Originally Posted By: MGregoir
Johnny, Canadian Tire oils are made by Shell, and there are varying grades. All have been verified to be Shell by the MSDS. There is a less expensive line that seems to be private label oil carried by a few different Canadian retailers, and then a higher line meant to be comparable to brand name oils and priced similarly.
As far as anyone can tell, the better of the two Canadian Tire oils, branded as Motomaster Formula 1, is equivalent to the FormulaShell product. I don't know that for a fact but it seems to be the case, and in a Canadian Tire owned parts chain, PartSource, they stock a full line of FormulaShell oils in the place of it. Same pricing, same sizing, and same variety. PartSource doesn't want to be caught out as owned by Canadian Tire, so the Motomaster branded products are not sold there. I figure this is more than a coincidence, as the pricing is the same, and other than transmission fluid fundamentally nobody in Canada carries FormulaShell products.
I can't prove it without Canadian Tire releasing spec sheets but the stars seem to align for that story.
I was comparing Motomaster products to Shell products at Canadian tire. I noticed that the batch codes/dates on the motomaster products take the format of the codes on the Shell products. They are also located in the same place. Interesting, the Shell rotella 15w-40 product has its batch/date codes laser cut onto the label of the Rotella jug. "Coincidentally", the motomaster 15w-40 does too...and has similar codes. Even the wording on the labels as far as certifications and applications is identical. There are similarities among the marine and two stroke products as well (bottles/date/batch codes, where they are located on the bottles, and how the codes are printed on...again, it looks like the same machinery at the same production line is making the codes).
It is acknowledged that shell has the contract to produce all of Canadian Tire's store brand products. I believe they are comparable to the equivalent shell product.
