What is the cheapest oil per quart??

[MrWideTires]

I'm gonna start offering $18 oil changes at my shop.. so I gotta figure out which oils are the best value..

I thought that the big 5 gallon bucket of Rotella 15w40 would be a good value but it ends up being $3/quart! The best I can find so far is Supertech for $2/quart and the Autozone 5+ jug..

 

[EvanD]

Your gonna need to buy it in a drum for serious savings.

 

[beast3300]

Supertech most likely at $2 a quart. Or if you get something in a 55 gal barrel or even larger bulk container.

 

[MrWideTires]

I already had barrels and you save at the most 50 cents per oil change and it's [censored] oil... I'd much rather have my customers see that I'm getting it out of a bottle.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
I already had barrels and you save at the most 50 cents per oil change and it's [censored] oil... I'd much rather have my customers see that I'm getting it out of a bottle.


My dad has a friend that owns an oil change shop. You pull in,they ask you what oil you want,they take the quart bottles off the shelf,and they change it as you watch.

 

[Chris142]

Pretty hard to find oil for less than $2 a qt these days. I did some looking for a large amt of 15w40 here. Even by the 55 gallon barrel it was over $10 a gallon vs WalMart @ $8.50 a gallon.

 

[tenderloin]

My advice would be to establish a relationship and make a deal with the closest Chevron, Mobil, Conoco, Shell or whatever local oil distributor. They can get the product at a good price...Might not beat some big box sales prices, but your time of running around and hauling product from Walmarts etc is IMO worth a few cents a qt. The rest is up to you.

Johnny probably has some great advice since I believe that was something he did at Pennzoil.....

 

[MrWideTires]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
I already had barrels and you save at the most 50 cents per oil change and it's [censored] oil... I'd much rather have my customers see that I'm getting it out of a bottle.


My dad has a friend that owns an oil change shop. You pull in,they ask you what oil you want,they take the quart bottles off the shelf,and they change it as you watch.


thats sort of what I do.. I have a lot of guys with very nice cars come to change their oil.. why pay $70 to get barrel synthetic oil, when I can do synthetic for $30+

 

[IndyIan]

You should be able to find a local sales rep for all of the big players, and get a bit of a discount compared to buying the oil retail I'd hope.
Maybe your strategy is to start at $18 a change for mystery barrel oil but charge a reasonable amount more for name brand oil out of a jug. The jiffy boob places here charge $20-30 more for synthetic oil resulting in $50-65 changes...
A $30 supertech synthetic oil change would make sense for a mildly educated customer to get IMHO.

 

[rclint]

The only thing I can see that may hurt you is the super tech oil.. It's fine oil I know, and many people do, however many people that would opt for a $70 oil change will balk at super tech oil in my opinion even thought it may be better than the drum oil they have been using, but they just see a drum when looking at drum oil, or maybe a sticker it may say Mobil but may be conventional not M1.. That may be a hurdle for you..

I think 5 quart containers at walmart is going to turn out being the best buy, and it will be worth it to you chasing down oil deals for sure now at local parts stores.. keep an eye/ear out on sales paper, here in the forum etc. A name brand synthetic from the local walmart lowest price may be a good option.. worth a few bucks to show your customers (as you said) your putting quality oil in their engine. I wonder if you could strike up a deal with local parts store/stores if you buy in quantity ? If so it may still be hard to beat walmarts price, and I actually rather shop at walmart unless you run into the oil isle whack job trying to impress/educate you on which oil you SHOULD be using, you don't have to listen to the counter coo-coo at the parts store, and not to mention all the professionals in the parts store buying mirror dice etc.

 

[yaris0128]

If you dont have a supplier for you oil I wouldnt offer any oil changes. Its going to cost you big time if your buying oil at any store in quarts. But if you really want to go that route maybe just stick with SuperTech dino/syn. For $18 thats a steal. Walmart cant touch that and they suck.

 

[eljefino]

If you stock supertech and a customer sees the bottle they might wonder why not get it done at a walmart TLE where it's all vertically integrated? I would keep the brand a mystery. Just say "Meets API specs". You presumably have a source of white box filters but Advance auto might still have powerflos for $1.99.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Oil change is a very competitive business, there is no money to be make there if you do honest work without trying to up-selling.

You can not survive with $18 oil+filter change, but you will not have many customers with $30 either. Reasonable price for dino+filter is about $25 for up to 5 quarts, $4 for each extra quart, for synthetic you can add $20-25 for the first 5 quarts so that it should be $45-50, then add $8-10 for each additional quart.

 

[3311]

Don't know where "North Port" is but assuming you have a BJ's nearby you could get Formula Shell about $2.40 a quart non coupon price for a case of 12, 5w30 10w30 or 10w40. They perodically have a $7.00 off coupon for any shell product. You can also get Shell Dexron 3 for about $22 a case. Rotella 15w40 is $33 and change for 3 gallons. This would give you the ability to use bottles and have an excellent oil as well.

I'm sure you could check out Sam's and Costco and see what they are selling as well. Although they have a limited selection most clubs are a little cheaper than Wally's when you buy cases.

I personally would much rather pay someone to put an excellent oil like shell in my car than Supertech from Wally's. Supertech is good oil but a lot of people wouldn't be comfortable with it like was pointed out earlier.

 

[sangyup81]

i would try to find warren oil or conoco phillips

 

[finalyzd]

Who is your current oil supplier? You should be able to get penzoil very cheap. That's why there's so many penzoil stores. And honestly customers don't care what oil is put in there car, I know that from experience. Maybe 2 out of ten customers will ask what oil there getting. And 18 dollar oil changes? What are you trying to make off that? 29.95 sounds a lot better. But anyways before we opened our stores, shell offered us around 6 bucks a gallon(bulk containers) . We chose to go with castrol since no one sold it in the area.

 

[CrAlt]

I have a hard time getting 10w30 Supertech oil from my local WM.. Its always out of stock and when they do have it they only have one or 2 jugs. I wouldn't want to risk my business on the stocking levels at WM.

I don't know where your getting your 55gal drums but a local distribitor here will sell you one ALOT cheaper then "50cents" cheaper then retail on a oil change..

A friend of mine gets 55gals or rottella from them for his farm and he said its almost 30% cheaper then buying it at the autoparts store.

Plus everyone knows SuperTech=Walmart. How are you going to mark up oil that everyone knows the exact cost of?

 

[Mokanic]

Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
I'm gonna start offering $18 oil changes at my shop.. so I gotta figure out which oils are the best value..

I thought that the big 5 gallon bucket of Rotella 15w40 would be a good value but it ends up being $3/quart! The best I can find so far is Supertech for $2/quart and the Autozone 5+ jug..

Why on earth would you want to do oil changes that cheap? You can stay home and not make any money. Why kill yourself with customers who are only looking for something for nothing? Once you go down the dark path of giving yorself away there's nothing left but bankruptcy. I've done this a long time and there's one thing I have learned. YOU CANNOT MAKE CHICKEN SALAD OUT OF CHICKEN POOP.

 

[MrWideTires]

Originally Posted By: Mokanic
Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
I'm gonna start offering $18 oil changes at my shop.. so I gotta figure out which oils are the best value..

I thought that the big 5 gallon bucket of Rotella 15w40 would be a good value but it ends up being $3/quart! The best I can find so far is Supertech for $2/quart and the Autozone 5+ jug..

Why on earth would you want to do oil changes that cheap? You can stay home and not make any money. Why kill yourself with customers who are only looking for something for nothing? Once you go down the dark path of giving yorself away there's nothing left but bankruptcy. I've done this a long time and there's one thing I have learned. YOU CANNOT MAKE CHICKEN SALAD OUT OF CHICKEN POOP.


I'm still thinking about it.. might as well make it $20.
The cheapest around my area is $20 for 4 quarts, $25 for 5 quarts..

 

[cryption]

Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
Originally Posted By: Mokanic
Originally Posted By: MrWideTires
I'm gonna start offering $18 oil changes at my shop.. so I gotta figure out which oils are the best value..

I thought that the big 5 gallon bucket of Rotella 15w40 would be a good value but it ends up being $3/quart! The best I can find so far is Supertech for $2/quart and the Autozone 5+ jug..

Why on earth would you want to do oil changes that cheap? You can stay home and not make any money. Why kill yourself with customers who are only looking for something for nothing? Once you go down the dark path of giving yorself away there's nothing left but bankruptcy. I've done this a long time and there's one thing I have learned. YOU CANNOT MAKE CHICKEN SALAD OUT OF CHICKEN POOP.


I'm still thinking about it.. might as well make it $20.
The cheapest around my area is $20 for 4 quarts, $25 for 5 quarts..


I bet their profit margin is minimal. Have you compared the price of the oil + filter + labor (someone has to change it). For the price of oil + filter being sold at $20 a change for 5 quarts leaves you $3 a quart for oil and $5 for a filter. Where is the profit?

Even if you run your own shop, PAY YOURSELF. Otherwise, the end of the month will come, you ahve paid all your overhead, but it turns out you don't have any left for you.