Overcharged for oil change?

[McFist]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, I was hoping I can get some advice on the following and hear other people's experiences with costs for an oil change.

I took my e46 BMW to an independent garage for a couple of bits of non-service work, plus an oil change including oil filter + air filter change - I did not request any other service items. I've not used the garage in the past but went there on the basis of it having good reviews.

The car is due to go back to the garage next week for some unrelated air conditioning work. The reason the AC work has not yet been done is that I was mis-sold a warranty by the dealer when I bought the car. The warranty should have covered the AC work, it turns out it doesn't. The dealer has agreed to cover the cost for the AC work but this took a few days to resolve, and the garage is now fully booked for the next few days so I've got the car back for now.

When I went to pick the car up today, the garage owner offered for me to pay for all the work at once next week once the AC stuff has been done. A nice gesture, and I think the reason in part is that he hasn't yet printed off an invoice for the work already completed. So I picked the car up today, haven't yet paid anything and the garage owner has handwritten the prices for me on a compliments slip, I don't yet have an official invoice.

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!

[McFist]

Thank you those who have replied so far.

AdDaMan said:

Moaning about paying £200 for an oil and filters change on an M3?
Seriously?

The car is a 330ci, not an M3

shake n bake said:

Just need to ask, why and how were you mis sold a warranty? Do you mean you assumed it would cover every part of the car and it doesn't?
The words mis sold are thrown around so much now, it's pathetic.

I paid for a Premium Autoguard warranty which covers 50% air conditioning work. Turns out that the Premium warranty does not cover cars over 10 years old, and the dealer had put it down to the warranty company as a Select warranty instead, which does cover older cars but doesn't cover air conditioning. Dealer says this was a computer error rather than theirs. The dealer is refunding me the difference between the two warranty types and paying for 50% of the required AC stuff as the warranty would have.

Yes, it was naive of me for not getting the parts costs itemised up-front and a lesson learnt. The garage have said that next time they are happy for me to supply my own service parts.

I will certainly be disputing the extra £7 for the air filter, the £3 screenwash and the £15 flush.

It is not the fact the garage have marked up parts that I am frustrated about, it is the amount of mark-up. 100-200% mark-up on the filters and 50% on oil over retail price - for the oil alone it's £35 more than I would pay had I supplied it myself, and I'm sure it's a lot more than that in pure profit for the garage. I will discuss this with them next week and I'm in two minds about them getting my repeat business (including the AC work) unless they can bring the oil cost down to something that isn't such a blatant mark-up.

It just seems wrong to me if a garage is making more profit from parts mark-up than labour.

Edited by McFist on Thursday 21st May 22:29

[McFist]

Can anyone explain more on the flush? I understand it's not necessary, what are the benefits and is this typically done when you request an oil + filter change only?

hora said:

Priced on the middling side but for a proper job done right you are complaining about 3quid on washer fluid?!

Some places shag people over washer fluid by comparison.

200 is light really. I'd chill

It's not the 3 quid, it's the fact I specifically instructed the garage what work I wanted doing both verbally and in writing when I dropped the car off with them, and screenwash wasn't requested. I don't like being charged for work I haven't asked for.

Sheepshanks said:

Not for branded fully synth.

It would be half the price from Costco though.


Was it a BMW indie? Not familiar with those but it's been noted the Merc ones have generally whacked up their prices as MB dealer prices are becoming more rigid.

It's a BMW/Mercedes indie

Edited by McFist on Thursday 21st May 23:29