quick oil change company
Discussion
Went for a oil change here in Germany at the weekend, very interesting
this company, Mr Wash, has a big discount fuel place and car wash (good automatic wash for €5)
fuel is very cheap, cheapest in town, loads of pumps, the 'shop' doesn't sell anything but fuel, no queuing up behind some numpty getting a load of chocolate, crisps, coke and fags
when I was filling up there was a Maserati gransport, a Cayenne, a 911 as well as a few old Turkish Mercs and battered Skodas
off to the side are a load of bays, a few hand wax bays, then the oil change bays
drive round, wait outside one of the doors for another car to finish, then drive in over a 'pit' - not really a pit, because it's just a whole other room down below, not seperate pits
ANPR style thing reads your plate, show the bloke 'topside' you car papers and the make and model appears on the screen
video screen lets you watch the guy underneath do his thing
this shot, you can see down through the neighbouring 'pit', and you can see the monitor the guy underneath has, telling him what filter and oil etc
fixed prices for oil and filter, depending on the grade
bog basic stuff (but still Shell, not 'no name' oil) is €19.90 incl filter, 5w 40 synthetic is €49.90 which I think is great value
they charge an extra €10 for vans and SUVs, but doesn't say anything about any other big engined cars that might use a lot of oil - or say an air-cooled Porsche for example
bloke at the top takes your payment, you don't get out of the car
I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty, but this takes about 10 minutes, no buggering about under the car or trips to the dump to get rid of the old stuff
no trying to sell you unneccessary brake pad changes or exhausts, no leaving your car there all day or trying to get an appointment
do you have anything like this in the UK?
this company, Mr Wash, has a big discount fuel place and car wash (good automatic wash for €5)
fuel is very cheap, cheapest in town, loads of pumps, the 'shop' doesn't sell anything but fuel, no queuing up behind some numpty getting a load of chocolate, crisps, coke and fags
when I was filling up there was a Maserati gransport, a Cayenne, a 911 as well as a few old Turkish Mercs and battered Skodas
off to the side are a load of bays, a few hand wax bays, then the oil change bays
drive round, wait outside one of the doors for another car to finish, then drive in over a 'pit' - not really a pit, because it's just a whole other room down below, not seperate pits
ANPR style thing reads your plate, show the bloke 'topside' you car papers and the make and model appears on the screen
video screen lets you watch the guy underneath do his thing
this shot, you can see down through the neighbouring 'pit', and you can see the monitor the guy underneath has, telling him what filter and oil etc
fixed prices for oil and filter, depending on the grade
bog basic stuff (but still Shell, not 'no name' oil) is €19.90 incl filter, 5w 40 synthetic is €49.90 which I think is great value
they charge an extra €10 for vans and SUVs, but doesn't say anything about any other big engined cars that might use a lot of oil - or say an air-cooled Porsche for example
bloke at the top takes your payment, you don't get out of the car
I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty, but this takes about 10 minutes, no buggering about under the car or trips to the dump to get rid of the old stuff
no trying to sell you unneccessary brake pad changes or exhausts, no leaving your car there all day or trying to get an appointment
do you have anything like this in the UK?
EDLT said:
Hugo a Gogo said:
do you have anything like this in the UK?
No. Are Germans mad about oil changes, I don't think an oil only garage would stay in business in the UK.most people would do a 20,000km oil 'service', I think maybe a lot more people clock up big miles (big kms?) with the autobahns etc
Hugo a Gogo said:
EDLT said:
Hugo a Gogo said:
do you have anything like this in the UK?
No. Are Germans mad about oil changes, I don't think an oil only garage would stay in business in the UK.most people would do a 20,000km oil 'service', I think maybe a lot more people clock up big miles (big kms?) with the autobahns etc
LongLiveTazio said:
I'm sure someone once said you should change Merc oil every 4k or something similar. I think it's a lot more frequent in som places. Yanks change their oil more too?
Sounds like internet advice. Owners clubs take pride in wasting money on their cars. Americans have the same service intervals as the rest of the world afaik, they do drive further than us though.
EDLT said:
Sounds like internet advice. Owners clubs take pride in wasting money on their cars. Americans have the same service intervals as the rest of the world afaik, they do drive further than us though.
I didn't say I believed it was true, merely stating that I have heard of more than one ridiculous mileage car whereby the owner swore that regular oil changes were key to engine longevity. I've met a few Americans who are very keen on regular oil changes at far shorter intervals than we are used to. It often turns out that manufacturer guidelines on parts are optimistic (cambelts, tensioners, pumps etc.) so seeing as friction has such a bearing on life of components is it hard to believe it could make a difference? Just playing devil's advocate. If it were a cheaper/more transparent system would we not do it more often?I have a Canadian friend who goes OTT with oil change intervals, on what something that isn't particularly special.
It's definitely a north american phenomenon, didn't realise German too.
Maybe its in the culture, they don't realise that us brits, with our very lax (read: bare minimum) approach to maintenance have vehicles that last past 200k (engine wise) frequently without bother. Here its usually something else apart from the engine (combined with the low values) that ends up scrapping the car.
It's definitely a north american phenomenon, didn't realise German too.
Maybe its in the culture, they don't realise that us brits, with our very lax (read: bare minimum) approach to maintenance have vehicles that last past 200k (engine wise) frequently without bother. Here its usually something else apart from the engine (combined with the low values) that ends up scrapping the car.
americans at least historically always used much poorer quality oils in their american cars than us europeans used in our european cars. oil change intervals of 3000 miles were not uncommon, compared to 9000 miles for us. but their oil was that much cheaper that overall it didn't make much difference.
hence why there are so many quick change outfits in the states like jiffy-lube etc.
hence why there are so many quick change outfits in the states like jiffy-lube etc.
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