I've always used Castrol Edge 5w-30 in my Octavia. I know there are other brands out there, but are these as good? 

Edited 19 June, 201511 yr by Sippo

Better in many cases, and the same price or less.

*Just get the correct spec for your car.*

 

Even from the Supermarkets like Asda, Tesco etc in Own Brand Bottles can be as good or better than

Castrol / Quantum Full Synthetic Long Life.

So the VETECH oil from GSF is pretty good at £7 per 1l bottle....

I think the important thing is to change it regularly.  Variable servicing is not good for the oil or engine long term I reckon, and a car like a vrs particularly a tuned one, will be harder on oil and has expensive components that are susceptible to damage if oil isn't up to scratch (the turbo).  Stick to fixed or even more often if you are driving hard or using the car on tracks.

 

Consider westway lubricants on eBay.  Not tried the oils, but they are the correct vw 507 00_spec and the cheapest I found without buying bulk at £22.90 for 5L.

 

If you don't mind bulk I did find a whole drum somewhere.  Iirc, even after allowing for a pump it worked out about half they price.

Etsy.com.  205 litre drum of vw507 00 5w30, £310 plus £50 postage barrel pump £24 = (310+50+24)/205=£1.87/litre.   Now that's cheap.  And you can make a bbq from the empty drum or sell it for a tenner on eBay. Oh hang on... You wanted 1_litre... Errrm..... Group buy?

^^^^^ Reminds me of the time I bought a car from a dealer, the service manager (who I was introduced to) tried to flog me a service plan. I asked the question "what oil do you use when doing a service?" his reply "I dunno we get it all out of a big drum" ........nuff said.

Edited 28 June, 201511 yr by MickA

Yeah it's always made me laugh how dealerships price oil on a service invoice 

'5 x 1 litre,   unit price  £8.49,  total cost £42.45'.  Are such like, when they always have the 205 litre drums and pump it out of that.

 

Does anyone know anything good or bad about mannol oils?   Found mannol energy combi LL 5W30 507.00 at a good price.

Look at Morris Lubricants - based in shrewsbury but sold through regional agents in 25l  drum  maybe not as cheap as 205l barrel but a lot easier on handling etc and no pump needed.

 

(no connection to them just satisfied with products)

The mannol oil I found was a 20 litre drum.  Worked out at£3.74 a litre.  As you say it's just about a manageable quantity for an individual and far cheaper than castrol edge get at about £10/litre when bought in 4l bottles.