The Hands on Garage is not a new idea. That's the way "Click and Clack" got their start. They quickly learned you couldn't make any $$ with that business model. And oh yes, tools grew legs.
Jiffy Lube
- Thread starter The Critic
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My problem with Jiffy Lube is that they charge the same or often more than the dealer to do an oil change.
I also don't think Jiffy Lube is that bad (or actually bad). When you consider today's labor, $30 oil change for dino is good. Sure, you can get coupons for $20 oil change, but my experience is that the tire shop franchiser tells people to wait 3 hours for it, when Jiffy Lube usually does it in less than 30 mins.
Consider non-rebate oil and filter cost $15-20 after tax easily in special, $30 for an oil change isn't expensive (when you don't have to deal with the labor).
How much is your time worth?
Consider non-rebate oil and filter cost $15-20 after tax easily in special, $30 for an oil change isn't expensive (when you don't have to deal with the labor).
How much is your time worth?
I do it myself, no waiting, & full synthetic for what Iffy Lube charges for dino!
Remember that the oil change, for most places, is a loss leader. It gets you in in the hope that they'll get more work out of you.
Generally, the lower the oil change price, the more it's a ruse to really get more work out of you.
Of course, there are differences in approach to getting this extra work ranging from we want to earn your trust as an honest mechanic who will happily do just an oil change for you at a reasonable price, to let's see if we can charge you $100 for changing an engine air filter while we're at it, to being downright crooked and creating work that was never there.
I once was going to Ford dealers who were and still are doing reasonable price oil changes with MC 5W20 blend, thinking that reasonable price plus competence means I get the OEM recommended oil and filter, all the fluids topped up correctly, and the free multipoint inspection.
But even here you need to be careful.
First Ford dealer who has since gone out of business made up stories to my wife that the tire tread was low and that the steel belt could be seen. On the multi point inspection sheet the tires were marked as red while the brakes were marked as green.
When that dealer went out of business, she went to another Ford dealer. These guys advertise $5 oil changes, which they still do. So being smart we thought let's get an oil change for $5. Well guess what, the tire tread was now green compared to red that Dublin Ford read out 6 months ago and the brake depth was now red compared to green 6 months ago! In addition, they rotated the tires that she asked them not to!
So she complained to the service manager and said I came in not just for the $5 oil change but to have an accurate reading on the things that matter. On top of which she needed to go back to have the tires put back the way they were.
So she had to go back to this quite far away dealer and have it all done again.
So for the next oil change, I research the Ford dealers more carefully and choose one a little further away. I also ask them to change the fuel filter. They call up and advise that the fuel filter was "rigged up" in a strange way and can't change it and that we need our fuel lines changed. So we come back to pick up the car and they advise they did change the fuel filter after all. So we ask them why did they do it when they've advised that the connection was unsafe. They say that we can drive the car but to get it looked at. We ask how much and they say $100.
So I get home and find out who did the last fuel filter change. We ring them up, and to their credit, they take responsibility for a job over 2 years ago and agree to pay the $100.
We go back to the Ford dealer, and guess what? The cost of the repair is now $900. They had only quoted us one of the fuel lines, not the other one and not the labor! So we put the dealer and the party offering to pay together and they come to an agreement of $600.
The work is completed, and guess what? With my entire family in the car, the fuel line comes loose and leaks gas in a car park on our way home. The police and fire service attend and a good honest tow truck driver actually finds the issue instead of making more money from doing a tow. The fuel line had not been put on correctly.
So he fixes it and we drive home. In any case, we begin to wonder if they screwed that up, then what else did they do wrong? They advised us to change the whole fuel line which hadn't gone wrong in 2 years and then when they do the work it leaks!
So we decide to ask them to pay for an independent shop to look over the car at their expense. They make it difficult but eventually relent. They send over their foreman. Guess what he and the independent shop discovers? 1) That another part of the fuel line was incorrectly fitted and would have rubbed through and 2) That they destroyed the evap valve and we would have failed any future smog test!
Anyway, I digress a little but the point is, I trust almost no-one at this point. Luckily, through this episode I have located competent and highly recommended mechanics to go to for everything.
Lastly, I have an oil change pending on the Ford and it crossed my mind that with MC5W20 blend, the $5 deal was very good. Yes we had a bad experience at that dealer but the service manager put things right. So I looked up reviews of the dealer offering this and guess what I find? Confirmation of what this $5 change is all about. Every review basically said that the dealer was extremely smooth in advising them what additional work they needed to have. There was no pressure, just the aura of a competent dealer. So in each case they agreed to the work. Thousands of dollars later, their cars were in worse shape having gone through unnecessary work. The story for me that really spoke volumes was somebody who took their car to their regular mechanic who wrote this on a review site:
"He said, it was obvious from the cut rubber that the had cut off the CV boots, (remember those rubber things that stop dirt from getting in,) so dirt had gotten in and my axles were trashed."
This customer concluded
"Either way, my $5 oil change ended up costing me $800 and 8 weeks without my car"
So big lesson for me is, be absolutely confident who you take your car to for anything.
Generally, the lower the oil change price, the more it's a ruse to really get more work out of you.
Of course, there are differences in approach to getting this extra work ranging from we want to earn your trust as an honest mechanic who will happily do just an oil change for you at a reasonable price, to let's see if we can charge you $100 for changing an engine air filter while we're at it, to being downright crooked and creating work that was never there.
I once was going to Ford dealers who were and still are doing reasonable price oil changes with MC 5W20 blend, thinking that reasonable price plus competence means I get the OEM recommended oil and filter, all the fluids topped up correctly, and the free multipoint inspection.
But even here you need to be careful.
First Ford dealer who has since gone out of business made up stories to my wife that the tire tread was low and that the steel belt could be seen. On the multi point inspection sheet the tires were marked as red while the brakes were marked as green.
When that dealer went out of business, she went to another Ford dealer. These guys advertise $5 oil changes, which they still do. So being smart we thought let's get an oil change for $5. Well guess what, the tire tread was now green compared to red that Dublin Ford read out 6 months ago and the brake depth was now red compared to green 6 months ago! In addition, they rotated the tires that she asked them not to!
So she complained to the service manager and said I came in not just for the $5 oil change but to have an accurate reading on the things that matter. On top of which she needed to go back to have the tires put back the way they were.
So she had to go back to this quite far away dealer and have it all done again.
So for the next oil change, I research the Ford dealers more carefully and choose one a little further away. I also ask them to change the fuel filter. They call up and advise that the fuel filter was "rigged up" in a strange way and can't change it and that we need our fuel lines changed. So we come back to pick up the car and they advise they did change the fuel filter after all. So we ask them why did they do it when they've advised that the connection was unsafe. They say that we can drive the car but to get it looked at. We ask how much and they say $100.
So I get home and find out who did the last fuel filter change. We ring them up, and to their credit, they take responsibility for a job over 2 years ago and agree to pay the $100.
We go back to the Ford dealer, and guess what? The cost of the repair is now $900. They had only quoted us one of the fuel lines, not the other one and not the labor! So we put the dealer and the party offering to pay together and they come to an agreement of $600.
The work is completed, and guess what? With my entire family in the car, the fuel line comes loose and leaks gas in a car park on our way home. The police and fire service attend and a good honest tow truck driver actually finds the issue instead of making more money from doing a tow. The fuel line had not been put on correctly.
So he fixes it and we drive home. In any case, we begin to wonder if they screwed that up, then what else did they do wrong? They advised us to change the whole fuel line which hadn't gone wrong in 2 years and then when they do the work it leaks!
So we decide to ask them to pay for an independent shop to look over the car at their expense. They make it difficult but eventually relent. They send over their foreman. Guess what he and the independent shop discovers? 1) That another part of the fuel line was incorrectly fitted and would have rubbed through and 2) That they destroyed the evap valve and we would have failed any future smog test!
Anyway, I digress a little but the point is, I trust almost no-one at this point. Luckily, through this episode I have located competent and highly recommended mechanics to go to for everything.
Lastly, I have an oil change pending on the Ford and it crossed my mind that with MC5W20 blend, the $5 deal was very good. Yes we had a bad experience at that dealer but the service manager put things right. So I looked up reviews of the dealer offering this and guess what I find? Confirmation of what this $5 change is all about. Every review basically said that the dealer was extremely smooth in advising them what additional work they needed to have. There was no pressure, just the aura of a competent dealer. So in each case they agreed to the work. Thousands of dollars later, their cars were in worse shape having gone through unnecessary work. The story for me that really spoke volumes was somebody who took their car to their regular mechanic who wrote this on a review site:
"He said, it was obvious from the cut rubber that the had cut off the CV boots, (remember those rubber things that stop dirt from getting in,) so dirt had gotten in and my axles were trashed."
This customer concluded
"Either way, my $5 oil change ended up costing me $800 and 8 weeks without my car"
So big lesson for me is, be absolutely confident who you take your car to for anything.
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