Oh, absolutely. I'm just talking about the "feeling" one gets from it all. For all I know, the certifications that disappeared are obsolete, or applied to so few customers it really didn't matter. The gasoline specification really wasn't terribly relevant. After all, how many vehicles out there called for, exactly, an oil in 5w-40 with an API rating of SM or newer? I can think of a couple Subaru examples from a couple years or so ago, maybe a couple other examples, but not a lot. The reasons for not bringing the new version out with SN in conjunction with the CK-4 probably have to do with the likelihood that the phosphorus exemption will eventually disappear for all grades holding the contemporary API gasoline specification, not just the so called ILSAC grades in HDEO, being 0w-30, 5w-30, and 10w-30. Personally, I'd still have no concern about using Delvac 1 ESP 5w-40 CK-4 in my G37. It didn't become a two stroke diesel engine oil or a marine lube overnight. E7, E9 are still there, and CK-4 is an evolution from CJ-4, not something totally off the wall. For those who have been using the product in CJ-4, the CK-4 product will be perfectly interchangeable. The only possible exceptions are those who have been made into nervous nellies thanks to Ford's CK-4 paranoia/phosphorus fetish and those who actually insist upon having an SM or SN on the jug.
The marketing of Delvac 1 for gasoline engines was mostly in fairly subtle ways, such as mention of mixed fleets on the sheet, the mention of high performance gasoline applications on the sheet, and the SM rating, of course. I doubt that it had huge traction in gasoline engines from an ordinary consumer perspective, with probably fewer than a dozen of us using it in gassers on the board. Maybe they had a moment of realization similar to what Shell did. Why cannibalise your A3/B4 sales with your synthetic HDEO sales?
As for Walmart, yes, I agree. The commercial customers are the big deal. I was getting Delvac 1 ESP 5w-40 in CJ-4 for about half the price that ordinary retail outlets were selling the product for. Big suppliers here (such as commercial implement builders) pay half of that again. While a distributor in Canada often provides better HDEO prices than a distributor in the States, I'm sure the big retailers on both sides of the border were neither struggling to pay for the product nor were they putting huge pressures on Exxon-Mobil for drastically reduced prices.
As much as it disappoints me in this case, if an oil company is able to meet its target specifications while spending fewer dollars, they certainly should. That's what running a company is about, after all, maximising profits. Additionally, things up here aren't like they used to be. HDEOs in Canada definitely used to be the poor man's A3/B4, back when M1 0w-40 and GC 0w-30 were the only options, and only in 1 litre bottles at an atrocious price, long before the jugs came out and other companies brought their offerings in as well. Buying an A3/B4 at a sensible price is fairly easy these days, so the big imperative for a gasoline rated HDEO, particularly one that's overbuilt, isn't what it used to be.
If you want to see hand wringing, just wait until the API phosphorus exemption disappears altogether, and things like M1 0w-40 and Castrol 0w-40 have to either get rid of the SN, or somehow find a way to revert to SL like GC 0w-30.
If that comes to pass, there will be no end of confusion here.
