What is the purpose of a 4.4 litre oil container?

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Gokhan
Simple: You buy 4 liters, get 10% (0.4 liters) free.

Yup, this old post from Patman seems to agree with this thought process...

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...Mobil#Post24127

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Down here most Jug type containers are stated like this:

Quote:
5 US Quarts/1.25 Gal./4.73 Liters.

That's what we get for SOPUS and Valvoline containers, along with actual 5 L ones.

As for the 4 L and getting 0.4 L free, that would fly if the pricing reflected that.

 

[camrydriver111]

Originally Posted By: CharlieBauer
Originally Posted By: vitez
Why does engine oil come in 4.4 litre jugs?


4l is the average sump capacity in Canada and 0.4l has been found to be the average oil consumption between ocis in Canada.

 

[Gene K]

In the USA some stores sell 5.1 quart jugs so they don't have to price match Wal-Mart 5.0 qt jugs. Also taxes may be accessed to the nearest liter. It's also possible the size started as a 10% free promotion by manufacturer.

 

[Garak]

The free promotion is certainly a possibility, but got lost in history and price increases.

The environmental taxes, if I recall correctly, weren't in place when the 4.4 L jugs started coming out, but I could be very easily mistaken on that.

Up here, Walmart and the competition tend to get the same sizes, with Walmart buying the occasional oddball size, and Canadian Tire doing similarly. The 4.73 L ones are usually seen as a Walmart special, whereas Canadian Tire will do that or, more commonly, discount their 5 L jug. Canadian Tire seems to get the 4 L + 1 L packaging of Mobil 1 on occasion.

 

[CR94]

As long as you can compute price comparisons correctly, the exact volume shouldn't be important. Unless you're lucky, it won't exactly match the quantity you need for an oil change, anyway.

 

[Garak]

Well, M1 usually doesn't get cut as nicely as some of the Shell offerings. Far too often, an on sale PP in 4.73 L will be cheaper than an on sale M1 in 4.4 L. When you can get a Mobil 1 with the bonus 1 litre bottle, that's when the Mobil products shine. Castrol is usually on special somewhere all the time, so it's usually not a stretch to find a good price on that stuff.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Popsy
4,4L is exactly what my diesel engine takes.


I never could figure out why you European dudes use a comma in place of a decimal point.

 

[Rolla07]

It would fit my car just right (4.4) but I think 5L is a much better format.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Popsy
4,4L is exactly what my diesel engine takes.


I never could figure out why you European dudes use a comma in place of a decimal point.

I'm sure they can't figure out why we use a decimal.

What could make more sense is to use 4L4, using the unit of measure as the decimal place. That works well in electronics. Then it would be universal on both sides of the pond, doing away with that pesky dot vs comma. Might be a bit annoying in money though, 22$99 and the such... maybe not such a good idea.

 

[Gene K]

My best guess?

In the USA the 5 qt jug started out costing the same as 4 individual quart bottles so the free 5th quart was your discount.

In Canada they may have made 4.4 liter jugs for the same price as 4 individual liter bottles. The decision to give less discount on bulk packaging (via free oil) may have had something to do with taxes, volume or business climate.

 

[CT8]

4.4 is more than 4 and less than 5. It took me a while to think about the subject. My son is working on a PHD in applied mathematics[what ever that is], if you wonder where he gets it from.

 

[vitez]

Hogsheads, firkins (not merkins), dry quarts, farthings, and 4.4 litre oil jugs. It all makes sense now!

I guess Wakefield (Canadian Castrol distributor for the non-Canuck BITOG'ers) and Imperial Oil get their bottles from the same plastics manufacturer, maybe made in Canada? Yet many SOPUS products state "made in Canada from domestic and foreign products."

Most of my vehicles oil capacities are whole numbers in quarts, so the years I spent ordering mostly Amsoil products were actually very simple. It's since I signed on to BITOG and started branching out into the rest of the world of engine oils that I come across such errant stumbling blocks as this.

 

[Garak]

The strange thing is, though, that Wakefield does also have 5 L containers. And the Mobil containers at least resembled the American ones closely enough to be identical. They're just trying to drive us nuts up here, I suspect.

 

[Gene K]

Originally Posted By: Garak
They're just trying to drive us nuts up here, I suspect.

Just trying to lower the average Canadian IQ to match the Americans. LOL

 

[Garak]

I swear it's some sort of brain exercise by them.

I wish I knew exactly what sizes they had back in the day when Imperial measures ruled the roost and shortly thereafter. My dad despised everything except one quart jugs, and only bought 5 gallon pails grudgingly. A twenty quart oil change in a tractor isn't very fun with individual quarts. So, because of that, I can't even recall what other sizes were actually available.

The talk about dry weight conversions had me thinking, though. Perhaps some dodo was completely flummoxed when metric was being phased in here and grabbed a unit he shouldn't have, and the higher ups were even more clueless, and it stuck.

 

[FCD]

Here in Spain all we have usually is 1 Litre bottles, and then 4 or 5 Litre jugs

 

[Garak]

I know, it's a conspiracy from GM for some of their 4.5 L oil pan capacities.

 

[Drosselmier]

[
The talk about dry weight conversions had me thinking, though. Perhaps some dodo was completely flummoxed when metric was being phased in here and grabbed a unit he shouldn't have, and the higher ups were even more clueless, and it stuck.

[/quote

Reminds me of the airline pilot who fueled up and mistook litres for gallons and had to force land in Gimli Man. back in the early days of metric in Canada. A little embarrassing.

4.4 ltrs is what my 3.8 L Buick takes.