Selecting the most suited motor oils for your car can be a bit exciting. The following eight brands are sitting on top of the list in the industry. Let us have a look at their uniqueness.
You might think that motor oil is also relatively simple like cooking oil. But it is not so. However, we are neither going to fill you with technical geekery nor are going to give you a chemistry lesson. Thankfully, our friends at Popular Mechanics have already covered that.
Once you narrow down on what viscosity your car requires with those fun 5W30, and 15W40, numbers and decide whether to go for organic or synthetic oil, you are then down to choose how many liters and what brand should go into your car.
Each of these top-notch brands spends considerable time and resources in research and development to ensure that their oil protects your engine for a longer period. We have heard enough stories from incredibly brand-loyal motorists who are proud of their choice and often tout the hundreds of thousands of miles they have covered without facing any engine failure. So we should know what is in the secret sauce?
Valvoline Motor Oils
Dr. John Ellis, the founder of Valvoline, is credited with being the inventor of motor oils. So if we are just saying that the brand has some history, it would be an understatement. He started by supplying motor oils for the Model T steam engines. But today, Valvoline splits its focus from developing oils designed for high-mileage engines high-tech engines, and ongoing support of motorsport.
Valvoline is one of the few oil makers who offer an interesting engine guarantee on high-mileage vehicles. If your vehicle has an ODO meter of 125,000 miles or less on it, you can register your vehicle for one of the programs they offer. Based on a set of entry requirements, Valvoline will provide your engine with a warranty as far as you agree to their oil-service guidelines.
Total Motor Oils
Total motor oil is more popular in Europe than in the U.S. However, they have been making great efforts to ensure that the American public also becomes familiar with their name and reputation. They have recently become the primary sponsor of the International Motor Sports Association racing series (formerly known as Grand-Am racing).
Anyone interested in motorsports outside the U.S. will be familiar with Total. They have been the sponsor of Red Bull’s Formula 1 racing team since 2009 (including the 2013 series where Red Bull took home both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship titles with Sebastian Vettel at the wheel). Furthermore, they have been Citroën’s oil sponsor for every rally championship they have entered since the ’90s. The benefit to the company with motorsports partnerships in such a manner is that Citroën allows Total to see how its oils perform in the worst conditions imaginable and ‘in the process test’ provides new ways to improve their oil’s performance and longevity.
Pennzoil Motor Oil
Pennzoil’s main concern lies in keeping your vehicle’s engine clean and free of sludge and other buildups. Less sludge in your engine means more free movement of components, which generates more power with fuel efficiency. Pennzoil has created an interesting mileage- and fuel-savings calculator, which shows the added benefit of using their Platinum Synthetic motor oils aforesaid.
The brand has worked hard to build strong relationships with automotive manufacturers, which includes their more recent venture into becoming Ferrari’s official oil supplier. At the dawn of this new relationship, it spawned a really interesting marketing campaign with Rhys Millen showing some pretty impressive high-performance driving by tearing up the streets of Barcelona in the new 488 GTB.
Using their oil will not turn your car into a Ferrari or make you a better driver, but it makes for a pretty entertaining video series.
Mobil 1 Motor Oils
Performance is Mobil 1 long-lasting and main focus, and they pride themselves on their motorsports partnerships. Being the official motor oil sponsor of Nascar and McLaren-Honda in F1 racing. Their oils have been pushed to the limits repeated,ly, and studying the impact of those severe stresses on their product is an important asset. During our research, we also found that Mobil 1 is one of the best oils when it comes to maintaining a low viscosity in cold temperatures.
Further, we found that their recent focus is on adapting oils to work better with turbocharged engines, which are becoming more common in new cars. Oil consumption is one of the major issues in turbo cars. As we can see, Mobil 1 is paying close attention to this factor.
Quaker State Motor Oils
When analyzed carefully, we could find that no one appears to be so focused on long-term engine life as Quaker State. They offer several minerals, synthetic-blend, and fully synthetic engine oils most suited for vehicles that already have great numbers on the ODO meter.
Having a great maintenance routine from the day you bought your car since it was brand-new is a great deed. However, it is nice to know that there are options available for engines that already have a fair bit of wear and tear. If you go through some of the reviews of their Defy High Mileage oil, you can see that they have hundreds of happy users rolling around in cars with a mileage of 200 to 300K.
Castrol Motor Oil
Looking through our top five motor oils, Castrol lands in the group as an all-rounder. On the racing bend, Castrol has done sponsoring teams in everything from NHRA drag racing to the World Rally Championship and German Touring Car races.
They also make great high-mileage oils designed to stay on engine parts longer, even though your engine hasn’t been started for a long time. They are a regular choice for some automakers and have already covered the hit list in every aspect.
Havoline Motor Oils
Havoline’s history starts in 1972 from an interesting background, being a business venture of an ex-fighter jet commander. They produced the first synthetic oil in the world to be recognized by the American Petroleum Institute. To this day they remain one of the few, if not the only, oil companies in America that are still independent and family-owned.
Havoline has long been recognized, especially in the world of motorsport, as an excellent choice of performance. They sponsor a huge number of racing events across North America ranging from motocross, Sprint Cup, and off-road truck events in the U.S. through to the Canadian Snowcross Racing Series north of the border.
Royal Purple Synthetic Motor Oils
Royal Purple is not a well-known brand and is not heavily marketed as its other siblings mentioned above. However, several independent tests done on Royal Purple revealed that it is more capable of being on par with the larger industry players.
Effectively marketing of all shapes and sizes over the past years has taken a shine to Royal Purple. The test results, done via Hot Rod magazine, range from seeing performance upgrades on a classic car to reasonable fuel-economy gains on a late-model Ford truck shown when switching over to Royal Purple’s motor oil, gear oil, and transmission fluid.