neutron star raises an important point. If you do your own oil change, what do you do with the used oil and oil filter? If there’s a friendly service station nearby that will take them, great, but if not, you’re kind of stuck. And if anyone says, “Oh, I just pour the old oil down the storm drain,” we’ll be getting out the whipping stick!
Yarster’s experience matches mine. The only “upselling” I’ve encountered at Jiffy Lube involved half-hearted efforts to get me to agree to having the transaxle fluid changed, or for a radiator flush and fill (which the car was actually way overdue for, anyway, so I let them do it).
But Yarster, you’ve got to get away from the Big Three auto makers! Get yourself a nice American car, like a Honda Accord (built in Ohio, natch!). Then you can at least get over 100k miles before the pricey repairs start to appear.
I took my car to Jiffy Lube once, and they did a decent job in a reasonable amount of time. I have no problems with em. And my dealer actually suggests 5,000 mile increments. I think it’s even in my car’s manual to bring it in every 5,000 miles.
I work for one of the big 3 automakers and I’m gonna give my you lucky dopers a valuable tip.
If your vehicle is within 6 years/75,000 miles, have ALL YOUR OIL CHANGES PERFORMED AT A DEALER–even though this can be significantly less convenient and more expensive it is to your advantage. Why you may ask? It can save you buckets of money when you have a break down. Think of it as paying into an extended warranty. Allow me to expand:
Every auto manufacture has a goodwill program to assist qualified customer’s who request financial help for repairs outside the warranty. Customers who have demonstrated loyalty to the manufacture by returning for regular maintenance are a sure bet to get help. I work at Ford Motor and I’ve personally awarded as much as 2 grand towards a trans or engine replacement. When we review a customer’s request for goodwill help the first thing we do is call the dealer Service Manager and review the customer’s service history. If the customer is coming in for warranty work only and goes elsewhere for oil changes, forget it, he/she won’t get a dime worth of help. The key is to build a paper trail of paid maintenance at a dealer.
And another tip, don’t be a sucker by accepting all the maintenance your service adviser says you need. To keep your warranty valid you’re only required to follow what’s prescribed in your manufacture’s Maintenance Schedule. So when your service adviser tries to upsell or scare you in to accepting the replacement PCV, injector flush, or whatever, politely decline and state you’re following the maintenance schedule recommendations.
Well there was the car that was towed in to my dealership, after visiting a local Iffy lube.
They drained the oil, drained the trans, drained the diff. then they filled the engine oil, filled the trans. and shipped the car. The bearings in the diff were so cooked that I had to use a sledge hammer to get the pinion out. That bill was just about $2500.
Or the people who have late model cars with Asin-Warner transaxles that take synthetic ATF and won’t work on regular Dexron III. want to take a guess what happens when the wrong fluid is put into that trans? Guess how much a new trans costs? those idiots can cost you a lot of money.
But hey, it’s your car.
I usually take my car to the Wal*Mart in town, if Gunslinger’s not within 1,700 miles to make him do it for me. They’re quick, good and inexpensive. Once we had trouble getting the oil filter off, as they seemed to have used an impact wrench and we had no strap wrench to pry it off with, but that’s it - I usually have no problem.
Last time I got the oil changed, though, the wait at WM was over an hour and a half just to get them to start on it, so I decided to go to the Jiffy Lube up the street, where the guy promptly started his upsell. He told me that the “active cells in the transmission fluid are going inactive” so I ought to pay extra for them to replace it. I just looked at him for a minute, debating replies, before informing him that I’m not an idiot and I’m just here for an oil change.
Thirty years fixing cars and I’ve never heard that one before. They may not have integrity, but at least they’re creative. :dubious:
CriticalMass’s point is a good one to consider. I assume it would necessary or at least helpful to patronize the dealership for more than just oil changes, also going to them for 15K/30k/etc. servicing.
Be aware that most dealerships construct their own maintenance schedules which typically include more–and cost more-- than what’s in the factory schedule. This is not necessarily a bad thing–for example, I’ve never seen throttle body cleaning in a factory schedule, but a lot of modern cars benefit from it.
As to upselling and doing things right, these vary with the particular venue. Statistically, a greater level of competence is likely to found at a dealership than at a chain operation. Still, there are some clunker dealers out there, and most chain stores do a decent job. And of course there’s the third option, an independent repair shop.
There are a lot of different situations which vary from town to town and from person to person. Probably the best advice is to review and consider the comments in this thread, and investigate the particular service providers that you would choose from. Then make a decision that works best for your circumstances.
I suddenly remember that I was a recipient of this once. I had been driving a Cavalier and had all service done at a Chevy dealership that was a few blocks from work. After dropping it off for a regular oil change (and no problems with the car), they called me that morning to say that the serpentine belt was cracked and that it needed replacing. Cost ~ $1000! I thought they were trying to screw me over, so I told them to not do that repair.
They called back a couple hours later to say that they were going to do a one-time goodwill repair, and that I didn’t have to pay for it.
My next car might be an Acura, and the closest dealership is not very handy - it’s about a 30 minute drive to get there, and the service department is not open during the evening. I would prefer to take the car to a dealership for many of the reasons you all have mentioned above, but it would be much easier to take it to a nearby Jiffy Lube or Firestone for the simple stuff like oil changes.
Yeah? I took mine in once for a oil change & lube & then I noticed that he didn’t do any lubing. I asked him why & he said that my car doesn’t
have any lube fittings. I remember that my real old cars do. So is this ‘oil & lube’ idea just another bunch of crap to get people to pay more?
Damn AV8R, the serpentine belt’s a pain in the ass, but I don’t think it should cost $1000. As a matter of fact, my girlfriend had hers changed on her Cavalier a few years ago and I don’t remember how much it cost–which means that it mustn’t have been outrageous. Sounds like you did the right thing!
handy, I take my '98 Sunfire to Sears, WalMart, or really wherever’s convenient for “oil & lube” service, and it’s always spelled out on the receipt what exactly they did, and it always says something like “Lube Fittings: 0” for my car, too. I seem to remember my '86 Buick Regal had them, though.
“Lube” is understood to include greasing grease fittings, if applicable, and checking and topping up basic fluid levels. It’s not that you pay more if you don’t have grease fittings, but that a bit more gets done if you do.
I always took my car to quicky places. I’m not even sure where a Ford dealership would have been.
For the most part, I didn’t have any problems, but I did have a couple of nasty things. At one place (the name escapes me), some 14-year old kid screwed the new oil filter on without removing the previous seal from where it had stuck to the housing. So, when he cranked the engine, all of the oil he’d just stuck in burst out of my car onto the floor. They gave me a discount (for what that’s worth).
I think it was Jiffy Lube that annoyed the piss out of me with their constant “You need a new air filter, you need new coolant, you need this and that.” Dude, I just bought this car 6 months ago and replaced EVERYTHING. It’s fine. Stop taking pieces off of my car and just change the damn oil.
When I wanted to change the air filter myself at the scheduled time, one of the bolts holding it in had been cross-threaded into its nut. I know I didn’t buy it that way, since I had changed the air filter before, so it had to be that bastard who just had to take my air filter out to show me how dusty it was. Yeah, dude, it filters out dust. It’s gonna be dirty.
Back to the OP: Look for a place that will just change your oil and not keep trying to rip you off or mess with stuff that doesn’t need messing. Keep track of what needs to be done when (fluids, filters, etc) and ask them to do it when it gets done. At Jiffy Lube, it’s always time to change your air filter.
With all the advice in this thread, I’d like to come to a conclusion: Try some places out and go with the place with the best price and service. Sometimes it’s the dealer, sometimes it’s Jiffy Lube.
One local
goodyear store changes your oil for $19.95. It costs me about $14.00 for filter & oil to do it myself, so there isn’t much savings. It’s nice not having to wait for them to do it but thats about it.
