quote:
The last data I saw indicated the Iffy Lubes do about 85% of the oil changes in the country. They are not nearly as bad as they are blamed for being.
The popular 'iffy lube' that I am the manager of does over 15,000 oil changes a year, with a total warranty pay-out last year of about $800 ($700 of which was due to repair on a hood that got damaged when the customer's gas struts gave out and slammed down). Less than 1/4 of 1% of net sales were used to pay for warranty expenses, most of them being dipsticks breaking off on 3.3L intrepids and zetec-focuses. I have a feeling that even the most experienced list member on here would have similar results if he did as many vehicles as we service a year.
Then again, everyone should be so lucky to know that their car is serviced at an 'iffy lube' run by a BITOG'er.
Another point I would like to make - people give a lot of bashing towards 'iffy lubes' for recommending extra services. Well, you obviously are not the same clientele that we get every day. Probably one in ten cars have no oil on the dipstick when they come in, one in five are at least a quart low, and one in fifteen has gone over 15K miles on their last service with bulk dino oil. probably 1 in 10 cars have their check engine light on, one in three cars have lights burned out, and 9 in 10 cars have tires inflated to improper pressures. hmmm what else... oh yeah. I have seen people in the air filter forum post a pic of a filter and saying, 'wow look how dirty this one is!'. Well I see filters worse than those at least once an hour and i have literally pulled air filters out of cars that are dripping with oil and blow by and weigh two pounds!!
Where do we get our recommendations from is a common question. They are complied by a company straight from the severe service section of the new vehicles owners manuals are printed out as each car is put into the computer system in the service bay so we have accurate manufacturer-endorse service intervals. there is NO fluid comparisons, NO recommendations based on looks, tastes, smells, etc, and definitely NO recommendations if the manufacturer has no specific recommendation for the service.
The vast majority of America do not maintain their cars AT ALL and they are lucky there are places like 'iffy lubes' that check out and recommend services to them. And then they wonder why their car is running poorly or is stuck on the side of the interstate some day. Usually we get blamed either way.
I think it is way too easy to get sucked into the BITOG mentality and not see that the people on here are the very pinnacle of preventative maintaintence and are educated enough to know if they can safely stretch service intervals, let an air filter stay for 50K, etc etc etc. The fact is, 'iffy lubes' do not exist for us - they exist for the people who will never visit BITOG and don't know washer fluid from antifreeze.
Lastly - I hear a lot of crap going to 'iffy lubes' for perpetuating the old-school 3K mile service interval. While it has certainly been proven that this recommendation is out of date for most vehicles that are well taken care of, AGAIN - you have to realize what our clientele are like. Rememeber how I said one in ten have no oil on the dipstick when they come in? That is with them assuming a 3K mile interval. And now you blast iffy lubes for not telling customers to come in for 5K or more miles? Clearly those of you who would insist on this are clueless as to how 'other people' think. We can tell them 3K, we will see them in 4500. If we tell them 5K, we might see them in 6000 - which would mean many more cars with low oil for longer periods of time, running low tires for longer, empty radiators for longer, transmissions two quarts low longer, etc etc etc. I do not deny that the oil companies seek higher profits by not recommending longer service intervals for an oil change. But it is all the other stuff that gets check at an oil change that gets neglected in the process.
Clearly, the majority of America is NOT ready for extended drain intervals. For the rest of us - it's a no brainer.
I hope this insight from a veteran oil change manager helps shed some light on the vastly different climate there is between BITOG'ers and middle america.
Andy