I have read this thread and anyone who states that synthetic oil is snake oil is half mad - Porsche, and others, have it in from new, so maybe they have been conned by sythetic snake oil too. It is best not to bother with this sort of disjointed, scattered, incoherrent ranting and rambling. Only on the Internet you find this type, or shouting the "end of the world is nigh" along Oxford St.

Here is a cut and paste of a posting of mine in December:

So a synthetic oil is not necessarily 100%
synthetic, nor is it necessarily
better than a mineral based oil.

I totally disagree with that, so would just about every tribologist. I have been using synthetic oils for about 15 years and there is no comparison to mineral oils. the engine always has that newness feel and sound to it. I started using it after visiting an oil research centre on business, where the techies there explained it all and said all cars should have fully synthetic and it is foolish not to for the protection it gives. They take a long time to break down and the shear (resistance to compression) is phenomenal compared to mineral.