THe reason for later engines to use lower viscous oils why because newer engine clearances between the moving parts are very very less comparing to the older engines. So they need lighter oils to slip through it as fast as possible. Since the clearance of older engines are higher, they are also tend to consume more engine oil even though it is higher is viscosity grade. But newer engines with even more lighter oil tend to consume only very little amount of oil. This is what I got to know when searching answers for the same.
Everybody speak about the selection of the engine oil grade only with respect to the climatic condition of that region to where we are going to use that vehicle. IMO that concept it really wrong.
Years back we had 20w-40 or 20w-50 grade engine oils in most of our engines, which was recommended by the manufacturer in those times.
But today most of the manufacturer started recommending 5w-30 for the same region for their newer engines, isn't it?.
We know how much temperature has raised in our region during the past 20 years. But still the grade of oil is lowered instead of increasing. So the point is engine oil viscosity recommended to an engine is not completely proportional to the region's climatic condition. There are also other things which matters for the selection of perfect grade of engine oil for a particular engine.
Do you remember in which region this 0w-20 grade oil used in that honda vehicle?
Asking you why because, recently I came to know 0w-20 is started using in newer Kseries engnes from my MASS, for validating it I wrote a letter to MARUTI asking about it and their reply was positive. I even made a call to the MARUTI AREA SERVICE MANAGER and made double sure with him about the usage of 0W-20. When I presented these things including the contact details of that MARUTI SM, the feedback I got from our TIA forum is really pathetic.
Ya when I was looking for synthetic oil for the gear box, about 99% the feedback that I got from the enthus/experts are they do give only a very less difference in smoothness, so it better to invest that money for the better synth oil for the engine.