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Has anyone else noticed that even with the prices of gasoline going up so much, the price for a quart of motor oil has stayed the same or even gone down? I just changed my oil with Mobile 1 a week ago. I bought the 5 qt jug at Wal-Mart and it's price actually dropped a dollar or two from the last time I changed my oil 6-8 months ago and even from what I remember last year's price to be. It was around $21 when it used to be around $22-23. Why have gas prices increased so dramatically, but motor oil has stayed the same? Anyone else thought about or noticed this?

a qt of oil here has gone up. the price of Mobil1 at walmart used to go for around $4.50/qt now its $5.20/qt.

A barrel of oil is what - 45 gal? The cost of the oil in a quart of motor oil is about 17 cents. AT $50 a barrel about 34 cents. But then it takes energy to refine the crude into motor oil, the plastic container probably also is made from petroleum products, and it has to be trucked to the store. I hear thar some of these new "plastic" containers are made from corn. Corn is used to make ethanol that replaces gasoline. Maybe Cargill or Dekalb can develop a hybred corn that has an oil that can be used as motor oil.

Mobil1 is synthetic and therefore oil prices should have less of an effect on it's price. The only increases would come from processing costs and the plastic container, not from the contents of the quart.

Quote, originally posted by Sunny »Mobil1 is synthetic and therefore oil prices should have less of an effect on it's price. The only increases would come from processing costs and the plastic container, not from the contents of the quart.thats where profitering and the ignorant public comes in...average joe consumer will not realize that Sythetic is so different that the Oil issues in this country can spark enough fear that all oil-related products will go up increasing profits off of the less educated and those willing to shellout more money.just my $.02