Let’s first take a look at how these cars are put together. First, we have to understand concept of “hybrid”. A hybrid car might be defined as any vehicle that uses two or more sources of energy to propel itself. Seems simple enough. Hybrid machinery is all around us in form of diesel-electric, such as city buses, and nuclear-electric, such as those used on many US submarines. So, idea and technology have been around awhile—it’s just now that another energy scare like that of 1970s, that we start becoming resourceful and a little ingenious. Hybrid power is on up-rise (and in-demand) only because two different types of propulsion possibilities (gasoline/diesel and electric) standing alone have proven an ineffective means to get both power and efficiency in one package. But, working together, there is promise.

A hybrid car, in modern terminology, is usually referring to any car that has a combination of an electric and a gasoline (or diesel) motors. These cars use kinetic energy (referred to as regenerative breaking), absorbed by your breaks when you slow down to a stop, to recharge batteries that in turn push electric motor. All of this is combined into one finely tuned schematic—the result being power to transmission and propulsion power (i.e. wheel movement).

All hybrids contain a gasoline engine, an electric engine, a generator (mostly on series hybrids), fuel storage container, batteries and a transmission.

There are basically two different types of hybrid engines. The first is a parallel hybrid. This sort of hybrid actually contains both a gasoline and electric motor that both operate independently to propel car forward. It’s designed to have two power sources working with one goal in mind. In many ways, they are still “connected”.

The second hybrid is often referred to as a series hybrid. In a series hybrid, gas or diesel powered engine doesn’t connect to transmission directly, meaning that it doesn’t actually propel car by itself. It actually works indirectly, powering a generator, which in turn (controlled by computer monitoring systems) either feeds power to batteries or directly feeds power to an electric motor that connects to transmission.

Conventional oil is rated according to a SAE system. This scale is used so that you know what type of oil is best for your car given environmental conditions (temperature, city driving, etc.) of where you live. The first number, for example on 10W30 motor oil, is 10 followed by a “W”. This “W” indicates that number before it is viscosity rating of oil. The lower this number, better oil is for colder climates. The higher number, better it is for hotter driving conditions.

Synthetic oils, on other hand (before their commercial release) were used in many military vehicles and fighter jets. Airlines also use synthetics in their engines. The synthetic oil has been designed not to break down as quickly and can tolerate extremities in temperature and weather (hot to cold).

One of major differences between conventional and synthetic oils is that synthetics are treated with more additives that protect your engine for a longer amount of time before you have to change it. And, while we don’t want to get into all molecular chemistry involved in making of these oils, we should mention that they also last longer in hotter conditions and won’t “gel” in colder ones, like conventional oil. In other words, synthetics have more additives, which greatly protect car from viscosity breakdown. They are designed to withstand temperature extremes. It may be safe to say that extreme driving conditions call for use of synthetics.

On financial side of matter, synthetics cost a whole lot more; up to three or four times as much as regular conventional oil. But, wonderful thing is that you don’t have to change your oil every 3,000 miles; recommended with conventional oil use. In fact, you may not have to change it until well after 25,000 and up to 50,000 miles as long as oil filter is changed every 10,000 miles. So, cost at first might scare consumers away, but long-term benefits of synthetic oil use are substantial.

However, you will still have to be responsible for your car’s maintenance check-up every 3,000 miles or so. With regular oil-changes, you are automatically checking over car for other problems (or if you don’t an inspection mechanic does). It might help you find a problem that could be dealt with, that could’ve gone unchecked. Also, you’ll want to check synthetic oil every now and then to be sure that it isn’t contaminated and/or that there isn’t any moisture build-up.