Toyota Repair: Oil Brand

Question
QUESTION: Hi Ted,

I have a 2012 Camry XLE with a 4 cylinder engine. The car will be 3 years old for me on December 17th with only 23,483 miles right now. I live in Pennsylvania.

The Toyota Manual and Maintenance Guide says to change the oil every 10K miles or 12 months using 0W20. Is this synthetic oil or regular oil?

Who makes Toyota Genuine motor oil?

All my life I used Fram oil filters. Do you recommend using a Fram on my Camry or another brand?

Thanks for your help Ted!

Appreciatively,

Mike

ANSWER: They are recommending synthetic oil, regular oil will not make it to 10,000 miles, Fram filters are ok in my opinion and use them myself, personally I would change the oil every 5000 miles at least.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Ted!

With my 1995 Camry I changed the oil every 5K miles and it lasted 15 years. If I change the oil every 5K miles on the new car, then why use synthetic oil?

What brand of oil do you use? Mobil, Penzoil, etc? Looking in Walmart 0W 20 is hard to find on the shelf!

Thank You!

Appreciatively,

Mike

Answer
Synthetic is what Toyota recommends so they can up the oil change intervals to 10,000 miles, if you wish to use non-synthetic it's your choice and just change it every 5000 miles.
I use 5W-30 or 5W-20 (whichever is available) regular oil in my 07 FJ cruiser with 90,000 miles, usually Quaker State.