Is OW20 the standard for synthetic oil?

I recently purchased a car; it's the first I've ever owned that uses synthetic oil (Honda Civic 2015). My previous cars all used conventional oil.

This car uses OW20. When I go to schedule an oil change, do I have to specify this particular type of oil? Or is this oil the standard anyway when I say that I want synthetic oil?

To be safe, tell the shop to put in OW20 synthetic oil.

If you go to cheap lube joints I'd make sure to specify. I'm sure that the weight of the oil is listed on the oil filler cap but when you let high school drop outs work on your vehicle you never know what you'll end up with!

Most oils including synthetic are much thicker than that… We can't buy an oil that thin in uk.probably europe… It might be ok around the arctic circle… Nowadays we tend to use a 10-40 grade… It used to be 10-50 was most used… FORD have just introduced what they say is their best oil ever. Its grade? 10-60… I own a garage in uk… I would not use oil as thin as 0-20 if it was free! MOBIL 1 is the best oil to use… AUDI in europe now have oil changes every two years. Or 19.000 miles

It's becoming the new standard, but slowly enough that it is not a sure thing like 5W30 has been. If you want the proper oil you have to say so, which is a sad thing. Cheap oil change places, like Jiffy Lube, do not even stock it.

One of the advantages of oil that thin is that it is used with very close bearing tolerances, which holds oil (through capillary action) in the bearings better than larger clearances do. What attracts the manufacturers, though, is the roughly 1% increase in fuel economy over 5W30 and reduced start-up emissions. As a car owner, I'm just as happy the new viscosity means synthetic oil.

0W20 is the grade or viscosity of the oil. Any oil in theory whether synthetic or not could be made into a 0W20
Honda will specify the standards required for the oil to be used in the cars handbook as well as the grade.

0W-20 is currently only available as a synthetic. It's not the industry wide standard for oil yet. 5W-20 is the most common viscosity in the US In Europe where they don't have CAFE standards to worry about thicker oil is often used.

"When I go to schedule an oil change, do I have to specify this particular type of oil?"

If you go to a quick lube place, you'll probably want to specify it. If you take your car to the dealer, then you don't.

"Or is this oil the standard anyway when I say that I want synthetic oil?"

There's no "standard" across-the-board viscosity and synthetic oils come in a range of viscosities.

Not only should you specify 0 20w but all the other code numbers matter.
DO NOT use cheap oil change places if you want your car to last and be reliable.
Use a dealer or a specialist and get a proper service.

No, 0w20 is not just a standard engine oil; not yet anyway. However, it seems that many newer cars in America are using 0w20 now, so that oil may become a standard in the future (I have '15 Subaru Legacy and my wife has '14 Toyota Camry; both use 0w20).

If the owner's manual suggests to use 0w20, then you should use it. And from what I understand, you can use 0w20 all year round, instead of changing from 5w30 in the winter to 10w30 in the summer like in the past (I live in Chicago, where it is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer).

0W-20 and other 0W viscosity's only come in full synthetic oil. When you go to a oil change place they look up your car on there computer database which tells them what type(s) of oil are required or can be used in your car. You can double check and ask them what type of oil your car requires and they must say 0W-20, however investigations have been done at "quicklube" stores and crooked service chain places which found that when customers asked and paid for full synthetic oil they were instead receiving cheap conventional oil because the store wanted to scam them so they could increase there profits! My advice is stick to a Honda dealership or a honest independent mechanic to service your car and have the oil changed every 6000 miles and your engine will last forever!