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Recently, i have been really skeptical regarding oil grades etc. 10w40 is most often used for our engines but there are many people who changed to fully synthetic 5W40 or even _W30 and seen quite a difference in engine operation, smoothness and noise especially at high RPM's without any oil consumption. Even those damn lifters became quite during cold starts. Thinner oil offers better lubrication the first few minutes because it is lighter and it is pumped a lot faster to the upper part of the engine. In general synthetic oil can reach even the tiniest parts of the engine that conventional simply can't. If we take into account the manufacturers oil specifications for this car, it excludes more or less all the newer oil types and when i say newer i mean even those that came out more than 10 years ago. Today's oils didn't exist when those engines where designed and from what i have red they can be backwards compatible in most cases.
In my case, i've been using Total 7000 10W40 for most of it's life (7K mile intervals). At some point the stupid mechanic started filling it with 15W40 which is an old mineral oil. Lifters where always a bit noisy for the first 15 seconds. At high rpm's engine 'screamed' a little bit but nothing too extreme. Oil consumption none, never.

But the main question is, should i (or we in general) take the leap and go for something else or not? This thing always puzzled me and still does...

edit: some really interesting information here:
http://www.oilspecifications.org/volkswagen.php
http://www.oilspecifications.org/articl ... lained.php

Changed to full synthetic 5W40. Sounds healthier, revs freely and tappets are very quiet during cold start. The mechanic said it will burn oil now, i believe it won't. If i win the bet the next oil change is free lol