"European oil" haha.

Check your owner's manual. It has all you need to know.

 

Eh... like typical oil questions you’ll get various answers. “Euro” oil that’s actually European typically use the French ACEA oil classification whereas in the US we use API classifications. Nowadays you can find both labels on the oil. As long as you meet the classifications that the owners manual states (0/5w-30 and ACEA A5/B5 standards or better) you’ll be just fine. Mobil 1 you can find on A5/B5. Pennzoil Ultra-Platinum has been good for me as well. You can use A3/B4 as well. It gives better protection with the downside being slightly lower fuel economy. How much? No idea. I’ve run A5/B5 and A3/B4 Pentosin and fuel mileage is somewhat consistent.

Do you need Euro oil in my opinion? No. Majority if not all synthetics are being designed for long interval drain periods. Euro cars had long interval drains way before American cars did.

I’ve used Pennzoil, Pentosin, Liqui-Moly, and now Shell Rotella gas truck 5w-30. To me liqui-moly is a waste of money based on some misleading info on how much moly it contains. But it’s not a bad oil. Just overpriced. I run 0W-40 Castrol Edge in my SAAB just because it’s readily available, cheap, and with 205k miles I’m not worried about some oil loss.

 

Eh... like typical oil questions you'll get various answers. "Euro" oil that's actually European typically use the French ACEA oil classification whereas in the US we use API classifications. Nowadays you can find both labels on the oil. As long as you meet the classifications that the owners manual states (0/5w-30 and ACEA A5/B5 standards or better) you'll be just fine. Mobil 1 you can find on A5/B5. Pennzoil Ultra-Platinum has been good for me as well. You can use A3/B4 as well. It gives better protection with the downside being slightly lower fuel economy. How much? No idea. I've run A5/B5 and A3/B4 Pentosin and fuel mileage is somewhat consistent.

Do you need Euro oil in my opinion? No. Majority if not all synthetics are being designed for long interval drain periods. Euro cars had long interval drains way before American cars did.

I've used Pennzoil, Pentosin, Liqui-Moly, and now Shell Rotella gas truck 5w-30. To me liqui-moly is a waste of money based on some misleading info on how much moly it contains. But it's not a bad oil. Just overpriced. I run 0W-40 Castrol Edge in my SAAB just because it's readily available, cheap, and with 205k miles I'm not worried about some oil loss.

I used Driven DT40 for first 5 changes, (after rebuild) switched to Pentosin, 2 changes (oxidized quickly and the the car drank it), switched to Rotella T6, (same as Pentosin), now on my first run of Moly 5w40 Leichtlauf, (no additives) after about 600 miles so far so good and consumption has gone down quite a bit and the oil still has its honey color. How will it hold up in the summer heat, speculation at this point. All changes have been done between 1000 miles or less (Driven DT40), and 2500 miles (Pentosin, Rotella). This motor seems to be happy with the Moly and the Driven albeit the Driven has much, much shorter intervals of change. Expense for the Moly isn't really as bad since, so far, top-ups have been 1/4 quart in 600 miles.

 

The 2014 XC60 T6 3.0L 6-cylinder engine uses 7.18 US quarts (6.8 liters) of 5W-30 synthetic oil.
At $6 to $8 per quart, that is $42 to $56 for oil. Add another roughly $15 for the oil filter cartridge, oil cover gasket, and drain plug gasket. So $57 to $71 in parts.
(Just for reference FCP Euro sells a "Volvo Oil Change Kit 5W-30 - Liqui Moly KIT-521977" with 8 quarts of oil plus oil filter and gaskets for $71.81.)

Add on 1/2 to 1 hour shop labor and probably an oil deposal fee, and $140 doesn't seem too far from correct.

 

"Euro" oil is a real thing, it is low SAPS to not kill the cats. SAPS is a thing.

"Euro" oil that's actually European typically use the French ACEA oil classification

It's not FROM France, it's just IN French, because the HQ is in Belgium. If you want a good oil, use at minimum the A3/B3 ACEA standard as it mandates an HTHS of 3.5 vs. stuff that is friendly for the manufacturer's CAFE standards vs. what is best to protect your engine (A5/B5 is for the manufacturer to meet fleet standards, not for you to protect the engine). Best A3/B3 oil I can find is Mobil 1 10w30 HM. Redline 10w-30 is also great. ACEA standards are great, as long as you use the correct one and not the lower standards for fleet mileage.

 

Yeah, $140 is fair for an oil change on these cars, especially for a small guy who isn't buying in bulk. It's good that your shop pointed this out and hopefully used the correct oil according to the manual.

The cheapest I've found for the correct oil for these cars (5w30 synthetic, ACEA A5/B5) is the Mobil 1 bag in a box at Walmart - 12 qts for $50.

 

Seems a bit expensive. Half hour shop rate plus oil, filter.

I do my own changes with pennzoil platinum ultra 5w30. It's a highly rated and proven oil with a lot of detergents and anti friction additives.

 

Last summer I bought a 2014 xc60 t6. The car had slightly over 10,000 miles. I live in the Midwest, but spend a few months each winter in Arizona where we own a second home. The xc60 is now left in Arizona and we just fly back and forth. Last fall, I wanted to get it serviced and narrowed picked a local independent for this. The receptionist quoted a price of around $80. My other car is a BMW x5 and a service for it is usually in the 160-180 range. So 80 sounded ok. However, when I dropped the car off, the guy in charge told me the service would be in the 140 150 range, because my car required European Oil. I went ahead with it, but was skeptical. I'm not unhappy with the 140 buck service, just don't like being bull-****ted. Was he correct? By the way, I really like the car. Might even switch from x5 to xc90 this year.

There is some truth to this, but it mostly seems like BS.
European cars use a different spec of oil, than American cars. But it is 2021, and you can find american oil spec and euro spec on the same bottle/jug. Doing an oil change on a 2014 Euro car, as compared to a American car, is pretty much the same. Only difference would really be the type of oil filter (canister or cartridge) and grade of oil. The grade of oil can be found in your owners manual.

 

FCP makes an oil change kit with LiquiMoly for around $70. It is covered by their lifetime warranty replacement and they honor it for the full kit.