XOM/Mobil1 in serious legal trouble?

[vinuneuro]

This isn't a "this oil is better than that sucky oil thread".

XOM is in some serious trouble if the API says this is true. Only because Ashland (parent of Valvoline) is accusing them of not meeting API SM certification, which nullifies all the OEMs' certification based on which M1 oils are used as factory fill. And hence voiding a lot of customers' powertrain warranties.

You can be a judge of whether or not this is a coincidence, but right after Ashland came out with this, M1 oils started disappearing from store shelves; to the point that JiffyLube's had to get what oil they could find from autoparts stores and Walmart. M1 oils are only now starting to return. XOM said their base oil production plant was damaged because of hurricane Ike.

On another note, used oil analysis' of a lot of peoples' oil samples have been showing unusually high Iron content for sometime, that no one has been able to explain.

These are some serious allegations being brought forth by Ashland. I can't help but think that they would put themselves in a situation with so much potential for litigious risk unless they were very sure. Inside tip-off perhaps?

To put into perspective how big of a giant Ashland is messing with compared to itself:

Exxon Mobil's revenue for 2007 was 404.552 Billion
Exxon Mobil's NET income for 2007 was 40.610 Billion

Ashland's revenue for 2006 was 7.233 Billion
Ashland's NET income for 2006 was 170 Million

Make of all this what you will.

The subject is being extensively discussed at bobistheoilguy.com
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http://www.jobbersworld.com/December%2011,%202008.htm

...
According to the letter, Valvoline says the company conducted a number of tests and commissioned an independent laboratory to evaluate the performance of SynPower and Mobil 1 in the Sequence IVA wear test. Marketers were told the tests were run on a 5W-30 since it's the top selling grade.
Now for the interesting part...
According to a letter Valvoline marketers received, the result from Valvoline's testing indicate:

• Valvoline SynPower's 5W-30 wear performance is at least four times better than Mobil 1 5W-30
• Mobil 1 5W-30 does not meet minimum API SM or ILSAC GF-4 specification because of its inferior performance in the Sequence IVA wear test

The letter reportedly goes on to say that Valvoline notified ExxonMobil of the failed test results in September and that the company take appropriate action regarding their claim that Mobil 1 meets ILSAC GF-4 and API SM specifications, or provide substantiation that they in fact meet these specifications.
As of today, Valvoline told JobbersWorld, ExxonMobil has been silent.