Dealership 'Free Oil Changes for Life'

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Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: gabriel9766
My 15 malibu has 2 yrs 24k frree oil changes. (4 O/C limit). Also rotate the tire 2. I've only got 2.5k on her so far and im a lil leery about let a lube tech touch my car.


My first experience at the local Chevy store was bad. Sump overfilled by a full quart and rotated tires set to grossly incorrect pressures with tpms not reset to the new locations.

Worth exactly what I paid for it...


Bring it back and make them fix it.
 
With the dealer doing oil changes for free, if there is ANY time the vehicle needs to go in for engine maintenance, they can't say "you didn't change your oil and filter at the proper mileage", they have all the records on hand.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
OneEyeJack,

Do you prefer "complimentary"?

If I had to have it done by someone else I'd rather just pay for it and leave any reference to free service out of the deal. Nothing is "free" or "complimentary". Sometimes the most expensive things in life are hidden behind the word free or covered by an expression like, "you deserve...".

"Free" is no charge to owner for buying the car, the normal cost of oil changes are included in the price.

When I bought my E430 16 years ago, MB had no cost 4 years maintenance, wear&tear items are excluded. So I had 4 oil changes, 2 brake flushes and few other scheduled maintenance items. The dealers I bought the E430 from did all services very well, they also gave a C-class as loaner for a day(morning to evening). MB manufacture paid for these services, dealer didn't care who pays as long as someone pays.

For free oil change from dealer, you paid for it when you bought the car, the service dept doesn't care because they charge the sale dept for the cost. So that they just do normal everyday service for whatever car they get that day.
 
My wifes Scion had 5 "free" oil change/tire rotations that come from Scion. I used them without any concerns, and if I had lifetime, I would use them also.
Still verify they did it right, but I have no problem with my local Toyota/Scion dealer.

I do enjoy doing maintenance on vehicles, but if I don't have to pay for it, I don't mind letting someone else do it if it does not inconvenience me. My trips to the dealer were 30-45 minutes and I did it when running errands anyway It also gave me time to look around at new vehicles and such. Free wifi and if early enough, donuts in the lobby. Also can usually get a free soda out of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: gabriel9766
My 15 malibu has 2 yrs 24k frree oil changes. (4 O/C limit). Also rotate the tire 2. I've only got 2.5k on her so far and im a lil leery about let a lube tech touch my car.


My first experience at the local Chevy store was bad. Sump overfilled by a full quart and rotated tires set to grossly incorrect pressures with tpms not reset to the new locations.

Worth exactly what I paid for it...


Bring it back and make them fix it.


Sounds so simple. But each hour these trucks are not working costs me so much money you wouldn't believe it. Far more economical to take the twenty minutes required and do it myself. Correctly!

I have much better things to do with my time than spend it at a stealership...
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: gabriel9766
My 15 malibu has 2 yrs 24k frree oil changes. (4 O/C limit). Also rotate the tire 2. I've only got 2.5k on her so far and im a lil leery about let a lube tech touch my car.


My first experience at the local Chevy store was bad. Sump overfilled by a full quart and rotated tires set to grossly incorrect pressures with tpms not reset to the new locations.

Worth exactly what I paid for it...


Bring it back and make them fix it.


Sounds so simple. But each hour these trucks are not working costs me so much money you wouldn't believe it. Far more economical to take the twenty minutes required and do it myself. Correctly!

I have much better things to do with my time than spend it at a stealership...


Exactly. The last thing I want to do is return to a dealership to have them fix something they screwed up. The easiest and most stress free thing for me is to stay clear unless there's a warranty issue and I have no choice.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: Georgiey22
In 2012 we purchased a 2012 Accord 2.4L which we really enjoy for the price point. One of the selling points is our local dealer includes free oil changes for life. Yesterday I took it in for an oil change and the service was quick and friendly, I asked what type of bulk oil they use...one tech said Pennzoil synthetic blend and a second said Honda synthetic blend, so I have no idea what they are using and clearly neither do they. This really isn't an issue, because I'm a bitoger, I pulled the car up on ramps when I got home just to take a look at how the under carriage looked, unfortunately there was oil dripping from the oil filter, oil was all over the oil pan and transmission oil pan. Took me 15 minutes to clean with brake cleaner and got me to thinking, I usually change my own oil and reasons like this are encouraging me to no longer look at lifetime free oil changes as a value. It really should be but lazy tech's have me shaking my head.

Based on what you know, would you continue to use free oil changes not knowing which type of 0W20 oil they are using and knowing they are going to get oil everywhere and not clean it up OR would you change your oil yourself?

Thanks,
George


I told my dealership to keep the free oil changes and the free NYS inspections for life. ....


^This. Use it as a bargaining tool - "how much do you charge per oil change"? computed over the life of the car, get that much off the purchase price.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: gabriel9766
My 15 malibu has 2 yrs 24k frree oil changes. (4 O/C limit). Also rotate the tire 2. I've only got 2.5k on her so far and im a lil leery about let a lube tech touch my car.


My first experience at the local Chevy store was bad. Sump overfilled by a full quart and rotated tires set to grossly incorrect pressures with tpms not reset to the new locations.

Worth exactly what I paid for it...


Bring it back and make them fix it.


Sounds so simple. But each hour these trucks are not working costs me so much money you wouldn't believe it. Far more economical to take the twenty minutes required and do it myself. Correctly!

I have much better things to do with my time than spend it at a stealership...

Seems counter intuitive, to have you doing grease monkey work. But like you say, paying your guy to drive a van and wait for an hour or more for work that the dealership rushes through as fast as they can, doesn't add up either.
 
"gram" filters???
21.gif
 
Last edited:
I worked at a new car dealership that offered free oil changes, any vehicle that came in for a FREEBIE we used cheap bulk oil and a extra cheap non-quality oil filter... No Thanks !!!
 
Originally Posted By: mer
I worked at a new car dealership that offered free oil changes, any vehicle that came in for a FREEBIE we used cheap bulk oil and a extra cheap non-quality oil filter... No Thanks !!!

Not at my local Honda dealer. All vehicles have bulk oil but the filter is Honda OEM.

My daughter 2014 Accord has free 2 years/30k miles oil change, I looked at the filter after the first oil change and there was a new Honda filter.

When I have free oil changes for my S2000, watched and sure enough they use bulk oil but filter is Honda 15400-PCX-004 specific for S2000.
 
Originally Posted By: fscarano
"gram" filters???
21.gif


Read each one of his posts - there aren't many. They're all there there to shill or slam a product in a few short words, with nothing substantive. The extent of his vocabulary isn't much beyond M1 good QS bad Fram bad.

What we have here is a sockpuppet trying to avoid being outed, methinks.
 
The dealer with 100% certainty replaced the crush washer and used a new Honda A02 oil filter. Now the motor oil on the other hand, I really have no idea and neither does any of the folks that work there.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: Georgiey22
In 2012 we purchased a 2012 Accord 2.4L which we really enjoy for the price point. One of the selling points is our local dealer includes free oil changes for life. Yesterday I took it in for an oil change and the service was quick and friendly, I asked what type of bulk oil they use...one tech said Pennzoil synthetic blend and a second said Honda synthetic blend, so I have no idea what they are using and clearly neither do they. This really isn't an issue, because I'm a bitoger, I pulled the car up on ramps when I got home just to take a look at how the under carriage looked, unfortunately there was oil dripping from the oil filter, oil was all over the oil pan and transmission oil pan. Took me 15 minutes to clean with brake cleaner and got me to thinking, I usually change my own oil and reasons like this are encouraging me to no longer look at lifetime free oil changes as a value. It really should be but lazy tech's have me shaking my head.

Based on what you know, would you continue to use free oil changes not knowing which type of 0W20 oil they are using and knowing they are going to get oil everywhere and not clean it up OR would you change your oil yourself?

Thanks,
George


I told my dealership to keep the free oil changes and the free NYS inspections for life. ....


^This. Use it as a bargaining tool - "how much do you charge per oil change"? computed over the life of the car, get that much off the purchase price.


It works. When I bought my Accord, they said "That includes four free oil changes."
After I pointed out that it was nonsensical to spend 3 hours on the road round trip on each OC to collect them, they knocked another $100. off the price of the car.
 
The local Honda stelership is horrible. They do a 40$ special oil change. I wouldn't trust those guy any more than Jiffy Lube. LOng story, but once my 84 year grandmother once did a oil change. I figure if she can do it than most of you cans.
 
I get free oil changes at my Mazda dealer, but since Mazda doesn't spec synthetic I bring my own(M1 EP 5W-30). I've has absolutely no complaints about the service; it's first rate with no shady upselling attempts. The inverted canister on the MS3 is a fiddly setup so I'm more than happy to let the dealer handle it.
 
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