CAFE is harlious. Mandating low viscosity oil for US (owners manual, oil caps, stickers in the engine bay) while exactly the same engine and car doesn’t need to in any other country.

 

The turbo-6 in my car can do 30+ on the highway if you keep it at like 75 with the cruise on.

Get that turbo going and have some fun and it drops into the 20's pretty fast. I took a quick trip up to Utah to handle some banking stuff yesterday and was doing 90-ish the whole way. I was around 25 mpg overall I think.

 

Yep. It literally kills engines due to a thinner spec just for that extra 1-3mpg that you will never see as a recommended oil in other nations.

 

I'm never going to buy a vehicle with a turbo. All that added complexity in addition to a small engine doesn't sound like a reliable combination. I love the smoothness of my V6, I couldn't care less if it gets rated an extra mile or two per gallon lower than if there was a turbo 4 in it. Like others have noted, real world driving won't make any difference and it's quite possible you're getting less mpg.

 

What weight do you recommend in place of the 0w16 oil recommended for new Toyota/Lexus vehicles: 0w20; 5w20; 5w30? I was operating under a couple of assumptions, that is: oil bases and additives have improved over the years allowing for the thinner weights to provide equal protection when compared to thicker weights; and, adequate testing was done to prove this.

 

I would personally use 0w20 but I haven't owned one and done oil analysis so I can't prove without a doubt it would reduce the wear.

0w-20 and 5w-20 are the same operating weights btw, the 0 will just pump more easily at start (good) but relies more on modifiers to do so (bad) and thus will not last as long. Issue for both is fuel dilution quickly cuts them down thin, happens even faster with xx-16 oils and the general rule is when fuel gets in the oil over the change cycle you lose anywhere from 5-10 effective weight. End result is Hondas current situation.

Same deal with heat, every 10-20* over 220f you are basically losing about 5 weight. HTHS is the spec/value you want to check for to compare to other oils, my preferred range is 3.0-4.5 pending application with my Audis using 3.9 type 0w-40. The LS is using a high 2s HTHS since I'm limited by weight spec in that car....the catch here is the oil I'm using in the Audis even being a 40 weight actually has less pumping losses than most 30s and some 20s as per standard testing so I'm actually seeing better mpg than a generic VW502 spec oil.

Lighter oils flow more past a given point and provide more actual lubrication and cooling though, higher weights provide more ability to carry load and resist breakdown so it's balance. However as I already mentioned some oils simply pump better than others and have less resistance in the bearings etc so sometimes you can bump weight up without MPG loss and have the increased protection and service life.

The limiting factor is the pump and clearances, if you have an extremely high volume pump you can almost go nuts since it will be able to flow a light oil and still maintain pressure. The "best" setup is maximum possible flow past a given point at the oil weight needed to carry the load and last through the change internal without sheering down.

Most factory recommendations center on MPG and "eco impact" non-sense vs keeping the engine alive past the "lifecycle" of about 75-100k miles the factory plans for.

The rover V8 and 3.0s V6s are a stellar example of what not to do. Too light of oil to carry the loads, not enough pump for the light oils, and way way way too long an interval to prevent sheer down on top of a lot of heat. The flip side is most German engines still recommending a 40 weight when most of the industry was using 20s for CAFE reasons

 

CAFE is the devil and has literally ruined automobiles.

How many jets are right above the USA at any given time? They don’t run on apple juice.

 

CARGO SHIPS. Seriously, nothing else comes even remotely close. Buying anything from overseas is the largest contributor

 

Yep, miss the big V8's. Should be up to the market to decide what we buy.

What's funny is all these manufacturers build nothing but CUV's, yet they get considerably worse gas mileage than a sedan. So much for claiming they're environmentally friendly. Anyone who is upset about tailpipe emissions or any of that and they drive a truck or CUV, they are hypocrites. They will get a fuel efficient sedan instead. That or take the bus.

 

Don't you drive an RX?

 

I don't focus on what people (or I) drive, I look at how much fuel is being used in total (including travel and shipping) as that determines one's carbon footprint. For instance, my wife and I own two vehicles with V8's and two with 4-bangers (one a hybrid). But, bottom line, we've always lived within a few miles of work, don't travel much, and try to buy products made-in-America whenever possible/practical. So, even though we have two V8's, I feel our carbon footprint is relatively light (lighter than most Americans, that is). Could I do better? Perhaps, but, I'm no martyr!

 

Yep. The 15 largest cargo ships produce more emissions than all the cars in the world combined.

But god forbid my roadster has a big V8. And god forbid I enjoy gunning it, and flying around in my boat with the $7500 engine upgrade.

It is IMPOSSIBLE almost to drive the GMC with a light foot, V8 is just glorious and very willing. It’s the most overpowered vehicle in the family fleet for sure.

 

Same, I buy local for most things food wise and that's the major one for shipping footprint

 

Yes and I love it, but I'm not concerned with the environment. Plenty of blame to go around such as EV production, diesel trucks, private jets/limos, yachts, etc.

Instead of eliminating bigger engines, they could just increase the price by $5k. A big chunk will opt for the smaller engine, so that's one way to satisfy their goals.

 

I don’t care but I don’t have a large carbon footprint. Big whoop, I like big V8 engines that I drive 7k miles total a year on (all cars).