I do not understand peoples desire to use oil other than what's specified by the manufacturer? Do you think you know more than the manufacturer and the aftermarket is better?? Is it cost? Paid $30K for a bike and you risk damaging it to save a couple bucks every 10K miles? Is it so you can buy it at Walmart? You can order OEM kits on Amazon free shipping delivered to your door for same price as at dealership. Puzzled. Help me understand.
Pretty simple really. BRP uses Castrol. You can get the same oil at Walmart for less than you'll pay BRP for their labeled container. With so many better lubricants available, many times for less money. Why wouldn't a person at least give these consideration?
I understand that people think the engineers run these companies. And, manufacturer's tend to promote this idea. But the truth is, they don't. It's marketing, sales, and bean counters who are farther up the food chain.
My question would be; why would someone be happy paying more for a lesser product? It might be nothing more than convenience. But many times, it is because they think they are getting something that they are not.
I carry Amsoil. A fully synthetic, motorcycle specific lubricant which is far superior to the BRP blended oil recommended. When customers get 2 service kits it runs in the neighborhood of $75.00 per service for the SM6/SE6 engine. This is very competitive with the BRP, XPS kits. With the XPS kit you get 5 quarts. With my kit you get 6 (per oil service). And there are a good number of other, superior alternatives, as mentioned in previous posts.
To each his own. If you use the XPS product, that's fine with me. It's your ride. You should do what you feel best. But when you analyze the data, it's hard to justify based on either cost, quality, or both. This is virtually, universally true with any manufacturer's branded lubricants. And many times will apply to most manufacturer's maintenance items as well. Because many times they are simply generic products with their logo and a higher price.
My brother used to run an auto repair shop. He said that he could get the same, identical, manufacturer's branded part as VW or Audi. If it came packaged as a VW part, it would be quite a bit less expensive than that same part packaged as an Audi part. The only difference between the parts was the brand, the packaging and the price.
He put a lot of VW branded parts on Audi's to save the customer money. But he had a few customers who said they didn't want that "VW junk" on their Audi. So, he got an Audi branded part and jacked up the price. The customer got taken to the cleaners. But they felt much better about it.
opcorn:
