Overcharged for oil change?

[*Al*]

Just serviced the wifes Aygo, oil and filter, air filter and X3 spark plugs. Done the work myself for a total of £36.

[corozin]

barker22 said:

Rip-off. £92 for oil, no chance. Not in a million years. You could get it for less at a petrol filling station....and that is already one hell of a mark up.

Well here speaks the voice of experience... except that I had to buy a top up litre for my 330ci at Chievely Services a few weeks ago and it was £18...

[Negative Creep]

bhstewie said:

Bonefish Blues said:

£60 incl filter for Fuchs Titan full synth at your local National Tyres (ex your discount voucher, which reduces it to c£54).

Obvious suggestion is obvious.

That looks very reasonable - our local National Tyres has always seemed decent.

Just bashed in my car reg for my Golf and they'll do an oil and filter change for £42 - five litres of Titan GTI Pro-C3 5w30 XTL is £35 by itself.

Just remember to actually book it through their website, I checked the price there, paid for it in store and got charged about £15 more for the privilege

[Motorrad]

bhstewie said:

That looks very reasonable - our local National Tyres has always seemed decent.

Just bashed in my car reg for my Golf and they'll do an oil and filter change for £42 - five litres of Titan GTI Pro-C3 5w30 XTL is £35 by itself.

Use them all the time for my hacks. Had nothing but good service from them and its a similar cost as buying the parts myself. Guess quality of service must vary by branch however.

[Fox-]

bhstewie said:

That looks very reasonable - our local National Tyres has always seemed decent.

They used to offer the same thing but with Castrol oil for £35!

[Collectingbrass]

Bonefish Blues said:

bhstewie said:

Bonefish Blues said:

£60 incl filter for Fuchs Titan full synth at your local National Tyres (ex your discount voucher, which reduces it to c£54).

Obvious suggestion is obvious.

That looks very reasonable - our local National Tyres has always seemed decent.

Just bashed in my car reg for my Golf and they'll do an oil and filter change for £42 - five litres of Titan GTI Pro-C3 5w30 XTL is £35 by itself.

It does fall into the "why would you bother to do it yourself" category, doesn't it?

Because:

1. It's my hobby as well as a necessity and gets me out in the fresh air
2. I don't invalidate the warranty with unnecessary overpriced engine flush treatments etc
3. I don't leave greasy finger prints all over the steering wheel, door and bonnet
4. I don't take it 16 miles out of the way to return it to the customer, with the roof down, the bd apprentice on board and leave the stereo at 11 on some fking awful rap station.
5. I then know it's been done "right", including oil quality etc.
6. My coffee tastes better, and doesn't come from a vending machine that's probably never been cleaned
7. I don't have to read the Daily Fail or Scum if I want something to read while I am waiting for the oil to drain
8. I actually check the fking numbers fitted to the actual fking tyres on the vehicle before I order them on line
9. My toilet actually gets cleaned properly
10. My "receptionist" may not be as fit as theirs, but isn't a refugee from Geordie Shore and has a brain but no diseases.


(Not National Tyres but one visit to a similar chain)

[SuperHangOn]

See it as a good test. If they bump up an oil change for every last penny would you want them to do a head gasket?

[Bonefish Blues]

Collectingbrass said:

Bonefish Blues said:

bhstewie said:

Bonefish Blues said:

£60 incl filter for Fuchs Titan full synth at your local National Tyres (ex your discount voucher, which reduces it to c£54).

Obvious suggestion is obvious.

That looks very reasonable - our local National Tyres has always seemed decent.

Just bashed in my car reg for my Golf and they'll do an oil and filter change for £42 - five litres of Titan GTI Pro-C3 5w30 XTL is £35 by itself.

It does fall into the "why would you bother to do it yourself" category, doesn't it?

Because:

1. It's my hobby as well as a necessity and gets me out in the fresh air
2. I don't invalidate the warranty with unnecessary overpriced engine flush treatments etc
3. I don't leave greasy finger prints all over the steering wheel, door and bonnet
4. I don't take it 16 miles out of the way to return it to the customer, with the roof down, the bd apprentice on board and leave the stereo at 11 on some fking awful rap station.
5. I then know it's been done "right", including oil quality etc.
6. My coffee tastes better, and doesn't come from a vending machine that's probably never been cleaned
7. I don't have to read the Daily Fail or Scum if I want something to read while I am waiting for the oil to drain
8. I actually check the fking numbers fitted to the actual fking tyres on the vehicle before I order them on line
9. My toilet actually gets cleaned properly
10. My "receptionist" may not be as fit as theirs, but isn't a refugee from Geordie Shore and has a brain but no diseases.


(Not National Tyres but one visit to a similar chain)

Wasn't my experience(s) at NT, hence my mentioning it to the OP.

In fact it was pretty much the antithesis of your scenario above. (Aylesbury, typically, btw)

Still, this is Pistonheads and gross generalisations matter

[Chris1255]

Looked at a National offer for my car but was put off that the website booking system specified the wrong oil.

They are very cheap so almost in the why bother yourself category but I still saved £20 and it's quicker to DIY by the time you've driven to a fast fit centre and waited for the job to be done.

[ZX10R NIN]

I have to say £200 for a service is pretty reasonable, they have to make a profit at the end of the day.

[Monkeylegend]

Nimbusjunk said:

I was phoned and asked if I was satisfied I said No I was not at all because the engine flush was taking the Micheal the girl said that service would contact me but predictably they didn't.
Never mind I am patient and will wait till next year when I chop the car in and will give the sales manager a lot of grief.
I couldn't be bothered to argue the toss about a few pounds at the time

Makes sense to leave it until next year, you might have calmed down a bit by then.

[imagineifyeswill]

That price doesnt seem unreasonable to me apart from the screenwash. I had a customer moan when I charged him around £78 for an oil and filter change on a C3301 about 4 years ago, parts only no labour charge, he soon piped down when I told him to try the BMW dealer about 200yds away who charges oil out at £21 per litre.

[Blaster72]

There's a really simple way to avoid this - ask for the prices and list of work before they touch your car.

The screenwash is a typical independents trick to squeeze a few quid out, the rest is just normal mark up. Those above stating they do the work for 50p is irrelevant as they don't have staff and premises to pay for.

The overall bill doesn't seem unreasonable to me so long as they did a top job.

[Sump]

Did my brothers oil and filter change on his E46.

Oil was £30 Dexos 2 from Vauxhall.
Filter £6.

[dave_s13]

I recently did a DIY oil, oil filter, air filter, cabin filter, fuel filter, power steering fluid change on my ford galaxy.

All oem ford parts.

£96.

As long as you keep the receipts I reckon that's as good as a main dealer stamp.

[Nedzilla]

My car is going into Audi on Tuesday for a big service and the cost of the oil change alone is £565! I asked if I supply my own oil what will I save and they told me £250. So quite a mark up on oil there as you can buy 10 litres of the stuff they use on eBay for just under £50.
I've also decided to supply my own spark plugs!!!

[bitchstewie]

Nedzilla said:

My car is going into Audi on Tuesday for a big service and the cost of the oil change alone is £565! I asked if I supply my own oil what will I save and they told me £250. So quite a mark up on oil there as you can buy 10 litres of the stuff they use on eBay for just under £50.
I've also decided to supply my own spark plugs!!!

I'm intrigued what car or dealer can cost more then five hundred quid for oil and filter as even at £20/l or something daft that suggests 20l of oil is required?

On a more general note, I do think some people (not you Nedzilla this is a general reply) forget that garages need to make money to stay in business and they make some of it through mark up on parts.

Generally you want to pay a fair price for a good job rather than a race to bottom where all that matters is the lowest cost.

And again, who on earth leaves a car with a dealer or garage without agreeing a price up front?

[pork911]

why was it a nice gesture to wait to print the invoice off until after the AC work?

[berlintaxi]

McFist said:

Usually I would provide my own oil, air and filter as I expect a garage to mark these items up slightly. In this case I didn't, and I believe some items have been marked up unreasonably. Here's what I've been presented with:

All the below costs are + VAT

Labour cost for oil, oil filter and air filter change: £45 - this seems reasonable
Flush: £15 - I didn't ask for this, I'm unsure of whether it is necessary?
Oil - 7 litres of Mobil 1 5w30: £11 per litre. I find this excessive, it amounts to £92.40 including VAT for the 7 litres. I can pick up 7l of Mobil 1 for under £60 including VAT at various retailers.
Oil filter - £10.44 - double what I would pay had I supplied it myself
Air filter - £19 (although the garage said £12 on the phone a few days ago?!) triple what I would pay had I supplied it myself
Screenwash - £3. The icing on the cake - screenwash was half full anyway, I didn't ask for this and I am perfectly capable of topping up my own screenwash.

So for 7l of oil, oil filter, air filter and the labour for changing these, the garage want to charge me £169.44 + VAT - total £203.33. I would have expected around £120 + VAT. I know that mechanics mark up parts but this seems to be over the top. Hoping I can get a PH consensus on this, thanks!

Allow for heating & lighting,business rates,rent,wages, admin costs, cost of disposal of your old oil and other parts etc. You can soon see where the need to make a margin on parts comes from.
Realistically the bill is not over the top for that sort of service.

[Fox-]

berlintaxi said:

Allow for heating & lighting,business rates,rent,wages, admin costs, cost of disposal of your old oil and other parts etc. You can soon see where the need to make a margin on parts comes from.
Realistically the bill is not over the top for that sort of service.

If it's not over the top then how come it's cheaper at a BMW Main Dealer?