Is 0w-20 synthetic?
 

My friend recently bought a new mazda3. the oil cap says 0w-20. time for an oil change.

so we went around and looked for this oil. all 0-20 that we saw are synthetic. i didn't see any conventional 0-20 oil.

the manual specifically indicates only 0w-20 can be used. 5w-20 cannot be used as a substitute.

so reading the oil forum on this website, most people recommend to go synthetic after at least 3-4K miles. my question is if mazda put synthetic oil from the get-go, wouldn't it be bad for the engine? i thought we're supposed to let the engine break in until at least 3-4K miles before we can go synthetic.

This needs to be in the other cars section.

I'll bet its because they have to use synthetic base to achieve the 0W weight.

I wouldn't worry about using the synthetic- if there is no conventional available chances are it is already synthetic as a factory fill.

You're fine to use synthetic right away.