which gearbox oil should i use?

[Phased]

Your logic is flawed there. You do not need higher outputs to warrant changing over to a non factory oil. There are countless examples of where 3rd party companies produce a similar or exact same version of oil(s) for a similar price or even lower?

Why else would you have people with stock standard cars , buy semi syn oils when mineral based will do? Even performance cars, why buy full syn when semi will do? the examples are endless.

It's not a debate just over the base stock of the oils used. It's a debate over viscosity, API/GL service ratings, additives, Esters etc. They design an OEM oil for use in the Standard transmission.

My Point was Honda's design and build good transmissions and good transmission oil... Wheras most of the other manufacturers deliver fairly average OEM oils. There is no real need to change it if your doing street/occasional track driving. Honda AT transmissions are very sensitive to which oils are used thus why as aaronng said even the aftermarket brands specify OEM oil. Noticed how most manual Honda Transmissions specify 75w80 and most other cars specify a 75w90?

The reason I mentioned built AWD's/RWD's as they usually have higher torque and more stress put on the transmission (WRX is a great example) when I owned my WRX even the differance between a good Synthetic and a better synthetic was noticable. (Redline vs Royal Purple vs Castrol). In my old DC2... no matter which oil I used... OEM always felt just as good or better... The reason people use aftermarket oils in these cars is there is belief that you need to, if driving it harder than usual.

And being rwd does not mean it can use aftermarket oils better...........where did that statement come from?

That isn't what I said. Rear Wheel drive vehicles usually come from manufacturers that produce OEM oils that are of inferior quality to honda's and also most of them are put under a larger amount of stress.

Main Point: Honda's have less Torque, Are Built better, and produce very good quality OEM Oils so it is not as necessary nor would i recommend using anything other than an OEM oil for a standard transmission. If your box has been rebuilt with aftermarket equipment (have a few mates which have PPG's in their WRX's, then you use the oil that the builder specifies.)