Oil change: Walmart $12 vs $20 at Valvoline

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: amdskip
The oil is actually quaker state I believe and walmart buys it dirt cheap.

Pennzoil and Quaker State are the same if I remember correct. Same as Exxon and Mobil are the same. Exxon now just uses Mobils oil in their bottle, even the same bottle now.

But yea Wal-Mart probable gets their tech-2000 oil for cost. We are talking about wal-Mart aren?t we, heck maybe even below cost

And as a Mechanic, I make very little to NO money off oil changes. So please change your oil every 3K. A lot of times the oil is not really broken down, but it?s what is in the oil that needs to come out. Unburned fuel, water, dirt, etc?.
And if you change your oil every 5K or higher, tell the person you are trading the car to or selling it to that and see what they offer you after they know that. I would not even touch it as that tells me $15 every 3K in maintaince is not worth it, so what else do you think is not worth it.

 

[alm99]

The Wal-Mart by me uses Castrol GTX oil and Fram oil filters. I get my oil changed there everytime for ~$15. Never had a problem, knock on wood, except when I tell them to put in 5W-30 and they put in 10W-30. That pisses me off. My saturn uses 10W a lot faster than 5W.

 

[murphy55d]

Jesus Christ avoid the Walmart oil change at all costs. I work at Wal-mart, and I would NEVER EVER EVER take my car there to have ANYTHING done to it. If they offered to wash my windows for free I'd say no thanks.

I've heard way too many bad things about the WalMart grease monkeys...forgetting to replace caps, starting car up w/o oil filters, total incompetence. I'd pay the $8 for peace of mind alone.

 

[Cat13]

I go to Wal-Mart for my oil changes. Started going there when I had my car 4 years ago, and kept going when I get my truck. I use Mobil 1 synthetic and I supply my own mobil 1 filter. For the price and convience of having all the information in the computer so I don't have to keep track of all the store reciepts (I still keep copies of the service reciepts) in case of warranty work I will keep taking my truck there. No problems in 4 years!

knock on wood

 

[Zipp]

but it reminded me of my experience w/Midas. (and i got royally screwed over at Midas...$50 to turn rotors, EACH = $100 to turn both front rotors.)

Many Midas and Meineke shops screw people on a daily basis. I feel bad for the ones who leave those places paying two,three or more times than what they should have actually paid.

I went with my sister to meineke a couple years back to make sure she wouldn't be taken advantage of and sure enough they tried. They quoted her a price of 460 dollars for a front brake job on a Mazda 323. I told the guy to put the tires back on and take it off the lift and he actually had the nerve to say "we have the tires off,you might as well do it"

I responded to his suggestion that if he didn't take the car off the lift right now,i'll do it my self..... I was really amazed they try something like that.

If you can find a good local mechanic,stick with him.

 

[SlowSS]

Originally posted by: murphy55d
Jesus Christ avoid the Walmart oil change at all costs. I work at Wal-mart, and I would NEVER EVER EVER take my car there to have ANYTHING done to it. If they offered to wash my windows for free I'd say no thanks.

I've heard way too many bad things about the WalMart grease monkeys...forgetting to replace caps, starting car up w/o oil filters, total incompetence. I'd pay the $8 for peace of mind alone.

Yup same here, heard lot of bad things about these fast oil change shops.

If you do go to these places, make sure to check your engine for any missing/loose parts,

and check the fluid level to ensure it is properly filled and to verify that the oil was actually changed.

 

[slikmunks]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I heard that story on Car Talk of a lady that took her car in for an oil change and the place ended up filling her oil pan up with Transmission fluid instead of oil.....I guess they grabbed the wrong hose. Anyhow, it sorta screwed up her engine and the place was hasselling her because they didn't believe they had made that error...

I've only taken my car anywhere to have the oil changed. I only get my oil changed every 7500-10000 miles. I believe the magic 3000 number came from dealerships and mechanics that want to make more money from providing the oil change service. Of course, I'm an extremist with that stuff too. I liked Valvoline's service when I had it changed, but they ended up charging me $28 total for the whole job. I guess my oil filter is more expensive and I have a 4 L engine...so it's a little bigger than an import. I may check out WallyWorld and see what they charge around here.

3000 miles keeps your oil clean, keeping your engine in better running condition... as for me... i change every 2000 - 2500 mi... checking my oil level at every other gas stop...

<------- car eats oil... not a lot, but just enough to have to check every other gas stop

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: aircooled
If you don't mind having the lowest payed techs in the business changing your oil then thats fine. Would you go to the lowest bidding dentist or doctor?

But, there's not always a direct link between the lowest paid worker - and a poorer quality of service. I'm sure Jiffy Lube probably pays their workers more, but every time I go by there, the people are always slacking off and screwing around. I wouldn't let them touch my car.

A Mobil station by me charges $21.00. Plus, they don't try to push anything extra on you. The oil change that I had done last week was probably the first one that I haven't done myself in 8 years. However, it was too cold outside, I decided to pay them to do the dirty work.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: wje

Originally posted by: aircooled
If you don't mind having the lowest payed techs in the business changing your oil then thats fine. Would you go to the lowest bidding dentist or doctor?

But, there's not always a direct link between the lowest paid worker - and a poorer quality of service. I'm sure Jiffy Lube probably pays their workers more, but every time I go by there, the people are always slacking off and screwing around. I wouldn't let them touch my car.

A Mobil station by me charges $21.00. Plus, they don't try to push anything extra on you. The oil change that I had done last week was probably the first one that I haven't done myself in 8 years. However, it was too cold outside, I decided to pay them to do the dirty work.

i';ve been using walmart for oil changes for years and havent had a problem. this time i went to valvoline because i didnt want the 2+hr wait

 

[StageLeft]

2 hour weight. Damn! $12 isn't a sweet deal when you consider they're probably giving you use oil. LOL! Definitely cheapy stuff anyway.

The last time I got my oil changed was at nissan and they overfilled. If a nissan dealer is going to overfill god knows what a $12/per change walmart mechanic is going to do. I personally prefer doing it myself not only because I know it will be done right, but because it is cheaper, and also because I can do it when i want instead of going out of my way for them.

I was at once place that wanted $37 to fill my sentra with valvoline max life oil on an oil change. DAYUM. I do it myself now for about 4 X $1.80 plus $3 for a filter.

Also when I last paid for an oil change at nissan they tried to upsell $500 in repairs to fix some leaking oil. Since I knew nothing about cars then (I know only marginally more than nothing now, but still...) they made it sound as if it really needed to be done. Well it didn't. I've been topping it off for the last 10k miles without any problem on a car that's not worth more than $2k anyway.

Happened to me, too. So I went there the next day and they tightened it, no questions asked.

You went back to walmart to have your oil cap tightened...?

 

[DrumminBoy]

Our school band was having a fundraiser this summer, and one of the incentives to buying a raffle ticket was it came with a free oil change from a local car dealership. We had a TON of left over tickets so i snagged about 50 of em. I've used 2 of them so far, but ive decided not to go back just because of the horrible service. They tried telling me I have over $1k in repairs that need to be taken care of "IMMEDIATELY". I went to a local shop for a second opinion and the only thing they could confirm was that i had a torn cv boot. Whoa this got way off topic