How to choose car engine oil

When choosing an oil for your car, it doesn't hurt to check the service book first, where the manufacturer is sure to have listed its own recommendations. These include the oil's approval and its quality classes under the international classification systems. You can, of course, choose an oil purely by quality class, but as a rule the approvals set a somewhat higher bar than these parameters. International standards can't always guarantee that a given oil is right for your particular engine.

Some European manufacturers don't include this kind of information in the service book at all – or rather, they only list the oils recommended by the international classification. They don't bother developing oil parameters tailored precisely to a specific car. But more and more manufacturers are trying to give buyers information about individual oil approvals, especially in cases where the engine used in the car has a distinctive design with no direct equivalents. Approach the choice of oil seriously, as if it were a large-scale investment – because in that case you would carefully study all the supporting information and the forex news on currency movements too.

You shouldn't pick an oil simply because it's "the best", sitting at the top of the sales rankings. If someone you know uses a particular oil for their car, one that's a class above yours, that doesn't mean that oil is right for you too. There's a real chance that the oil recommended by approval for a brand-new car with a particular engine could turn out to be harmful for your 10-year-old car, which means putting your money there won't pay off.

When it comes to specifying approvals, car manufacturers take quite different approaches: some test existing oils on their own products, while others go the other way and develop approvals for each engine type. There's no need to rack your brains over which approach is better – you can simply look for the manufacturer's approval mark for the given type of oil, printed on the packaging. And you can be fully confident in the correctness of your choice, because self-respecting manufacturers run a mass of research and testing before putting their name on the packaging. When choosing a brokerage house, you pay attention to its reputation – in the same way, you shouldn't ignore the recommendations of a manufacturer that has earned your trust when choosing an oil.

The latest engine designs are very different from what was being built five years ago. The processes behind new technologies have developed so rapidly in recent years that engines have needed increasingly individual oil formulations. So the newer your car and its engine type, the more closely you should pay attention to the oil approvals recommended by the manufacturer – this will keep the engine running properly, let you put your money to good use, and extend the car's service life.