Early this past Saturday morning my brother and I were out and about running some errands. He mentioned that his wife wanted him to take her car (which we were driving) in for an oil change and asked if I minded if he took care of it. Being a BITOGer I felt like a kid at christmas so I said sure. But where were we going?....
So we pull into a Havoline Xpress Lube next to a fairly busy gas station with convenience store and drive up to the garage. Immediately a tech comes out with a clipboard to take information on the car and asked what kind of oil change we wanted. My brother opted for a conventional oil change (the cheapest). I thought to myself that the car had just over 80k miles - so let's see if they recommend HM oil. Nope. No attempt by the tech.
Once the car was pulled in and they started performing an oil change I watched through the glass in the waiting room in a way I'm sure only either a curious 7 yr old or a crazy BITOGer would. The others in the waiting room either watched the college sports on the old tube TV hanging in the corner or read the magazines on the tables that looked like they were 100 years old and had been chewed on.
The techs were young but I was impressed with their methodical procedure. The tech from the pit pulled the filter and plug and the car drained its oil. In the meantime, the tech was working on the other car in another bay as the oil drained for about 5 minutes and the tech below was putting on a new filter. The tech looked under the hood with a flashlight and checked all fluids. They did not try and upsell anything. I think I even saw the tech below lubing the new filter gasket. Impressive.
The one bit that got me was that I saw the tech pop the top off of the coolant reservoir and poured in Havoline Universal 50/50 coolant mix from a gallon jug. He then topped off the washer fluid out of a gun and finally pumped in what I assume was Havoline bulk 5w20 from an oil gun from some drum in the bowels.
They did have 6 gallon boxes on a shelf of the specialty synthetic and high mileage oils. All other oils came from the bulk tanks.
All in all about 20 minutes and it was something like $35 with tax. Now I know how most folks get their oil changed. A few folks came and went while I was there. Some walked across the parking lot to the gas station for I assume coffee or breakfast. It was the first time I have ever been in a quick lube but it was pretty uneventful. The topping off of the coolant with universal coolant I did not like. I could see this causing some issues with some cars with special coolant.
I was shocked to even see a woman pull up in a newer BMW. Must have been a lease. 
I will say that the young techs who worked there were a hard working bunch who look like they took pride in their work. Now I know the oil change experience for most of the population. I left the quick lube with a strange feeling...like I didn't get the good whiff of used oil, the scuffed knuckle or happy feeling of pouring new oil into the fill hole. The experience just felt so....disconnected from the joy of working on car. I guess it works for those who don't know what a drain plug is.
I will say that the young techs who worked there were a hard working bunch who look like they took pride in their work. Now I know the oil change experience for most of the population. I left the quick lube with a strange feeling...like I didn't get the good whiff of used oil, the scuffed knuckle or happy feeling of pouring new oil into the fill hole. The experience just felt so....disconnected from the joy of working on car. I guess it works for those who don't know what a drain plug is.
Good to hear there are still Havoline Xpress Lubes, someone on here the other day thought that brand was gone.
