All my life I’ve changed my car’s oil myself. Although I will never go to a place like Jiffy Lube, a couple of weeks ago I received an offer I couldn’t resist: my Infiniti dealer offered to change my oil for $19.99. I can’t even buy good oil and a filter for so little. Between that and the additional value of my time, and ultimately I surrendered my car at the dealer. 45 minutes later, the oil was changed, and they had washed the car as well (which it sorely needed), and done a general inspection. It was a great value for me.
$20 is pretty damn cheap for an oil change and a car wash. I expect the dealer has all the right tools for the job, starting with a lift that gets the car up to a convenient working height. No doubt they are purchasing filters wholesale by the case, and probably buying oil by the drum instead of by the quart, affording them the best possible price. For all I know, they may even have an automagic oil dispensing system: insert the fill nozzle, select quantity, push “go.” (so…do they have something like that?)
So does a dealer turn a profit with such a low price? Or is this a loss leader, trying to get me in the door so they can sell me other goods and services?
I think it’s called word of mouth advertising. The idea is you’ll be so happy with the services you’ll gush about your Infinity dealer to your friends and heck, maybe even post about it on a board somewhere.
Yeah pretty much a loss leader I would say. As a tech I would change the oil, then check your CV boots, tires, bulbs, brakes, and look for a check engine light. I’d make a list of all needed repairs and go ahead and get parts prices written down. I’d give that to the service writer and he’d figure out the total bill for tax and labor, then add in some extra maintainence like timing belt, fuel service, brake flush etc.
You’d be surprised how often an oil change turns into a big money ticket. And yeah we had a nozzle that hung from the roof that would inject the oil directly into the car with a meter telling how many quarts were being pumped and we memorized the quantity to put in the different engines.
That’s pretty much what “quick lube” places, including ones that do nothing but oil changes, charge. I can’t imagine they take a loss on every customer that doesn’t upgrade something, but I don’t know. Though I guess the labor costs are much lower at jiffy Lube than a dealer. Oil prices have gone up faster than the price of an oil change, but I recently got 5 quarts (car takes 4) of higher end synthetic oil plus filter for around 20 bucks plus a rebate. I have no idea what the bulk prices are, but they do get the supplies in bulk.
Well at our dealership the normal oil change price is about 60 bucks. So they can easily afford to charge a mere 20 for a week or two to increase traffic. Even the loss on people who don’t upgrade is made up for by the normal price.
Here’s the thing: My car is only one year old. I bought it from them, so they know this. And yet the service manager called me personally to make the offer. So in my particular case, there was an extremely low likelihood of my car needing any service other than the oil change. If they want to make money by offering other services, it seems like it would have been smart to restrict the offer to owners of older vehicles that are more likely to need additional TLC.
That’s true! The only thing I can offer is that, many manufactures have started offering free oil changes for the first 2 or 3 years. The marketing departments have found that if they can get you in for the first few services to establish the relationship, then you are far more likely to continue doing so after the free services expire.
I’m not saying this is what happened but it could be a low key inspection program.
If I were a manufacturer and had concerns about the performance and wear of my discombobulator part on the car’s suspension I could send out notices to all of my customers to bring their cars in so I could inspect a bunch of discombobulators (without more units inspected I’m not sure this part should be a recall). But customers probably aren’t too keen on showing up just so I can get a better look at a potential problem.
… or I could set up a promotion through my dealers to offer a special on a frequently needed service and have their mechanics check that part during their service inspections.
AAA has been building new oil change facilities here and recently offered a free oil change and tire rotation in a mailing. It’s just a matter of using advertising dollars to expose potential customers to their nice new, clean facilities. The program is a success if some percentage of the people taking advantage of the free oil change begin to patronize AAA in the future.
I’ve been through that. My car had major repairs years ago, and the repair place mailed me a “coupon” for an oil change. I agreed, and took it in; when the work was done they gave me a form listing about $1800 worth of work they claimed the car needed. I took the list to my regular mechanic, who inspected the car himself…he denied half of the “needed” work and did the rest for about 60% of the garage’s estimates.
Depends on what services they offer. My dealer wanted you in for minor stuff to upsell you on their $150 detailing service, or remind you it’s not too late to add certain options that you might regret not ordering. Sometimes, they just want you browsing the showroom.
More money is made on service than on sales, so they have huge incentives to lock you in at the beginning. Dealers live and die by results of questionnaires sent out after service. Anything less than all 10s is cause for concern. If they can instill a feeling of being proactive, inexpensive, reliable, and accurate in their services you’re far more likely to give them great reviews ever after.
In this case the AAA coupon was valid for all of the AAA places nearby (which is quite a few.) So, it wasn’t the case of one individual franchise making the offer. It was my aunt who needed the oil change. She is very gullible , and still they didn’t try to up-sell her for any extra repairs.
Yeah, 20 bucks is about what you’ll pay at a Joe’s Quick Oil Change-type place. Obviously, it’s going to be the cheapest oil they have, unless you pay extra for something else.
$60 is insane for an oil change. I hope you’re getting a complimentary blow job with that.
I get those AAA coupons too. They inspect the car and list a number of expensive things that need taking care of. I don’t go to AAA anymore. When I last changed my own oil (a long time ago), it would cost about $10. $1 or so a quart of oil and $5 for a good filter. I realize the prices have gone up since then but I doubt at $20 they are taking a loss. I stopped changing my own oil when there were so many places offering an oil change for $15. Hell, the extra $5 was worth it, and I did not have to worry about what to do with the old oil. Firestone would accept the oil at no charge, but if they still do I doubt at no charge because there’s a tax on old oil now. Several places around town occasionally advertise a $20 oil change, including my own Honda dealer, who I trust.
I remember hearing on Car Talk a while back that some people that leased expensive cars (BMW, Mercedes etc) would take the car in for the first oil change, find out the dealer charged some incredible amount and never bring it back for the life of the lease. The manufacturers were having such a problem with getting cars back that had been driven for 3 years with no oil changes they found it easier to raise the price of the cars by a few hundred dollars (and who’s going to notice on a $50,000 car) and advertise free oil changes for the first 3 years.
If you buy the car it seems like a great selling point, if you lease, it’s free oil changes for the life of the lease. Either way, you’re paying for it without realizing it and it gets you in the door for other stuff.
On my last two Hondas I’ve ‘bought’ the maintenance program. I say ‘bought’ because if you keep saying ‘no thanks’ you can get it for just about free. On my current car I’m paying $1 per month for it, on my last car I think I paid $3 per month. You get some other stuff, but the only reason I got it was because it came with free oil changes. I figure at $36.00 or less per year, I’m breaking even on the oil changes (which are once or twice a year) and the rest is gravy.
In the Boston area, $60 - $70 oil changes are the normal at least for the cars I buy. Sure, quick change places send out coupons advertising oil changes for $19.95 but hardly anyone qualifies for it and none of my vehicles ever have. I can get one for just under $40 if I get conventional oil or $60 - $70 for synthetic if I shop around but that is the going rate across many different chains and independent garages. My current cheapest rate is at the very nice Toyota dealership where I bought my vehicle but they make you wait the longest too. Sure, they have TV’s, free wi-fi and free snacks but you can tell that they really want you to hang around for a while so that they can have a chance to sell you something else much more expensive.
