Quick Lubes Continue to Thrive

[buster]

Link

Quote:
U.S. quick lubes posted higher average tickets despite a tough economy and growing oil drain intervals, and private-label motor oil products made inroads as a featured motor oil in quick lubes, National Oil & Lube News reported.


Quote:
Pennzoil remained the most popular brand in fast lubes, with 19 percent of LT30s listing it as their house oil. Private label was second with 17 percent. They are followed by Castrol and Mobil (each with 11 percent), Valvoline (10 percent), Shell (8 percent), Havoline (6 percent) and all other brands (18 percent). “We saw a really big increase in the use of private-label oil this year,” Neal noted. “It’s a little too soon to tell if that’s a trend or a statistical anomaly.”


Quote:
Mobil remains tops in synthetic oil, with 42 percent of LT30 operators listing it as their top-selling synthetic oil. Trailing it are synthetics from Pennzoil (16 percent), Castrol (13 percent), Valvoline (10 percent), Amsoil (4 percent), Havoline (3 percent), Kendall (2 percent) and all others (10 percent).

 

[dparm]

Funny, the Lubrizol rep was *just* talking about this the other weekend at the 10 years of BITOG get together.

 

[Mr Nice]

Lots of folks too busy to crawl under their vehicle to do an oil change. Even if they had the ramps, drain pan, oil/filter...etc they don't want to be bothered.

 

[toneydoc]

I must be sick. I should go to the doctor. I actually enjoy crawling under the cars and looking at the undercarriage. I enjoy getting dirty and oilly. What is my problem?

 

[Jocephus]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Lots of folks too busy to crawl under their vehicle to do an oil change. Even if they had the ramps, drain pan, oil/filter...etc they don't want to be bothered.



Don't forget about the recycling/disposal of the used oil

 

[daves87rs]

Well, at least they are still changing their oil. In this economy, I figured paying the cell phone bill was more important...

 

[methusaleh]

Originally Posted By: toneydoc
I must be sick. I should go to the doctor. I actually enjoy crawling under the cars and looking at the undercarriage. I enjoy getting dirty and oilly. What is my problem?

Me too, me too...I thought that most of us here on BITOG were afflicted with that disorder?

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: methusaleh
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
I must be sick. I should go to the doctor. I actually enjoy crawling under the cars and looking at the undercarriage. I enjoy getting dirty and oilly. What is my problem?

Me too, me too...I thought that most of us here on BITOG were afflicted with that disorder?


Yes we are, because every time I open the hood to check the oil level, my neighbors think there is something wrong with my car

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: methusaleh
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
I must be sick. I should go to the doctor. I actually enjoy crawling under the cars and looking at the undercarriage. I enjoy getting dirty and oilly. What is my problem?

Me too, me too...I thought that most of us here on BITOG were afflicted with that disorder?


Yes we are, because every time I open the hood to check the oil level, my neighbors think there is something wrong with my car

When I was a kid i was under my 63 Cutlass changing the oil and my Mom exclaimed "What's wrong with your car?"

She could not understand why I was 'working' on it when it ran well. Many still believe this more than ever as modern cars are so much more reliable than in the 'old daze'.

 

[stygz]

I was talking to some co workers. They most all go to some quick lube place. A few of them mark oil filters and such to they can go back and check the work that was done. After all that trouble would it just be better to have piece of mind and do it your self. To me a younger person at that (31) I would rather to that than facebook or text someone. Many people really like to pay for services of things they can do themselves. Alot of people claim they are too buisy. They pay for lawn services, oil changes and so on. I wonder what they do with their time?

 

[zerosoma]

I have learned to do maintenance on our cars, at least the easy stuff. One of the main reasons? To save money. A secondary reason? Because it's a hobby. A hobby that is beneficial rather than facebooking or collecting seashells.

I enjoy changing the oil. Actually I enjoy doing everything with our cars. Some of it is messy and dirty and I don't like it while it's happening, but when it's all over I can rest assured that things are running smoothly because *I* took care of them. And my wife respects me for that!

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Lots of folks too busy to crawl under their vehicle to do an oil change. Even if they had the ramps, drain pan, oil/filter...etc they don't want to be bothered.



Sizable percentage of people also that live in apartments, condos and trailer parks were it is either condemned outright from doing oil changes or is not accommodating.

 

[Bladecutter]

Originally Posted By: stygz
I wonder what they do with their time?


Probably working 60+ hours to be able to pay for all their services.

BC.

 

[fdcg27]

I dunno.
I find simple tasks done well, like car maintenance and minor repair, including oil changes, or cutting the lawn, to be relaxing after a day at work.
I tend to think of oil changes as a leisure activity.
Not hard work, and a closed end task, with no ambiguities.

 

[BISCUT]

Originally Posted By: stygz
I was talking to some co workers. They most all go to some quick lube place. A few of them mark oil filters and such to they can go back and check the work that was done. After all that trouble would it just be better to have piece of mind and do it your self. To me a younger person at that (31) I would rather to that than facebook or text someone. Many people really like to pay for services of things they can do themselves. Alot of people claim they are too buisy. They pay for lawn services, oil changes and so on. I wonder what they do with their time?


Same here. Feels so much better to do it yourself. Especially when you realize your ride is so important and not easily replaced! Unless you have it like that with lots of dollars.

 

[Mark_S]

Out of curiosity, I called my local Mobil 1 quick lube. For an oil and filter change using Extended Performance, they want $104. I pay about $35 for the EP oil and Pure One filter for my daughter's car and do it myself.

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Funny, the Lubrizol rep was *just* talking about this the other weekend at the 10 years of BITOG get together.


What!?! There was a "get together" and I didn't know about it!

Serves me right for not being here more often.

 

[armos]

I don't trust quick lube places. At all. I don't want them touching my car, it's not even about the money.

 

[DBMaster]

I, too, must be sick because I like doing it myself. Also, it gives me the opportunity to crawl underneath the car and check everything else at the same time. Oil disposal is easy. I can take used oil and filters to numerous places, or hang onto it with my other hazardous waste items and take it all to the city's once per month household hazardous waste collection events. Since I have been using 10K OCI's for years I don't accumulate used oil and filters that quickly.

I like to commune with the machinery, I guess.

 

[zerosoma]

Originally Posted By: Mark_S

Out of curiosity, I called my local Mobil 1 quick lube. For an oil and filter change using Extended Performance, they want $104. I pay about $35 for the EP oil and Pure One filter for my daughter's car and do it myself.


Here's an interesting story :

When I first left the nest, out on my own, I had a 2000 Chevy Impala. This was before I did my own mech work. It was a fairly new car with only 70k on it. My parents urged me to take care of it but boy did I beat that thing up. When I got a nail in my tire I opted to have it patched rather than replaced. I hardly ever got oil changes but when I did it was the cheapest I could find. One day I decided to stroll into a Valvoline because I hadn't changed the oil that year (!!!) and had them give me the basic Valvoline change. After tax and upsale it was around $50. I almost flipped.

I said I won't be changing my oil for a long time, ever. At least not for a couple years. Poor car.

I walk into a dealership now or a tire place and for synthetic it's almost always over $100. Makes me sick! What's sad is others probably have this mentality of not wanting to change for financial reasons too. One of the best decisions I ever made was learning how to do maintenance on our cars myself!