Dexos 2...?

Went out to my local Vauxhall dealership to buy some Dexos 2 oil.  Parts shop was shut forever and just shows a number to call.  

Man behind the desk in the showroom says they don't have any while sitting adjacent to a large can on Dexos 1.  Well either you have it or you're putting the wrong oil in loads of cars.  

Ring another dealership who say they do have it but it Dartford.  

"We do have it but we'd have to order it in and we can't take payments over the phone.  So you'd have to come in to pay and then we'd order it in."

I asked what kid of retail establishment can't take some form of remote payment in 2023.  Then they said they could get it in tomorrow and I could pay for it when I pick it up locally.

Of course I could probably get away with putting another synthetic oil in but one gets the feeling that they want to make maintenance as hard as possible because no one's buying new motors.

Indeed, looking at the last service that was done they just topped it up with Dexos 1 anyway...

So should I now use Dexos 2 as in the original manual ... or Dexos 1 ?  

I got two different answers from different dealers and an independent garage so I ran up Vauxhall Head Office and they said they didn't know the answer to such technical detail and I should ask the dealers.  Well, I suppose my car's 10 years old and still on its 100000 mile warranty so there's not much in it in finding the right answer for any of them...

What a load of rubbish. 

So what is the difference between Dexos 1 and Dexos 2?

Well, as the conspiracy theorists would say I've done my own research

and a good explanation can be found here

https://tonneau-direct.com/dexos-1-vs-dexos-2-engine-oil/

Note there are also different generations of Dexos 1 including Dexos 1 Generation 2 but there's not a big difference between these types except the names.

The short answer is if you have a petrol car it can use Dexos1 instead of Dexos 2.  What effect this has on the life of the engine either way is debatable ...since I can't get the actual data out of GM but I suspect my car's manual says Dexos 2 because Dexos 1 wasn't available in Europe at the time.

Not being too cynical I guess there's not that much Dexos 2 left out there except for diesels so down the garage they just stuff in Dexos 1 ....

And whatever you do don't put in the wrong viscosity - mine is 5W-30