Gasoline is up 37.4% in a year while used cars are down 3.3%: where inflation is and isn't

Gasoline cost 37.4% more in October than a year earlier. New vehicles cost 0.7% more. Used cars and trucks cost 3.3% less. Those are the 12-month changes the Bureau of Labor Statistics published in its October CPI release on Tuesday, not seasonally adjusted, and they are the whole annual picture the agency gave us this month.

There is no overall number to compare against

The usual way to read a category is against the headline rate. This month there is none. The BLS release shows a dash in the 12-month column for all items and for core, with a note that October 2025 values are not available because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations: the bureau did not collect survey data that month. Our report on the release covers the monthly figures: prices up 0.4% in October, core up 0.3%.

So we cannot say whether gasoline is running above or below overall inflation by a given margin. What we can say is that a 37.4% annual rise is far outside anything else in the published data. For reference, the last full annual reading, September, was 3.7%, according to our September report. We are not claiming October's overall rate matches it.

The biggest riser: gasoline

The BLS table shows gasoline (all types) with monthly changes of 5.4%, 7.0%, -9.7%, -2.9%, 3.9%, 9.1% and 1.0% from April through October, seasonally adjusted. The September jump of 9.1% was followed by a further 1.0% in October, and energy as a whole rose 0.7% in the month after 5.2% in September. The 37.4% year-over-year figure sits on top of that run.

Here is what it means in money, as an illustration rather than a price quote. A gallon that cost $3.00 a year ago would cost about $4.12 at a 37.4% increase. A delivery fleet burning 10,000 gallons a month would pay roughly $11,200 more each month than a year ago for the same fuel. Your own invoices matter more than a national average, so pull last October's fuel bill and this one.

The fallers and the flat: used and new vehicles

Used cars and trucks are the one published category below zero, down 3.3% on the year, and fell 1.2% in October alone after rising 0.7% in September, according to the BLS. New vehicles are up only 0.7% over twelve months, with a 0.2% rise in October. For a landscaper or contractor shopping for a truck, the annual data says vehicle prices are not where the cost pressure is. Fuel is.

What to do with this

• Fuel-heavy businesses (trucking, delivery, landscaping, HVAC and plumbing fleets): the arithmetic above is the exposure. If you price jobs on a flat rate, check when you last updated your fuel assumption.
• Anyone buying a vehicle: the used market is the soft spot in this release. That is a national figure, so check local listings.
• Anyone with a CPI-linked contract: with no all-items annual rate for October, confirm which index month your clause reads.

Our inflation page carries the category figures and will update as the BLS publishes more annual changes. Three categories is a thin slice of a basket with hundreds of items, so treat it as a map of where prices are moving fastest, not a measure of the average household's year.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, October 2026 (CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted for 12-month changes); Chronicle inflation data. This is market information, not investment advice.