I have been watching the price of motor oil lately expecting it to start dropping now that the price of oil has been down for a while. In general, other than some really cheap no-name brands of oil, I really haven't seen the prices dropping in my area which is Anchorage, Alaska. I'll be changing oil in several vehicles in the spring, which is ways off so I'll need to stock up. Have you seen the price of motor oils starting to drop you area?Do you think the mfgs just had a lot of stock at previously high oil prices that they still need to move?Do you expect the price of motor oil to drop if oil prices stay down?And diesel drop nicely in Anchorage last week, it's now down to $4.04 a gallon. Bill

Autozone had a big sale last week in Arizona.I Think you will see rebates increase before an actual price drop.

Don't need it now, wait till spring. Current stocks are from higher priced crude.

Do not hold your breathe. 25% of a gallon of motor oil can be the additive mix and this is not cheaper. A big part of the cost is packaging and transporting it to a store to sell in small retail containers and this is not going to change significantly. Top quality Valvoline and Pennzoil motor oils are selling for less than $20 a gallon in the lower 48 and that means $20-$25 a vehicle for my two cars and $60 for my truck. Not a big deal and a tiny part of the cost of operating and maintaining these vehicles. The only thing cheaper are the wiper blades.

The cost of motor oil seems unrelated to the cost of gasoline, even though they are both made from oil.Probably 10 years ago, it was not unusual for local auto stores to have sales on cases of oil along with a mail in rebate program. With both the sale and the rebate, you could get oil for less than $1 per quart. And gas prices were still around $2.50-$2.75 per gallon. Then all of a sudden, motor oil prices skyrocketed and companies discontinued their rebate programs, and the prices haven't fluctuated hardly at all compared to gas prices.So no, I don't think we'll see motor oil prices come down.And in my opinion, you won't see gas prices stay this low for long. Something will give: OPEC will restrict volume, or American production will decrease because they cannot produce profitably at such low prices. Either way, prices will go up, and probably WAY up. Again, just my opinion.

I have not bought motor oil for years so not sure what a quart goes for. I know heating oil has come down in price the past month or 2 and it is nice to see gas down to 2.39 in our area. The local garage changes for $20 so does not make sense to to anything else.

The price of engine oil. | Good Sam Community

18 Replies

RinconVTR
Explorer
Jan 04, 2015
Bottled oil is not nearly as "fluid" and fast moving as the oil market in general. Supply and demand changes occur much slower.

This low per barrel deal is temporary, estimated to last 18 months or so, unless we drop too far and we'll see a quick spike back up again.

Anyway, I am on board with a few others. I don't think we'll see a big reduction in bottled oil price, but we may see rebates make a come back.
WeBeFulltimers
Explorer
Jan 04, 2015
noe-place wrote:
At the current prices I change my RV oil and filter for less than $35 and I do it myself using the best synthetic oil every 3K miles.

We could all do that if our RVs only took 1 gallon. My TV takes 13 qts.
noe-place
Explorer
Jan 03, 2015
At the current prices I change my RV oil and filter for less than $35 and I do it myself using the best synthetic oil every 3K miles.
westend
Explorer
Dec 31, 2014
Install one of these bypass toilet tissue filters and you can probably lengthen your change intervals.
beemerphile1
Explorer
Dec 30, 2014
Go to the manufacturer's website and check for a printable coupon. I have found $5 coupons on occasion.
lazydays
Explorer
Dec 29, 2014
pnichols wrote:
I try to buy the most expensive easily available oil that I can find for the RV's main engine and two RV generators.

Those three engines are very important to our RV'ing and for the few dollars more that those oils cost, I don't take a chance relying on the old urban/rural legend that "any oil that is the proper weight" is good-a-nuf. I like to assume that sometimes you might get what you pay for.

Whatever makes you sleep at night.
pnichols
Explorer II
Dec 29, 2014
I try to buy the most expensive easily available oil that I can find for the RV's main engine and two RV generators.

Those three engines are very important to our RV'ing and for the few dollars more that those oils cost, I don't take a chance relying on the old urban/rural legend that "any oil that is the proper weight" is good-a-nuf. I like to assume that sometimes you might get what you pay for.
tatest
Explorer II
Dec 28, 2014
Motor oil in consumer packages on the shelves in stores today was most likelly crude six to twenty four months ago; the distribution chain is long. The price of oil talked about on the news is usually futures contracts, for delivery 3 to 6 months out. Price from the tanker or pipeline today is from contracts made some time ago, sometimes a year or more. FJ went bankrupt because it got caught buy two and three year crude purchase contracts at too high a price.

Price of fuel products changes faster because those ate also sold as commodities, with the market shorter term than crude oil contracts, most of the time, because the contracts are for much smaller quantities and qucker delivery.
kennethwooster
Explorer
Dec 28, 2014
I run all synthetic oil, which uses none to little regular oil. IF oil samples are taken you can run 2 to 3 times longer on synthetic. Still I doubt if small containers of oil will go down much.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
Dec 27, 2014
Really doubt it will drop much at all since processing and additives are so much of the cost of engine oil

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The price of engine oil.

18 Replies

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