I recently got a "new to me" 1999 car and went out and got a new gallon of Transmax Dex/Merc after being a little confused why I couldn't find anything that was officially titled Dexron III anymore.
Was looking at old bottles of Wal-Mart brand Dexron III and other brands on the shelf in my garage that did say it was officially Dexron-III. In decades past it was extremely common to find store brand and name brand ATF that was officially approved Dexron-III and proudly said so on the bottle usually in really big type.
I would presume that this stuff had been approved as Dexron-III compatible and they licensed the Dexron-III name.
But today the verbiage is different. For example Transmax Dex/Merc. Nowhere on the bottle, front or back, does it say anything about Dexron III. (But it does say on the back that it's not compatible with Dexron IV).
In fact it seems likely that today that even GM dealers don't have anything that is officially Dexron III.
Is this some new legalistic marketing, or all the oil companies got fed up with officially licensing the name, or is it because of the preponderence of "multi-vehicle" ATF today?
Was looking at old bottles of Wal-Mart brand Dexron III and other brands on the shelf in my garage that did say it was officially Dexron-III. In decades past it was extremely common to find store brand and name brand ATF that was officially approved Dexron-III and proudly said so on the bottle usually in really big type.
I would presume that this stuff had been approved as Dexron-III compatible and they licensed the Dexron-III name.
But today the verbiage is different. For example Transmax Dex/Merc. Nowhere on the bottle, front or back, does it say anything about Dexron III. (But it does say on the back that it's not compatible with Dexron IV).
In fact it seems likely that today that even GM dealers don't have anything that is officially Dexron III.
Is this some new legalistic marketing, or all the oil companies got fed up with officially licensing the name, or is it because of the preponderence of "multi-vehicle" ATF today?