I'll give you points for paint quality, it's thin. (although I think that many here don't take into consideration that the tendency to chip is much higher on a low-nosed sports car). The quality of the build of this car is extremely high, I don't get your comment at all.

Well, it's looking more and more like you might be right about them using it for factory-fill. I'm just waiting on final confirmation. Will keep you posted.

Sweet! Light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for the detective work! Tell him I asked in December and got no response. :icon14:

I was at the Nissan dealer yesterday for my "free" oil change - first one. The service guys to a man knew ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Nissan Ester. They looked at me like I was from Mars.

What do they use? Mobil One.

You're right, the build quality, overall, is quite high on this car. But it's hard to produce a car that yields so much bang for the buck without cutting at least a corner or two, that's all I'm saying. i.e., it wouldn't surprise me if they shaved some cost by using non-premium fluids for the factory fill. To be clear, I'm not claiming that I know for a fact that they did this. I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if they did is all. Regarding the paint, it's not so much the tendency to chip that I'm flagging. As you rightly point out, it's quite normal for such a low-nosed sports car. What I find remarkable is the tendency to chip right to bare metal so easily. Thankfully, I don't have too many chips due to my ClearBra, but where I do have chips, every single one exposes bare metal (rather than some middle layer or even primer coat). So it would appear that this is an area where Nissan shaved some cost. I don't entirely blame them though, because again, with so much bang for the buck, it's only natural that they'd take a shortcut or two where they can to keep cost down. Indeed, I think Nissan is to be commended for not taking even more shortcuts. The Z is truly an outstanding value for the money, IMO.

The paint on this car has been ultrasonically measured and its average - not thin - average. NXTAZEE can give you the precise measurements if you need.

...but back on topic. Does anyone really care if the manufacture's fill is Ester? If they did it would be simple enough to do an oil analysis on it and that would be the end of the discussion. I think we'd rather have the conjecture and food fight instead.....

Royal Purple is cheaper and probably as good or better than the Nissan-branded stuff (after break-in). FWIW.

Amsoil is much better and lasts much longer and will come out to save a lot more money than using RP.

RP is great for people who rebuild their engines on a regular basis, like funny cars and stuff. But for most of us who use our cars to go back and forth to work, Amsoil is the way to go. It's the most cost-effective oil and there's not another oil on the market more convenient to use. They back up their oil with a written warranty. If anything happens from the results of their oil, they will pay to fix your engine. I don't see any other oil companies offering to do that.

:stirthepot:
Penzoil Platinum beats Amsoil & Royal Purple hands down.

Hey speaking of Pennzoil, have you guys seen the new Pennzoil Ultra Synthetic? Their big thing is that 'nothing keeps your engine closer to factory clean'. I'm not sure if I really care about the cleanliness of my engine, unless they're equating clean to 'lack of wear'. What do you guys make of this new oil?

Pennzoil - Not just oil, Pennzoil

It must be fairly new. I think I was at their site just last month & do not recall seeing the Ultra. I'm using Platinum in my pathfinder & my 300ZX TT.

Yeah it's new. I just started seeing print ads in the car mags this month.

I've been putting Ester Oil in my 370 since I got it. The oil changes are $89, but at least they can't say I didn't put the recommended oil in my 370.

Jtroun

See Scott at Fontana (Scott@FontanaNissan) & buy your oil from him and do it yourself for a lot less.

I've been using Redline. I just got my UOA results back from my last change at 9k miles. Posted the results here if anyone's interested -> http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...e-5w-30-a.html