Originally Posted By: astronomy
Who in there right mind is going to run dino in severe service for 15K? Of course it's going to show problems. It's also not a fair test price wise, as the Mobil 1 is going to cost twice as much.
Quite true, but if you think about it, there are situations where such things might happen. You have a daughter in college, far, far away. You see her maybe every 10,000 miles or so. She's not good at attending to maintenance. You and I might have no problems paying attention to service intervals. Throwing M1 or M1 EP in her hypothetical vehicle may be a sensible option.
Of course, as you point out, the synthetic will be double the cost, and one is going to need to be able to put on enough miles to make it worthwhile. Some do, some don't. Tig certainly does.
As for the test, yes, I wish they would have compared to other synthetics. As you point out, no one in their right mind is going to run dino in severe service for 15,000 miles, and if they do, well, whatever happens is going to happen, and it may not be pretty.
On the other hand, taxi service is not that severe. Oil companies (and automakers for that matter) like to consider it as such, but it's really not. The biggest issue with respect to taxi service in relation to oil companies and automakers is that taxi service provides good data. Many miles are accrued quickly in very many vehicles under very, very similar circumstances. At least they have a sensible sample to study.
