NYCV4S is 100% correct. I’ll add a little more nuance to this subject. I can’t say how or why I have this information, or discuss the most incriminating details. I’m on a very short leash.
You may have noticed a Mobil One decal under the hood of a car or motorcycle you’ve owned. Many of the manufacturers brand name oils are made by Exxon Mobil. As compensation for recommending Mobil One, Exxon Mobil has contracts with the manufacturers and their dealers in which Exxon Mobil provides all of their oil pumping and storage equipment in the factories and dealerships. Exxon Mobil also pays for the storage and removal of their waste oil. In many cases Mobil One pays for all the oil going into the new engines on the assembly line. That Mobil One sticker does a lot of heavy lifting. All of this adds up to a lot of money. Ultimately someone has to pay for all of this free stuff. When Mr Customer buys a $15 quart of Mobil One or a house branded oil Exxon makes, half of that money goes to pay for the free stuff. In order to balance the books so to speak, this money comes from using cheaper chemicals in the oil. All of the money Mobil One pays for advertising and stickers on race cars has to come from somewhere. You really didn’t think there’s an Oil Fairy who pays for all the free stuff?
When you pay $15 for a quart of Mobil One, you actually bought a quart of $7.50 oil. You may have noticed that Red Line and some of the other “boutique” oils don’t spend much on the things Exxon Mobil does. When you pay $20 for a quart of Red Line or the other smaller brands, more of your money goes into the quality of the oil and not into the manufacture’s oil equipment. If you think Exxon Mobil doesn’t know how to make the oil just good enough to get through the warranty period, think again.
