A quick question for our northern friends: I was in WallyWorld today picking up my 145/90/16 mini-spare (finally arrived, waiting on rim etc from Lewis Toyota), and noticed they had Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy 0w-8 (JASO GLV-1 spec) in stock on their shelves. Was aware of its existence but not that it had made it to Walmart. But then when I read the back label saw that it said "Not for Retail Sale in Canada". What's up with that?
Different government environmental standards. Canada's regulations must be just different enough that it makes financial sense to Mobil to make different blends for the two markets. I'm not saying one country's standards are better than the other; just that they're different.
The only reason is that Canada uses liters vs. quarts in the US. The same oil is sold in both countries otherwise. By the way, the four-digit formulation number for all ExxonMobil oil bottles is printed next to the date code on the back label, and you can see exactly which formulation you are getting.
Well, the specs on the product datasheets between Mobil 1 0W-16 AFE are slightly different between Canada and the US. Viscosities, pour points, flash points are all slightly different. (I didn't compare 0W-8 AFE because it doesn't seem to be available in Canada yet.) US Data Sheet: Mobil 1™ 0W-16 Canada Data Sheet: Mobil 1™ 0W-16 It also appears that oil for Canada is made by Imperial Oil, which is a separate company from ExxonMobil, though EM currently owns 69.6% of it.
It could be something so simple as they didn't wish to pursue certification of the product for the Canadian market. Canada has approximately 1/9 the population of the USA.
I worked in the oil & gas industry, and Imperial Oil has been divesting itself of its holdings for many years.
Those specs are quite different indeed. If @Probity can check the four-digit formulation code for Mobil 1 0W-16 SP in Canada, we can compare it to the US one. If the specs are correct, they are different oils.
Thanks. Regards possible formulation differences I didn’t take a pic of the Mobil 1 AFE 0w-8 back label on the Walmart shelf so don’t know its formulation code or date code. For grins next time I’m there I’ll do so. Note: Gokhan, I saw your posts from ~4-5 yrs ago on BITOG on Toyota Genuine Motor Oil (TGMO), guessing maybe you either are/were in a past life a chemist/tribologist? I learned stuff – never knew within XOM that Mobil 1 and TGMO are separate divisions, TGMO blended by the ExxonMobil Industrial Lubricants division, and Mobil 1 made by the Mobil 1 division, formulations can be quite different. Who knew? Regards why USA Mobil 1 AFE 0w-8 isn’t/can’t be retailed in Canada, I was just curious but suspected it ‘might’ be anything from patent blend differences (Imperial-made Mobil 1 vs. US made), or US EPA vs. Canada ECCC and/or US DoT and NHTSA vs. Transport Canada differences. Or maybe because the US Mobil 1 AFE 0w-8 is to a JASO standard, whereas both the US and Canada Mobil 1 AFE 0w-16 are to API standards, and something about a JASO spec in Canada causes an issue. IDK, not that important, it is what it is, I was just curious if anyone knew. On a side note, interesting XOM stuff on those low viscosity/low volatility synthetic oils blended for the likes of Toyota and others, never would have guessed Noack volatility wt. % that low was possible for the 0w-8 (I'm not allowed to 'link' yet but it's on the Exxonmobil chemical page, products, synthetic base stocks, making engine oils, synthetic base stock innovation page. I will continue to find it odd that a ’26 Prius bought in Bellingham WA calls for 0w-8 in the owners manual, and a ’26 Prius bought Vancouver BC calls for 0w-16.
