Synthetic Oil - What kind?

great thread, guys, and lots of good food for thougt... i'm still not sure if i'll go synthetic or not, at this point....

but i have to throw a few cents into the fray...

on balance, if you're using half or one third of the gasoline to get you from here to there, compared to a non-hybrid, or even better ratio, compared to an Hummer <grin>, that's a kind of investment that allays the cost of the extra refining that goes into making a synthetic oil. on balance, the Prius pays its way for synthetic oil and leaves some money in the bank.

and on the other paw, if running syn in your crankcase gets you 1-2 more mpg's, that's 2-4% savings on a very small number, isn't it? non-zero, for sure, but on a dollars-per-year basis, or even worse, dollars per mile, i seriously doubt that it's got a payback during the car's lifetime, or ours.

just a guess, though... any of you want to do the math on that?
cheers!