Taking my own oil to a service
Discussion
Since I finally have a car I somewhat care about, with a modicum of performance, I would like to make sure that when it is serviced it gets the good stuff. Is it considered weird to order my own oil from somewhere like Opie, and taking that to the service? I realise that the garage will probably use whatever I request, but it would be nice to be sure, and also avoid any additional markup that they may apply (and delay if they need to order it somewhere). The same goes (to a lesser extent) to filters and other consumables. The car is going in on Wednesday to a local chap, he is well reviewed on good garage scheme, and a small independent. The car is a BMW 325ti, hardly exotic, but worth looking after.
I have not been in this position before so it might be a stupid question, thanks in advance for any advice you can give
I have not been in this position before so it might be a stupid question, thanks in advance for any advice you can give
Most garages will happily take on an oil change with customer supplying parts but make sure you take cash with you though.
Garages do make good money from oil changes, most garages get oil in bulk. Case in point a 200 litre barrel of normally 5/30 fully synthetic oil will cost in the regain of £320 +vat which works out at a bit under £2 per litre. What most garage charges is £6 per litre plus mark up on the parts £5 or so with half hour labour and vat on top its a nice little earner. The oil flushes will also make more on top 50% more than what it costs them to buy.
Now go in with your own oil and bits and to make it worth while the job it be cash job in most cases as there is no paper trail.
Garages do make good money from oil changes, most garages get oil in bulk. Case in point a 200 litre barrel of normally 5/30 fully synthetic oil will cost in the regain of £320 +vat which works out at a bit under £2 per litre. What most garage charges is £6 per litre plus mark up on the parts £5 or so with half hour labour and vat on top its a nice little earner. The oil flushes will also make more on top 50% more than what it costs them to buy.
Now go in with your own oil and bits and to make it worth while the job it be cash job in most cases as there is no paper trail.
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 !
I'd never heard of doing this until I got a Merc and the service advisor suggested it.Like you, it knocked over £100 off the bill - I'm staggered they'll happily give up the profit on the oil. They didn't even add a disposal charge for the old oil.
I suppose if it was a general purpose garage I'd just ask the question and say you want use a particular oil.
Sheepshanks 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 !
I'd never heard of doing this until I got a Merc and the service advisor suggested it.Like you, it knocked over £100 off the bill - I'm staggered they'll happily give up the profit on the oil. They didn't even add a disposal charge for the old oil.
MG CHRIS said:
We got a bulk supply of merc oil do a lot of sprinter servicing via a local company which charge £12 per litre now a sprinter holds 11-12 litres of oil yea not cheap but a good earner for us. Merc will charge even more for it.
I hope you're using the low ash stuff!The daft thing is some MB dealers sell pukka MB229.51 over the counter for less than £20 for 5L.
Sheepshanks said:
MG CHRIS said:
We got a bulk supply of merc oil do a lot of sprinter servicing via a local company which charge £12 per litre now a sprinter holds 11-12 litres of oil yea not cheap but a good earner for us. Merc will charge even more for it.
I hope you're using the low ash stuff!The daft thing is some MB dealers sell pukka MB229.51 over the counter for less than £20 for 5L.
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 !
I recently Took my R8 to Audi for a inspection service. I was quoted £1366 and asked if I could supply my own oil as I wasn't too keen on the stuff they used. I also decided to get a set of spark plugs while I was getting the oil. Cost of both came to £175 and brought their quoted price down to £940!Quite a mark up then especially when you consider you can get 5litres of the oil they use on eBay for £25.
Roo said:
He earns a living on the profit he makes on parts.
Yup and in retail you have to make your price competitive to sell your product, or people will choose not to buy.If the garage wants to turn you away from their service because you choose to supply oil, then that's their right, but it's a dubious customer service approach.
I take my own oil to the local small garage for servicing the Jag and the Merc as they have quite specific types of oil and his boggo out of the barrel oil isnt up to scratch. I have built up a good relationship with him over the years and hes happy to get a lot of business from me as I have 4 cars and in return I get to save a bit of cash.
I also often supply other parts (suspension arms spring to mind) as I like to know what I am getting and not some nasty pattern parts.
I also get MOTs at trade price and use his ramp and diagnostic kit for free if its not in use.
In return he gets all of my business - and I dont buy all the parts he supplies most of them - for 4 cars , 2 doing high mileages. I also help him out sometimes by running customers back home if he's busy and Im waiting for something. He knows Im an 'expert' on the things that go wrong with certain models and I sometimes help him out there. And at Christmas I deliver several cases of beer, some wine, chocs, biscuits etc for him and his lads.
Its beneficial both ways - ok so he loses a bit on the oil and the odd specialist part, but he gets regular servicing business and any thing else that needs doing on my cars. We are both very happy with this arrangement.
I also often supply other parts (suspension arms spring to mind) as I like to know what I am getting and not some nasty pattern parts.
I also get MOTs at trade price and use his ramp and diagnostic kit for free if its not in use.
In return he gets all of my business - and I dont buy all the parts he supplies most of them - for 4 cars , 2 doing high mileages. I also help him out sometimes by running customers back home if he's busy and Im waiting for something. He knows Im an 'expert' on the things that go wrong with certain models and I sometimes help him out there. And at Christmas I deliver several cases of beer, some wine, chocs, biscuits etc for him and his lads.
Its beneficial both ways - ok so he loses a bit on the oil and the odd specialist part, but he gets regular servicing business and any thing else that needs doing on my cars. We are both very happy with this arrangement.
balls-out said:
Roo said:
He earns a living on the profit he makes on parts.
Yup and in retail you have to make your price competitive to sell your product, or people will choose not to buy.If the garage wants to turn you away from their service because you choose to supply oil, then that's their right, but it's a dubious customer service approach.
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
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