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Marcus, Zoe, and David on Motiva's third base-oil price increase of 2026, Valvoline's margin squeeze, CarParts.com's new loyalty program, and the playbook for passing costs through without losing cust
Tyreese Burton
Oil Change Expert
Originally aired 2026-10-16 on the Mobile Oil Change Industry podcast.
Marcus, Zoe, and David on Motiva's third base-oil price increase of 2026, Valvoline's margin squeeze, CarParts.com's new loyalty program, and the playbook for passing costs through without losing customers.
Listen to "Oil Costs Keep Climbing" on the podcast page
Look… if you buy oil for a living, this week hurt. Argus reported at the end of September, updated October second, that Motiva raised posted base oil prices again, effective October first. Group Two up twenty-five to thirty-five cents a gallon, Group Two Plus and Group Three up fifty to seventy-five cents. And here's the thing: that's the third increase this year. June, then September first, now October first. Three raises in four months.
Yeah. Ad-hoc-news reported this past Wednesday, October fourteenth, that TD Cowen cut Valvoline's price target from forty-five dollars down to forty. Still a buy rating, but the reason matters: cost pressure. Valvoline already warned that fourth quarter margins compress three hundred to four hundred basis points because lubricant costs are surging. Even the two-thousand-four-hundred-store giant is eating it.
Let's run the numbers on that. If Valvoline, with all their purchasing power, is guiding margin compression of three to four percent on a two-billion-dollar revenue run rate, that's sixty to eighty million dollars of cost they can't pass through immediately. At fleet scale, the independent operator feels that same compression with zero leverage. The wholesaler raises your price on Monday, and your customer still wants the same price they paid in June.
Video summary coming soon — a visual breakdown of the key points from this episode.
Tyreese Burton is the owner-operator of MOMS Mobile Oil Change in the Philadelphia area and host of the Mobile Oil Change Industry daily podcast. He covers the business of mobile automotive service — pricing, operations, fleet contracts, and industry shifts — from the driver's seat.
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Expert in mobile oil change services with years of experience helping drivers maintain their vehicles.
