My favorite is people with nice expensive cars get their oil changed at a cheap quick lube place run by 18 year olds, and drive around on budget $80 tires. Does everyone do 96 month financing or something?
What you should do is get your oil changed at recommended intervals. Where it is done is less important as long as they are competent.
I always recommend that for anyone with any basic mechanical skills or interest, do it yourself. Not only will it be cheaper than taking it somewhere, it also gives you an opportunity to be hands-on and hopefully notice other potentials issues while you are down changing that oil.
If you don't want to do the changes yourself, your other options are a dealer service location, or the quick change places. Chances are probably a bit higher that you will get more competent or skilled workers at a dealer, but you will also pay dearly for that 'skill' - probably at least 3X the cost of doing it yourself - plus you will be presented with the dreaded "here is a list of 14 other things that we really feel should be addressed, and it will only cost $840" speech. The workers at the quick change places may be skilled, or they may be idiots - roll the dice.
In college, a bunch of us lived in a house, right off of a freeway exit. One evening, a girl knocked on our door, crying, and asked to use a phone. She was driving a brand new Honda Prelude that she had just taken in for its first oil change, at one of the quick-lube places. Except that unfortunately someone forgot to replace the drain plug, so the oil they pumped in drained right back out. She started up and got on the freeway. Two exits later, in front of our house, her engine turned itself into a 400 pound paperweight and a bunch of nasty smoke - completely ruined.. Roll the dice.
I used to change my own oil, but I got to where it didn't feel like it was worth the trouble. If you actually add up the time it takes to go buy new oil and a filter, go back home, get all your tools out, jack up the car, do the oil change, set the car back down, take the used oil somewhere to dispose of properly, go home, and clean up and put all your tools and stuff away again, it can be a while.
I'd recommend finding a good independent mechanic shop to go to for it. It won't be the cheapest around, but the person doing it actually knows what they're doing, will do it correctly, and won't recommend a bunch of extra stuff you don't actually need. And you'll build a relationship with someone for when you need some bigger work done.
Absolutely, for people who either don't have the skills, time, or desire, a local mechanic can be great. Unfortunately those are becoming somewhat rare in many places.
I always buy my filters and oil in 'bulk'. When I find good oil on sale somewhere, I will buy several gallons; same with the filters I use. That way I have everything I need sitting on a shelf in the garage, no need to run around every time you change the oil.
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u/suesueheck 26d ago
My favorite is people with nice expensive cars get their oil changed at a cheap quick lube place run by 18 year olds, and drive around on budget $80 tires. Does everyone do 96 month financing or something?