Oil Changes

[MOTOWN88]

I, the closet conspiracy theorist have been wondering recently. Whilst the price of a gallon of gas continues to rise why does the price of an oil change at the quickie oil places stay the same????? It has been $19.95 since I was in grade school.

[hwoods]

Friend of mine (Vol. at a neighboring station) Owns a BP Gas station/auto shop. He said yesterday that his motor oil had gone up $.08/Quart last week from his distributor. I'm in the Asphalt business, and I can tell you that prices in liquid asphalt have driven the price of "Finish Grade" Asphalt (Stuff I use for driveways) up from $32.25/Ton 2 years ago to last weeks $41.75/Ton. And that's FOB at the Plant, if I need to hire extra trucks to haul it, price goes up again. 2 years ago, I paid $42.50/Hour for a Tandem Axle Dump (20 Tons of Asphalt per trip) and now I'm looking at $60.00/Hour. If oil touches it, then it goes up.

[MOTOWN88]

Ok, The prices have not changed though, they may be but how are they passing it on to the customer by pushing that friggin PVC valve they always tell my wife she needs????

[stm4710]

Wal Mart brand "super tech" 30W oil which I use in my railroad car has remained at a stable .97 cents a quart for the last year and half.


Its all a game by the oil companys because they have a oil man in the white house, dont let anyone tell you any different.

[doughesson]

And China buying oil like they have plans for it and hurricanes slowing down the 42% of our domestic oil supply from the Gulf of Mexico has nothing to do with it?
BTW,if we were in Iraq over oil,we would all be getting free gas allowances and you could travel to Iraq and watch the sand dunes collapse as we sucked the dinosaurs out of the ground.

Its all a game by the oil companys because they have a oil man in the white house, dont let anyone tell you any different.

[HFRH28]

My oil has actually come down a few dollars! I run Mobil One 5W-30 fully synthetic in the 94 Z71. It used to cost me around $22.00 for a 5 quart jug, now it's around $18.00. I think by itself it's around $3 something a quart. My oil filter is $12.00.

In the 1999 Z71 I run Mobil One Clean 5000 at $1.67 (I believe) something a quart for 6 quarts with a $12 filter.

Oil changes arn't cheap for me

[Rossco]

As hwoods said, if oil touches it, it goes up. The 2 you mentioned were Wally world, and the speedy lube places. We use 10 to 15 gallons of motor oil a day, and even buying bulk, we pay more than Walmart charges for a quart. They use things like engine oil, and anti freeze as a loss leader to get the do it your selfers in there. Once hooked by a cheap quart of oil, they clean up on other bs that you grab on an impulse. Try to buy a few cases a day, and the Walmart staff catches on, and you get the big NO.


The speedy lubes do the same thing. The 19.95 barely covers expenses, and they almost always try to upsell the customer on another more profitable service. So if they are doing good at this, they may not have to move at all when the oil goes up .08 a quart. They can clear over 100.00 on a 20 minute a/c recharge, or fuel injection cleaning, so .40 is no big deal.

[DaSharkie]

I do oil changes with Mobil 1 5W-50 synthetic every 3,000 miles on both cars.

It is all I have used on my vehicles for the past 7 or 8 years. Costs a bit more but I think it is worth it overall.

As for the quickie lube joints, I can't pay for something as basic as an oil change if I can do it all myself.

[Jasper 45]

Ok, The prices have not changed though, they may be but how are they passing it on to the customer by pushing that friggin PVC valve they always tell my wife she needs????

It could be the $30.00 windshield wipers, with installation included.

[DougVelting]

Im not trying to start a debate, but i do see his point, we've had hurricanes before, No? i cant remember the last time gas went up 2 dollars in a year because of a hurricane.