Poll, opinions, recommendations, etc. What does your owners manual say or your dealer? Exactly what kind of oil are the OE's putting in a brand new engine? Some say the cheapest stuff they can find, others say what the owners manual suggests, Just broke in a brand new vehicle whether I wanted to or not.
Back in the old days, used a break-in oil, and if you changed it before 2,000 miles, would live with an oil burner the rest of its life, main reason was to break in the piston rings to get a good seal. Several Chevy dealers told me to use the oil life remainder for the first change, so left it in, was nice and clean even after 5k miles, but changed it anyway. Took a very close look at the filter, was nice and clean, contribute this to the latest robot machining.
With this new thing, not insisting on a full synthetic oil, but a blend, say to leave it in until 3,750 miles, but the real thing they emphasized was how the vehicle is to be driven for the first 500 miles. Keep the engine below 4K RPM, 3K is what I did, and avoid the interstates, sure can't vary your speed on these. So mostly town driving, maybe a constant speed for a couple of block or so, and used state or country roads if I had go the the next town.
Today, planning a 400 mile trip with 852 miles on this thing should be good to go, at 70 mph, engine is only running at 2,100 rpm, and with this car, OEM seems to prefer Quarker State, and the owners manual says okay to use the latest API-SN, so this is what I got. Been using Quaker since the beginning of time, but with the Cruze, switched to Mobile One because it had a dexos, label on it. Guess what, so does Quaker State Ultimate Durability Full Synthetic Oil with a 2dexos label on it, and four bucks cheaper for a five quart bottle. And not much more than that blend stuff or even conventional oils.
Back then, was recommended you change your oil every 3K, with the Cruze, changed at 20% oil remaining with more like 8K miles on it, so on a cost of mile basis, a lot cheaper than conventional oils. With 4.5 quarts had a half a quart left over, poured that in another bottle for my small engines and put the old oil back in that 5 quart bottle, not quite 4.5 quarts, but darn close to it.
Yesterday, had to drive my wife to another one of her employer locations, 41 miles and they only allowed her45 minutes to do this, so had to push it at 72 mph and only got 41 mpg. But if I drove that same distance at 55 mph. average better than 48 mpg.
Same thing today, have to keep up with traffic or will be driven off the road, so only expecting 40 mpg.
