Motor oil madness

I drove by a gas station last evening and saw that a gallon of premium 91 octane was over the $7 mark. A gallon of diesel was nearly $9! That is quite high, even for California. No wonder my coworker has stopped driving to work and instead is taking public transit. That extra half hour of commute time is worth the trade-off at the gas pump.

Meanwhile, my 10 minute walk of a commute remains unchanged.

Nevertheless, petroleum isn’t just purely at gas stations. It permeates and affects many things we buy and consume. The ongoing war with Iran is putting a self-inflicted squeeze on the petrol supply chain, and we haven’t yet seen the full brunt of it. Gas prices finally cresting $7 per gallon here in California might be the proverbial canary.

Word on the street is motor oil is suffering through a shortage, and consequently pricers are increasing. I’ve got two cars, both of which are gas burners. Every calendar year, they will need a flush and replenishment of oil. Much like the great toilet paper stock-up of early 2020 pandemic, the supposed smart wisdom amongst the car enthusiasts discussion is to stock up on engine oil before the prices inflate any higher.

Sadly for me, I don’t have the space to store copious amounts of oil containers. The inflation hammer will just have to hit me whenever it may fall. My Golf GTI is due for an oil change next month, so I bought six liters of the good German stuff at a little over $13 per liter. According to what I can find, that price has remained stable from the start of the year. In before the lock? Seems like it.

My Miata isn’t due for a change until next July. Out of curiosity, I checked the pricing for five quarts of Castrol on Amazon. A jug is $32, which honestly seems reasonable given the surround news. According to records, the last time I bought the same oil back in 2018, it was $31! That is super surprising. Either Castrol has done the consumer a favor and kept the pricing friendly throughout, or the company has cut corners to the same product. Shrinkflation is a heck of a drug.

It seems, at least for the two particular cars that I own, the great motor oil inflation has yet to reach the shore. Of course I am fully expecting things to change sooner or later, given the lack of end in sight for the Iran war. I’ll simply enjoy the mulligan that I’ve got this time round. Happy motoring!

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Little red riding coupe.

We're all going to feel it

This morning I woke up from a dream that I'd bought a Mercedes G Wagon, the preferred wealthy housewife car of choice. I knew it was a dream even when I was in the dream because there’s no way I would drop six-figures on a singular automobile. Did that once, enjoyed it, not YOLO-ing like that again. To comfortably afford a car priced in the six-figures, you really should be earning well past the quarter-million mark. Unfortunately, my salary is closer to zero than it is closer to $250,000.

I am happy and grateful for what I already have: the perfect two car solution. A MK7 Volkswagen Golf GTI for the utility factor, and a Mazda MX-5 Miata for pure driving fun. Both combined cost less than what I paid for a brand new BMW M2 back in 2019, which is saying something given the abject inflation that’s gone on since then. Is this German and Japanese duo the ones to ride into the proverbial sunset? Difficult to predict, the future is (Yoda). I’m just really satisfied right now.

And thank god neither of my cars run on diesel. Thanks to the ongoing war with Iran that was supposedly going to end quickly, the oil shock stemming from the Strait of Hormuz closure is finally materializing fully. Here in California, it’s over $8 for a gallon of diesel! Even if you don’t have a personal diesel vehicle (thanks, Volkswagen diesel-gate), the repercussions of such high pump pricing will directly affect your wallet. Commercial transportation is hugely reliant on diesel. Cost of goods sold will continue to trend higher because the cost of shipping is increasing.

Never mind that petroleum is an ingredient in so many products that you wouldn’t think of. As if the AI build-out inflation isn’t already bad enough…

So you EV owners can’t sit there too smugly about your cars not using gas. Though they can be slightly smug at the news of Costco rationing the sale of motor oil and raising prices due to shortages. (The upcoming annual oil change on the GTI is going to cost nearly $100 in materials alone!) But, the downstream negatives of the oil shock will affect us all. This collective hurt is quite the revenge on the individualistic streak so prevalent in American culture.

Klarna pay-in-four at the gas pump, when?

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Here we have the GTI in its natural habitat.

Don't forget your dip stick!

It’s been awhile since I’ve owned a car that I actually have to check the oil levels on periodically. Turbocharged engines - like the one in my Golf GTI - can develop an oil consumption habit. That’s just the nature of forcing in more than base atmospheric pressure into the combustion chamber. So it’s important to keep track so that the engine isn’t starved of oil. You kind of don’t want to wait for the low oil level warning light to come on.

Unless of course you have a late model BMW. My previous BMW M2 has a turbocharged engine, but no physical dip stick. The method to measure the oil level is through the infotainment menu, which nobody does, and I certainly didn’t. How would you know your BMW turbo engine is in good health vis a vis motor oil? The low level light never comes on in between changes. And thankfully on my M2 it never did over the five years of ownership.

The Golf has a physical dipstick, so I’ve been checking oil levels at every refueling stop. But there’s a problem. In order to get an accurate reading, the ground has to be level. Unfortunately, there is no standard that mandates gas stations to be graded flat. Depending on which way the floor is slanted, the reading could falsely swing optimistic or pessimistic. If you’re a psychopath like me, then you’re seeking out gas stations with as level a spot as possible.

Normal people don’t do this. Heck, normal drivers hardly check the oil. The warning light is the call to action. Modern engines have absurdly long oil change intervals, too. The BMW M2 calls for every 10,000 miles, or one year. Actual mechanics would advise around 5,000 mile intervals for turbocharged engines. Perhaps it’s a testament to how excellent engine and oil technology have become that we don’t hear much about adverse oil consumption and subsequent failed motors (outside of Hyundai’s GDI).

Unfortunately, the EA888 engine in the GTI can be bit of an oil drinker, so I’m going to keep tabs on it like a hawk. I can remember doing the same with a Subaru WRX STI, carrying a quart jug of motor oil at the ready. That’s car life.

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Above water gardener.