Taking my own oil to a service

[Robert Elise]

280E said:

McSam said:

f it were me running the garage, I would happily take the customer's oil, but if it left me marginal on profiting for the job I would add x% to the labour cost with prior agreement. This is much less effort than buying in oil, and still saves the customer plenty.

A bit like a restaurant 'corkage' fee

indeed, at least that's transparent.

[Shaoxter]

Always take my own oil and filter, never had a problem at either main dealers or indys. Partly due to cost but also because I'd like to know exactly what oil has gone in there.

[Swanny87]

Do the service yourself?

[Sheepshanks]

DanielSan said:

Roo said:

He earns a living on the profit he makes on parts.

There's sod all product in the parts for a service. The money is made in labour rates.

There is if, like MB dealers, you charge £15.95+VAT per litre of oil. The 4 cyl diesel in the vast majority of Mercs takes 6.5L of the stuff.

And the dealers under-fill as the high oil level warning is very sensitive.

[McSam]

Robert Elise said:

280E said:

McSam said:

f it were me running the garage, I would happily take the customer's oil, but if it left me marginal on profiting for the job I would add x% to the labour cost with prior agreement. This is much less effort than buying in oil, and still saves the customer plenty.

A bit like a restaurant 'corkage' fee

indeed, at least that's transparent.

Well, exactly! Corkage is the same concept. You want to reduce the cost (and/or improve the quality) by bringing your own, but this deprives the establishment of some of their profits so they charge you a little extra to cover it. Fine with me.

[towser44]

Took mine to a local indy my parents and I have used for years for MOTs, repairs etc for it's first non-dealer oil, oil filter and diesel filter change recently. Not that I didn't trust them, but I got the oil, oil filter and diesel filter myself because they were nice genuine parts and were relatively cheap from Cox Motorgroup. I was getting the cabin filter, air filter, some wipers and glow plugs anyway in addition to the above bits as I change them parts over myself. Also, it meant I knew pretty much exactly how much it would cost all in once they let me know in advance how many hours labour it would be for the oil and diesel filter changes. It was 1 hour labour at £42, which I was quite pleased with because I had originally planned to do the diesel filter myself, but reading online it sounded and looked like a pig of a job. Anyway, it saved me struggling on the driveway to access underneath the car for the oil and they were happy for the business even if it was just labour.

[ClaphamGT3]

in the extreme - just don't.

[Buster73]

[quote=tr7v8]Boxster is in for service tomorrow & 10L of oil is in the front in a box for them to put in. Because I don't like the grade or make they use. Never been an issue at all.[/quote


Don't like the grade or make they use ? Really ?

Just tell us you don't like the price they charge without the waffle.

[Qubit]

Last time I tried this with a garage I thought could be trusted the filter wasn't changed and who knows what happened to my oil. Do it myself now. Hell, even sucking it out with a pump and not replacing the filter is probably preferable.

[All that jazz]

jjr1 said:

I brought 6 litres of oil to my Mercedes service the other day and we dropped the price from £325 to £200. If you don't ask you don't get !

More money than sense? £200 for some monkey to undo a nut, place a container underneath, replace nut, pour oil in top and close bonnet?

[Olivera]

The downside is potentially the old: "Who is this smart arse bringing in 5l of Mobil 1? Give him the no-name semi-synth out the drum and keep the good stuff for ourselves lads".

[MG CHRIS]

All that jazz said:

jjr1 said:

I brought 6 litres of oil to my Mercedes service the other day and we dropped the price from £325 to £200. If you don't ask you don't get !

More money than sense? £200 for some monkey to undo a nut, place a container underneath, replace nut, pour oil in top and close bonnet?

You know a service isn't just a oil and filter change yea.

As for the no money to be made on parts post a few posts back theres £15-20 on average profit on oil in most cars and some cars merc sprinters double that. That's just on oil.

[All that jazz]

MG CHRIS said:

All that jazz said:

jjr1 said:

I brought 6 litres of oil to my Mercedes service the other day and we dropped the price from £325 to £200. If you don't ask you don't get !

More money than sense? £200 for some monkey to undo a nut, place a container underneath, replace nut, pour oil in top and close bonnet?

You know a service isn't just a oil and filter change yea.

I do indeed : It's usually just the oil at main dealers unless you pay extra for the oil filter doing. They don't even do the air filter either.

[jjr1]

All that jazz said:

jjr1 said:

I brought 6 litres of oil to my Mercedes service the other day and we dropped the price from £325 to £200. If you don't ask you don't get !

More money than sense? £200 for some monkey to undo a nut, place a container underneath, replace nut, pour oil in top and close bonnet?

Hardly as I don't have any other option. It is a lease car and Mercedes control the servicing aspect.

In fact I did pretty bloody well considering, as most other Mercedes garages wouldn't break the cartel pricing of £325.

[wack]

MG CHRIS said:

You know a service isn't just a oil and filter change yea.

Yea it's also a plug the computer in to find out if anything wants doing then shut the bonnet if it says no

Find a good mechanic and he'll save you a fortune, bushes cost a few quid, control arms / wishbones can be hundreds, ask what the main dealer fits ,full arm instead of a £8 bush, mostly because it comes to the same price as fitting a bush at £80+ an hour.

Servicing has to be one of the biggest money spinners for main dealers, the only reason they get to charge North of £350 is most of the cars under warranty are leased so they can charge what they want which is what they do.

[Sheepshanks]

All that jazz said:

More money than sense? £200 for some monkey to undo a nut, place a container underneath, replace nut, pour oil in top and close bonnet?

Undo a nut? They've vacuumed the oil out for years.

wack said:

Yea it's also a plug the computer in to find out if anything wants doing then shut the bonnet if it says no

I doubt many marques connect their diagnostic computer as standard - Mercedes dealers definitely don't.

[VolvoT5]

wack said:

Servicing has to be one of the biggest money spinners for main dealers, the only reason they get to charge North of £350 is most of the cars under warranty are leased so they can charge what they want which is what they do.

I know it is absolutely disgusting behavior and sharp business practice. Stealers know they have a monopoly and there are no cheaper alternatives available; I don't know how they can justify making a profit off the back of their vulnerable customers and still sleep at night, it is disgraceful and they should be ashamed.

[PanzerCommander]

wack said:

Yea it's also a plug the computer in to find out if anything wants doing then shut the bonnet if it says no

Find a good mechanic and he'll save you a fortune, bushes cost a few quid, control arms / wishbones can be hundreds, ask what the main dealer fits ,full arm instead of a £8 bush, mostly because it comes to the same price as fitting a bush at £80+ an hour.

Servicing has to be one of the biggest money spinners for main dealers, the only reason they get to charge North of £350 is most of the cars under warranty are leased so they can charge what they want which is what they do.

This man speaks sense, a while ago my dad needed new ball joints (MOT fail) on his Nissan Navara, Nissan wanted to charge him something like £800 for removing and fitting a new set of suspension arms and a complete pair of drive shafts for a couple of split boots on the CV joints. I told him to take it to the garage I take my car to for everything other than an oil change and basic service (which I do myself unless it happens to coincide with an MOT or such like then they do it with oil & filter I provide) they replaced the ball joints and the boots rather than the complete parts and including the MOT cost him less than £200.

For reasons like that I won't use main dealers for servicing anything I buy in the future as they are out to take the most expensive route possible most of the time.

[rb5er]

Sheepshanks said:

Undo a nut? They've vacuumed the oil out for years.

Who does? Not something I have EVER seen before and I have 3 mechanics as friends.

[ClaphamGT3]

VolvoT5 said:

wack said:

Servicing has to be one of the biggest money spinners for main dealers, the only reason they get to charge North of £350 is most of the cars under warranty are leased so they can charge what they want which is what they do.

I know it is absolutely disgusting behavior and sharp business practice. Stealers know they have a monopoly and there are no cheaper alternatives available; I don't know how they can justify making a profit off the back of their vulnerable customers and still sleep at night, it is disgraceful and they should be ashamed.

Significant overheads + tiny margins on new & used cars = need to make profit somewhere

If people bought their cars outright instead of bolting themselves into PCP deals so they can show the latest, vile, white VAG product off to their half-witted friends and neighbours, they could take them to be serviced where they liked