Fill Me In On The Latest

[ULVER]

Last summer, I caught on the the GC brew, and found three Auto Zones, that had full shelves of it. Still sitting on what I bought, as I have been doing the Auto RX things with dino.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've been on Bob's, and now I see the "green stuff" even has it's on home.

It would seem I detect some grumblings, about possible changes in it? Can someone fill me in, please!

First off, has it been determined, that the GC is actually purposely being sold state-side? Has it faded from shelves? Is there some changes to what is still being found? Confused and curious here.

Thanks for any help.......

 

[pscholte]

ULVER,

SO MANY questions!

To fill you in...some of our members have found 2005 batches of GC and while it is still brewed in Germany, some of the batches (I think there has been one exception) are a golden color (vice green) and are reported to be thinner than the original GC. Stinky Peterson has done a VOA you can check out. There is a lot of speculation but none of us know the real story yet. I recommend you don't get too caught up in that. Because of the change some are speculating that Castrol is up to its old tricks. One member posted a highly suspect report that it has been tested and is now Grp III. I would give that report NO credibility as there are issues with that member. Some Az stores where 0W30 doesn't sell well are no longer going to carry it but I believe it will still be available where it does sell. In a nutshell, the formula may have changed but it is still rated A3 and it will apparently still be available where people are buying it. Most importantly, the last time I looked in on the Elves they were still hard at work so I believe all is well. Hope this helps.

 

[ULVER]

Thanks... Just about as I figured. Castrol plays too many guessing games. I still can't give them too much grace, no matter how good GC IS/WAS, after they pulled the Syntec Group III stunt.

Mobil 1 likes hype. However, it still is a true synthetic, and I'd doubt they'd spoil their roost @ #1, by playing games. Castrol just doesn't seem to get it...

 

[glxpassat]

For me, the problem is that over the last year Castrol has told several people that the US 0w-30 meets the same specs as the German variety. But if you compare the US bottles, the specs are clearly different. I'm just not convienced that they are not now putting the US made stuff in the old bottles. I expect to see a lable change soon...

 

[Brikhead]

quote:

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Originally posted by glxpassat:
For me, the problem is that over the last year Castrol has told several people that the US 0w-30 meets the same specs as the German variety. But if you compare the US bottles, the specs are clearly different. I'm just not convienced that they are not now putting the US made stuff in the old bottles. I expect to see a lable change soon...

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Please forgive me, but I'm gonna give Castrol the benefit of the doubt here...

Castrol's response to the US/German 0w30 comparison was most likely made a non-technically advised PR employee who probably never took the time to even read the product labels. Almost every company has a PR staff like that.....very good communications skills, but no technical knowhow.
As to the BIG question of "what's in the bottle"....I've mentioned this before here, but Castrol absolutely must adhere to vehicle mfgr specifications as advertised on every bottle. They simply cannot afford to falter on this. Now that doesn't mean that the M05 oil isn't Gr3. But whatever it is, I will still feel safe using it in my VW....and you should too.