Penn Ultra 5w30 Nissan 370z VQ37VHR 7300 miles

[FetchFar]

Garak, I hear ya. Conspiracy theory equated to your saying its a gimmick at high prices, conspiring to do that to us. You would think Nissan would only be interested in friction reduction, the thing they supposedly accomplished by a large percentage here, if they got credit for it in EPA fuel economy fleet averages (CAFE) and needed it to meet minimums. Its important for that only if needed, but the dealerships and Nissan don't see profit in pushing the ester/DLC phenomenon. In the future, when CAFE gets super tight, then they might need the 2% CAFE boost.

As for the consumer right now, gas savings should quickly overcome high oil prices. If they engineering analysis is correct, then the friction reduction is real and substantial. Why not take advantage?

 

[Garak]

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm well aware that we can have fuel economy gains we can't really notice, and it can make certain oil choices pay for themselves. I'm not convinced that this is one of them, given the price of the oil. I'd actually have to get some quotes and run some figures, but I'm not convinced with this product.

I'm going to make a rough guess that it's going for at least $14 a litre up here. I wouldn't be surprised if it were closer to $20 a litre, honestly, though. UOAs I've seen of the product do not show impressive shear resistance or TBN retention. So, extended OCIs are out of the question. That starts to minimize ROI immediately. I can grab vanilla M1 at half the price and have a 10,000 mile guarantee. Or, I could stick with my Mobil Delvac 1 at cheaper yet and possibly go longer, and I bet it won't shear, at least not like the ester stuff.

Also, just because a product is a guaranteed fuel saver does not mean that I will tolerate them gouging for it. The dealers already jack up the price of Mobil products very, very significantly. This stuff will only be worse. Fuel savings do not mean I will pay them a fortune for the product.

I can understand the philosophy of switching from a conventional 5w-20 at $3 a litre to a high VI 0w-20 at double the cost to save fuel. Given the potential for a longer OCI and fuel savings, there is some sense there. Switching out a $10 sump of PYB for a $100 sump of Nissan Ester oil for a 3750 mile OCI, however, makes zero sense.

Their marketing of the ester oil made the marketing of PU look like pure genius in comparison, and we know how that's gone so far. If a G37 driver never went on the net and had no symptoms to report, he'd have no idea this product even existed.