Originally Posted by VCuomo

Look at the bazillions of cars on the road that are in fine shape - many of those cars have had well over 100K miles on their engines WITHOUT EVER even having a synthetic oil fill! Many years ago I owned a '65 Rambler American sedan that never had synthetic in it (back then there was no synthetic available) - when I junked it it had almost 90K miles on the engine and, although the rest of the car was crap, the engine still ran fine. And then there was my 1983 Subaru wagon that had almost 200K miles on its engine (no rebuild or major work done on the drivetrain) before it was junked. I currently own a '98 Dodge Durango with almost 90K miles on its engine - it's never had anything in it except for 5W30 non-synthetic oil (mostly Pennzoil) and it still runs strong.

I'm old school - just make sure you put in the correct W oil for your driving conditions (for most, that would be 5W30), make sure it has API certification, and change it regularly at 3K to 5K mile intervals and you will be fine no matter what you brand or type (non-synthetic, synthetic, or synthetic blend) you choose. That's what the aforementioned vehicles that I owned all have in common.

Yeah, I know, heresy...