For about 7 years now, I’ve been changing the oil in our family cars (and doing other maintenance tasks too). It originally started as learning something new, then I thought I am saving some money. Now I think I am saving time, because I can change the oil in the middle of the night, in my garage, instead of trying to work my schedule and the kids’ around an appointment at some shop I might trust (no, I no longer trust Merchants or the like, but that’s another story).
Actually, I think in my ‘04 Matrix the only oil change I did at the dealership was the first one. And I planned on having the first oil change in my wife’s Honda Fit done at the dealership too, with the next ones done by yours truly.
My wife’s previous car was a Toyota Corolla, so it’s been very easy – both cars accepted the same oil filter and the same oil grade. The Honda being different, I did a bit of research on the Internet for good oil filters, got scared by shipping prices and decided to buy an oil filter at the local dealership when I do the first oil change.
So I did. Oil filter was $7 and change (plus $0.32 for the washer that Honda recommends to replace with every oil filter change – no comment on this). A bit more than buying it online, but less if I were to include shipping for a single item. It’s obviously better to buy a multi-pack and save on shipping, or buy a quality non-OEM filter (since the OEM ones are not necessarily the best or reasonably priced, according to several forums). A quart of 5W20 oil was $2.57 per quart (regular, not sythetic) – again, not a terrible price for a retail quart – but I decided to not buy the oil just yet. This was at the parts store inside the dealership.
After the oil change, I looked on the invoice. OK, $16 for labor, $7 for the oil filter, $0.32 for the washer, 4 quarts of oil at $2.57 per quart, plus taxes – somewhere at $35. They threw in a free carwash too.
But then, I started to think. OK, the oil filter was the same price as the one in the parts store. If I can buy online 6 oil filters for $27.19 and 6 washers for $0.96, I am sure their real price is much lower. Maybe it was separately packaged just like the one in the store, so whatever.
However, I know from watching the Toyota dealer perform oil changes that they do not waste their time with oil in quart-size bottles – Fred Anderson had an oil circuit that was probably fed from barrels of oil sitting somewhere in the corner. Manufacturers usually choose the same oil grade for most of their fleet, so it makes sense for the service shops to buy it in bulk. I am sure Honda does the same (if they don’t, they’re morons). But I don’t expect them to invoice me for the oil at the same price as the retail store.
One of the big revenue streams for car dealers is service – and they probably want customers to return. I would have been happy to see on the invoice the oil being $0.50 per quart (probably more than they pay) with a labor of $30 instead of $16 (since it took exactly an hour for the whole thing). Looking at things side by side, I may have said: ok, I definitely can’t beat the price for the oil filter they buy in bulk, or the oil they buy by the ton, and the labor is reasonable – I’ll be back here for the next oil change!
But if what they charge me for parts is what I would pay for parts at their store, which I know I can beat by shopping on the Internet, then their story for convincing me to be a returning customer is a lot less compelling.
Sorry Honda, I hope you can do your service better next time (when I buy the next car from you).
So, what are you doing with the old oil? How do you get rid of it?
Just curios
Advanced Auto Parts and other auto stores will accept it for recycling for free. It’s a bit messy to carry the oil pan around, but after a while you learn how to do it in a way that doesn’t mess everything up in the process.
I do like to tinker with my cars, but fluid changes is the one thing I always let the local shop do for me. Just yesterday, I had them do motor oil, tranny, clutch, and diff fluid change for me, and I am glad I did not have to deal with this mess myself! Having the car up on the lift overhead makes this work easier, especially when dealing with aggressive fluids like clutch/brake.
They did mark up the parts to almost retail level, but being the end customer, you kinda have to get used to that. Mazda has a great program for people who race their cars, offering parts at prices even under what the dealers pay for them. Honda doesn’t, quite to my chagrin.
Labor is where I paid most: at $85 an hour, this was a 1.5h job.
What is funny though, when I just go to get the oil done, with the same labor charges and parts priced near retail, it still only costs me $45 or so for the Miata. It’s a 30 minute job at most, if you let the oil drain out for 15 minutes. Makes me wonder what took your dealer the remaining 45 minutes. Triple wax after the car wash?
Glad you’ve been doing your own oil changes. I HATE dealing with dealers and mechanics. When i had the Trans Am I started taking it to Carolina Automasters in Durham. They’re more of a performance shop but they KNOW GM cars. So I trusted them for major work. I still do my own oil changes, I find it relaxing and feel if I can save money by doing the little things myself, it will be easier to handle the $300 job I can’t do myself.