Voices From The Garage

Who or what is dexos and why are people looking for it!
In my daily dealings with auto parts customers while they are entertaining they are also an engine to get more info. This is one of those more info scenarios. So here we go. Consider yourself informed. Any opinions stated here are just that … opinions based on how I see it. Feel free to make your own judgements but here they are mine. I hope the following will enlighten you to what the heck is dexos and what can I do I do about it.

According to the official GM dexos info center this is a direct quote

That’s why GM Powertrain engineers developed the dexos™ engine oil specification. The result is engine oil designed specifically for your GM engine, with added performance in areas important to its operation. dexos™ represents a high quality, robust oil formulated to some of the most rigorous specifications in the industry. And just like GM, dexos™ is global. GM wants to make sure that every GM car anywhere in the world has access to the highest quality oil formulated exclusively for GM engines.

dexos™ is designed to increase fuel efficiency, extend the life of your emissions system, require fewer oil changes, and produce fewer emissions. You save time and money, and your car performs the way it was designed to.

dexos™ is the best oil for any GM car. It’s that simple.

To ensure you are using the right oil for your GM car, choose only authentic, licensed dexos™ oils. dexos™ is an exclusive trademark of General Motors. Only those oils displaying the green or blue dexos™ trademark and icon on the front label have been certified and licensed by GM as meeting the demanding performance requirements and stringent quality standards of the dexos™ specification. Other oils may make a lot of claims but have not gone through GM’s rigorous testing and quality control process.

Source – GM dexos information center

When you initially read this either in the owners manual or on the site the impression that you get is that GM is dictating which oil you can use and that if it is not theirs you are toast. Marketing 101, make it sound unique even if it is not. More than one customer has come in to the store in a panic looking for this elusive GM dexos oil that they just gotta have. Nothing else will do!

dexos1 icon

Here is the real deal. The gospel according to Bob. dexos™ is not an oil it is a specificationfor oil, as stated in the quote. What a lot of the literature that deals with it, makes you think that you have to get it from GM and that is GM oil. Not so! All it means is that these goonybirds at GM have spent a whole bunch of time making up a “new” specification for oil that is so very special and unique that they had to go so far as to brand it and make a licensed logo for it. And, yes, they do have their own branded oil. Is it the only game in town? NO! They would like you to believe that and they appear to have gone to great efforts to imply that, but NO! Basicly they want you to use synthetic oils. We all know that these are the best oils for all kinds of reasons. Nothing new here. Just more expensive. But take note of the licensed part very carefully.

Here is why. If you read further into the site you will come to a page GM dexos Licensed Products. This is the “official” list of “GM dexos certified oil”. As official and impressive as it sounds don’t be too overly taken by it. It basically establishes that they want you to use synthetic oil. That’s it! On to the list. At the top of this list is a flock of oils in the ACDelco dexos1 family. Wow! No surprise there. But here is where it gets your attention, and in my case [remember, it's my opinion] it aggravates me enormously, when you drill down this extensive list you will find most of the major brands of synthetic oils. Mobil 1, Pennzoil, Quaker State, they are all there.

Now, follow along with me here, all of these “licensed” name brand oils have been on the shelves for a long while. And we all know that synthetics are better for your engine. Now they had to pay a fee, major oil company to major car manufacturer, to get “licensed” for something they already did! And everyone already knew. WTF??!!! So basicly GM engineers spent alot of time and effort to create this unique, nifty neato oil spec all on their own because they thought they were being tricky and special. And they can get a fee to put their logo on all the major oil companies bottles. But it turns out they really aren’t because all the major oil companies synthetic products, that were already on the shelf, meet this “special” spec right out of the box! That sucks. So much for being “special”. But they can get money for inventing something that was already there. Now that’s the tricky side. I guess it worked.

What does puzzle me is that the major oil companies were okie dokie with this and went ahead and let it happen. I guess you can call it a windfall because now GM is pushing their premium products for them. Well, maybe, kinda ,sorta, after they paid them for it.

After all this hokus pokus magic show stuff that GM did all it really comes down to is that they, GM, want you to use synthetic oil in their motors! That’s it! Pretty frickin straight forward. And anyone with any sense about cars already knew that and is probably already using it.

Just another chapter in the book of “What The Heck Is Going On Here”. In my continuing saga of daily observations, the latest is a series of incidents surrounding my everyday comings and goings. It has become more and more apparent lately that the placement of neophytes, untrained and unprepared, individuals in positions of management has once again gone bad. When put in an abnormal stressful scenario confusion and chaos ensued. After the fact, total mishandling due to a combination of inexperience and pure ignorance came to light. With no readily apparent skills training or use of outside management training entities, it does not surprise me at all. The trial by fire method or we’ll deal with it when it comes up method is ridiculously standard fare.

Help wanted

With more than a few years of experience under my belt, with 9 years of military experience and having been on both ends of the management ladder, it still escapes me as to why a major business entity would place individuals in top management positions that are grossly under skilled and ill prepared. It has become readily apparent, to me at least, that the issue of convenience and a dash of the “good ole boy” mentality have more to do with getting these positions than true quality of leadership. And when these traits are ignored in this process the outcome is pretty predictable. The current prevailing business mode is one of dollar economics, get by with what you can for less money. And usually money can be translated into seniority. Senior members are usually higher on the pay scale. And after many years working with the Germans in the European business mentality, senior people are worth more than newbies because they are experienced, proven and more productive than multiple newbies. They can hit the ground running, have more life experience and have seen many of the business scenarios first hand.

When it comes to opening up new markets with my background, training and experience, my tactic has always started with the import of my “biggest and baddest” individuals in order to present an overpowering presence to new market. I believe it is now referred to as “Shock and Awe”. Back then I called it “impressing the crap out of them”. In the mean time I back filled these positions with the newbies. And once the market had stabilized then did a swap out and turned the helm over to the newly trained guys and sent the others back to their home sites. It has always confused me that in more than one corporation that the chant and banter was “we promote our own” and “we appreciate our employees” or something along that line. And yet, more often than not, it is an outsider that gets the job. And it’s not a far reach for those individuals to be recent rejects from other players in the same business sector. And by filling a whole new location with these outsiders appears, to me at least, to be a recipe for a future problem that will have to be addressed. And it really doesn’t help the morale and loyalty issues of the current employees at all. Despite many so-called management training positions, without any publicity or calls for volunteers or recommendations. This really is a stick in the eye of the corporates training sequence and truth of purpose. I always gave my own the first shot at these positions. Seems you would like a trained insider than a newbie outsider. Unless we bring up the “good ole boy” scenario. More than one incident in many corporations has smacked of that possibility. And when there are published guidelines with the qualifications for these positions why on earth would you blatantly ignore these in order to put “your guy” in there. Kinda makes the whole guidebook in question and if you can just do what the hell you want, guidelines be damned, brings one to ask “who is really running this ship?”

In conclusion of this episode, I am vocalizing over what I am seeing, hearing and reading on a daily basis. It is unsettling to say the least, but it continues to be an issue. And in these days and times I believe it should work better but a lot of time and effort [money] is being expended in correcting things that should be dictated by common sense but because of the interference of bean counters and personal agendas, it is going into the dumpster.

Am I the only one seeing this?