the crux of the issue right there! People are still basing their opinions on base stock, When I first started in the business over 45 years ago oil was crap with a capital C forget 3K oci some bikes spec'd 1K oci. Sludge that needed a chisel to dig out was common and running a PAO/Ester synthetic like Amsoil made a huge difference, the performance of the oil was many times better than anything off the shelf.

MoS2 was also very popular in Europe and it did improve the performance of the oils. Today especially in the last 10 years or so the HC oil is so good it rivals or comes very close to achieving the performance of the "synthetic" base stocks. The only area I can tell the difference is in extreme high temperature use over an extended operating period.

Engines with big old no water cooled turbo's can wreck oil in short order if run hard, not talking the little pip squeak turbo's hanging off the head with 7 pounds of boost but the ones with 20+ pounds and glow red in the dark. These engines running for long period at high boost will without a doubt be able to run a longer oci with a high quality "true synthetic". Just because it has PAO or Ester doesn't make it high quality, its how it was blended and finished.

Like steels chrome vanadium content is not a guarantee of premium tool quality, some of the cheapest crap on the market is chrome vanadium. Some of the best tools have no or little vanadium but use other things like moly and other components.
Times change and so does engine oil, today the value of these "true synthetics" is almost negligible IMO for most uses so companies are relying on perceived value in most countries to sell the sizzle the steak pretty much taste the same.

 

[Lowflyer]

Originally Posted by Bjornviken
Pretty low pao content in Rowe.
Says who and where?

@Trav
Great PR gag. I dont know whether Castrol piloted or not, but great. Thx for entertainment. Know you HC base oil for PCMOs in finished product, that is not "pimp" with PAO or Ester?
What ist ok, what good enough and what is very good, in a forum for oil nerds? So many questions... Sorry.

And in a world of DI, of coking injectors, piston rings and inlet valves, its leastwise nice, if the baseoil mix have more PAO as HC. Just let be German laws, German laws, but more PAO than HC in mix of base oil is always nice

Visom, has died.

 

[Amenhotep]

If someone it's interested how EU law works in countries in the European Union

https://europa.eu/european-union/law_en

EU legislation is divided into primary and secondary. The treaties (primary legislation) are the basis or ground rules for all EU action.

Secondary legislation - which includes regulations, directives and decisions - are derived from the principles and objectives set out in the treaties.

The aims set out in the EU treaties are achieved by several types of legal act. Some are binding, others are not. Some apply to all EU countries, others to just a few.

So I thinks this work pretty similar to federal law and states law in USA

The main question is really tricky to answer. Western Russia is consider Europe, so the east limit goes till the Urals Mountains.

Even if we focus on Eurozone countries range is big. Bjornviken said Lukoil product are easy to find in Finland. I haven't seen then in Spain.

I guess Castrol, Shell and Mobil products are common ones around Europe as most forum members talk about them. Oil-club RU and DE had a lot of info.

As for Spain, Castrol, Shell, Mobil, Total/ELF, Repsol,Cepsa, Motul are really easy to be found at local stores

 

[Lowflyer]

Originally Posted by Trav
Yes, their MTF2 seems to be very good in VW.
I mean 75w-80 from Rowe not from Ravenol.

"MTF-2" is GL-4, what I have dont understand... With so many "excellent" and "otustanding" in the description, that cant be GL-4/GL-5, like MTF-3 or Topgear S 75W-80? Why?
In a MT of VAG, that always only-or-also FWD, I want have a "GL-4+" or "GL-4/GL-5" MT oil. Not just "GL-4".

 

[Trav]

If you had any clue whatsoever you would be dangerous. Many of the VW FWD units spec GL4 only, period!

 

[Lowflyer]

Units from the time, there was not a GL-4/GL-5 oils? The old standard 50150 as G50, for 75W-90?

But yes, I like also Ravenol. Except using pure Rowes Topgear S 75W-80, I have mixed in ours garage a few times for tuned GTIs 5 and 6 with MT, MTF-3 and VSG in 75:25. Thats in no case worse than Rowe

Thats quite quite good, according owners.

In my Stage2 S3 8P (and DD) I drive ~83:17 Topgear S 75W-80 and 75W-90 (that 75W-90 is also GL-4/GL-5). Thats also PRETTY fine. In the city, on the highway, in summer and in winter (max. 14°F)

But pure GL-4? No, must not. There are better ways for FWD/AWD VAGs. Thats life -> Better, is the enemy of Good

 

[Trav]

Argue with Molakule and tell him he is wrong. He probably forgot more about it since this Am than you or I ever know.

Originally Posted by Molakule
MTL SPECIFIC fluids are slightly lower in viscosity for the same grade and use a different mix of base oils to improve cold weather shifting.

For a synchronized transaxle or transmission, one should use a GL-4 rated MTL SPECIFIC fluid because it has additive components that GL-5 differential lubes do not.

 

[Bjornviken]

i think you got me wrong...i was referring to the Rowe marketing. Still dont change my opinion about Rowe to be overrated oil.

 

[Lowflyer]

@Trav
Does you quote means, you know nothing about the difference between "GL-4+" or "GL-4/GL-5" and GL-5? (the both first are the same stuff)

Molakule has a Ingenieurbrief. Therefore I dont need to argue with him...

@Bjornviken
Rowe is not a oil. Its a brand. By the way, where Rowe is overrated?