This has my observation too. Being that I use only synthetic, it has been a long time since I have priced dino. But, last August I helped my son move for a new job. It was my assignment to drive his car to their new town. So, being my nature I checked the oil and found it was too low to register on the dipstick. Ahhh! So off to Walmart for oil
My plan was to save money and just buy dino, since he was surely going to need a full oil & filter job after the move. I was shocked, however, when I started pricing it and found that a 5qt. jug of dino was only $2-$4 less than a 5qt. jug of full synthetic.
I'm always surprised when I hear people talk about putting dino in their car because it just isn't worth the cost for synthetic since they don't do extended oil changes. Everyone has their own budget, but for me I'm thinking it's not that much cheaper.