From a previous post…
Is synthetic motor oil manufactured from petroleum?
Yes, it is, generally. The cheaper versions, Group III, for sure are. Pennzoil makes synthetics from natural gas.
"There are two distinct types of synthetic oils – Group III and Group IV oils. Group III oils are made using petroleum which has been reprocessed after the producers have extracted the materials that would make gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and all other crude oil products. They offer molecular stability and uniformity and also result in better performance. They are sometimes known as synthesized hydrocarbons.
Meanwhile, Group IV oils use simpler chemical compounds to synthesize and are made from polyalphaolefins (PAOs) which offer excellent stability, molecular uniformity and better overall performance in extreme hot and cold conditions."
Call me cynical but years ago when Esso “Put a Tiger In Your Tank”, American had “Platformate”, Sun Oil had “Racing Fuel” and Savon Gas and Bi-Lo had the lowerst pricesI had the occasion to spend some time at a local Tank Farm distributing gas throuout the region.
The tankers would all line up at the same pipe, flip their card to the appropriate retailer’s name, fill up and be on their way.
Now I don’t know if things have changed but since then I’ve never placed much stock in manufacturers’ claims.
Returning to the present day, it seems that everybody is increasing their prices and blaming it on that mysterious culprit “Inflation” when the reality they’re simply taking the opportunity to increase their profits
Case in point, Hyundai hasn’t increased their Dealer Price or Sticker Price to account for any higher material / labor costs or decline in the value of the Dollar (Inflation) BUT the local Dealer was swift to tack on an additional 10%-20% Dealer Markup which is pure profit.
I can’t blame the Dealer, their goal is to make as much as they possibly can and if they can blame the increase on someone else so much the better but we don’t have to believe them.
We really need to improve our HS and College education in Practical Economics. 
Wait a minute. Does this mean NASCAR is a rich boys game? Who knew? 
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This doesn’t make sense. ‘Everyone’ could do that any time they wanted, if that’s all there was to it.
As for Hyundai dealers, don’t you think the fact that new car inventories (supplies) are down 80% has a BIG impact on why prices are up? It’s not just that the dealers decided that this would be a good time to make more money, basic economics of low supply/high demand are causing the prices to jump.
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Hechinger. I used to shop there exclusively until Home Depot ran Hechinger out of its home town. Sears and Montgomery Ward we’re competitors in Central Maryland for them too. Wards blew up first, but the damage was already done. Now it’s Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace Hardware.
Brings back memories. I bought all my replacement fixtures for our first house there, and all of the lighting and ceiling fans at Hechinger for our current home. My middle daughter was dubbed “the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen” by a passing grandmother while we waited a a counter to buy something.
I thought my olds cutlass was supreme.
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No comparison to mine that was Dynamic 
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Found memories of Hechingers and EJ Korvettes,
Time and changes passes by.but still have some or their all metal electrical tools and hope that my current tools last nearly as long.
My last Olds was a Royale.
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What type of oil is WM ST for $16.98? Conv or syn or blend?
$16.98 Super Tech All Mileage SAE 10W-30 Motor Oil
$19.66 Castrol GTX conventional 10W-30
$16.98 Quaker State All mileage 10W30
$14.45 Chevron Supreme 10W30
$18.98 Pennzoil 10W30 conventional
Been buying syn oil lately. And the shelves at my store are bare.
Had to go to store 15 mi away to find good stock
My suburb is toney. Folks there don’t work on their cars.
Could be either. The supertech oils have gotten confusing. They used to have just synthetic and conventional and maybe a high mileage synthetic. Now they’ve got all mileage…whatever that means. I’ve come to consider conventional and synthetic blend as the same thing, really. Who knows how much synthetic is blended in anyway.
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The price of oil is a reflection of inflation
+1
None of the synthetic blend containers that I have looked at stated the percentage of synthetic that they contain. For all we consumers know, it could be 1%.
Many years ago, Smokey Yunick talked about race car drivers who endorsed STP, or Casite, or… whatever… “miracle oil additive” they claimed to use. He stated that it was typical for those guys to add only a drop or two to their crankcase, just so that they weren’t lying about using it. The amount of synthetic oil in a batch of synthetic blend could be similarly sparse.
No it isn’t. Price of oil has fluctuated greatly in the past 20 years while inflation has been very low and steady.
Agreed, the price of crude oil is a reflection of the strength of the OPEC cartel to control production and set prices. OPEC attempts to create an agreement to assign maximum oil production limits and minimum prices on it’s members but remember that not every oil producing country (including the US and Russia) is a member of OPEC and even among member countries “cheating” is hardly unknown.
In the US (which can now meet 100% of our Domestic needs) production is dependent on the price and with the unexpected jump in demand & price, I’ll bet that a whole lot of Shale and Sand producers are pumping for all they’re worth
Inflation however is an overall decline in a currency value affecting ALL goods and services, which definately hasn’t happened…
i.e The Dollar declines 10% in relation to the Euro, Swiss Franc, Yen, etc
I view this as a major failing in our HS and College educational system which allows “supposedly educated” people to graduate and allows them to make personal economic decisions without even a basic understanding of Practical Economics.
That isn’t an example of inflation. We can have inflation in the US with no change in exchange rates.
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Oil! Try greeting cards. Got a standard, no pop up, no music, no three dimensional cutouts, Valentine card, $6.50.