This has always confused me - oil changes
 

ok so this has always confused me. I do my own oil changes, but this is more of a general curiosity that always comes to mind when a friend or relative tells me they had their oil changed at a shop.

Many places will do a conventional oil change for anywhere from 25-30 dollars. so that includes labor and oil and a filter (Supposedly... if they actually do what they say). Then you hear about people paying 90+ for a synthetic oil change. so if you take 5qts of mobil1 which is 37, but lets call it an even 40 dollars for 5qts then a typical filter is 6-10 dollars, we're at about 50 dollars in parts for the oil change. then they proceed to charge you 40 dollars labor to do the same exact labor involved in a conventional oil change.

So why is the labor 40 dollars for a synthetic change, when the same place would charge you 25-30 for oil, filter, and labor for a conventional change.... am i missing something?

Wait, a garage is trying to gouge people on service cost?!

*fake surprise*

most shops do the cheap oil changes just to get people in the shop. Then they inspect other parts of your car to try to sell you more service.

The synthetic oil change isnt one of their bring you in type deals. thus they overcharge for it like they would most any other service.

Its like a super sale at a grocery store or something. Bring you in, hope you buy a ton of other ****.

This! :iagree::iagree:

that makes sense i guess. i mean obviously the answer is that they gouge you just like they would for anything else... i just find it funny. so basically if i walk into some shop with synthetic oil and filter etc all in hand and ask them to change my oil, they ill charge me more money in labor than they would have to do the entire oil change with conventional including parts. this is why i never go to shops :shakes head: :bowrofl:

Obvious Answer: put conventional oil labels on synthetic oil bottles = ftw???

:roflpuke2:

honestly, these days i wouldn't trust a shop to even do anything. i wouldn't believe for a second that a shop used synthetic oil in my car. basically they have a chance to make about 95% profit if they charge you for synthetic and use conventional and dont change your filter.... and they obviously dont care about your car, so why not?

Actually, another serious consideration here is that conventional oil needs to be changed more often, so they can make a smaller profit more often on you with that, while they need to make more on a synthetic change, since they don't have you coming back as often.

good point.

the smaller shops around here will still tell you to come back in 3k miles even with synthetic....

but seriously, we took our versa to NTB for an oil change..
we get coupons for 16$ oil changes + tire rotations. Its simple enough and easy.

they called me up while they had it, hey, your air filters are really dirty, we can replace em for like 50.xx something $.

i said... err no... the versa has 23k miles on it.. I just took the filters out, and cleaned em. And they werent even that bad.

Dealership charges me $30 including tax to change my oil and inspect my car on my g20. Then they want 300 to change front brakes, lol. It's how it goes.

I went to the Nissan dealership with my own oil (5 qts of Mobil1 which I got for $30 at walmart) and they only charged me $22 for filter and labor for an oil change.

I sometimes bring my oil and filter to local dealer. They charge less than 10 bucks for the labor.

well now that actually makes sense