Overheard in a quick lube shop.

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Near my home, there is this quick lube local chain type place, that has a carwash and detail shop as well.

I took my wife's car in for a quick inside and out detail, and sat in the lounge for about 45 minutes while they cleaned the car up.

Heard some interesting conversations between the service advisor and clients.

1.) Mid 40's female brings in new Cadillac, and wants to put conventional oil in it. Service advisor says that the vehicle only takes Dexos motor oil (good call). Price doubles from $39.99 to $89.99 for an oil change.

2.) Mid 30's male brings in his Toyota Tundra pickup truck, for conventional oil change. He is advised that the vehicle takes 6 quarts of oil. Up charge for one additional quart of conventional valvoline motor oil is $11.25.

3.) Woman with newer direct injection Chevy vehicle is having a lot of service done. Service advisor says that she had the direct injection cleaning service done, but she should have it done every 6,000 miles. This is a $89.99 service.

I left paying $20 for inside and out clean, Scion looks great. I went home and changed the oil and filter myself with Synpower, and probably paid $14 for both oil and filter.

I should open up a quick lube, there were MANY people in line who paid near $100 for very basic services. Oil change/air filter jobs ,and very easy stuff.

The place was also MOBBED with yuppies getting $149 details on their corvettes, and Lexus SUV's.
 
Having stayed in Mission Tx for couple months(Feb-March) it seemed there was a car wash at every block and almost the same for general car services many that would come to you. I had the camper washed for $80 and it took over 2 hours
 
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Having stayed in Mission Tx for couple months(Feb-March) it seemed there was a car wash at every block and almost the same for general car services many that would come to you. I had the camper washed for $80 and it took over 2 hours


Yes there are lots of mobile car washes, mobile mechanics, and mobile tint places.

It is common for people who work in my office to have a detail guy come to the office and detail their car, or apply tint to windows.

I was short on time, and wanted to have my cousins civic detailed, I was borrowing it for a few days. They came to my office and did an amazing job for like $50.

I tried mobile mechanics twice and was not pleased with their work, so I stopped using them.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Having stayed in Mission Tx for couple months(Feb-March) it seemed there was a car wash at every block and almost the same for general car services many that would come to you. I had the camper washed for $80 and it took over 2 hours


Yes there are lots of mobile car washes, mobile mechanics, and mobile tint places.

It is common for people who work in my office to have a detail guy come to the office and detail their car, or apply tint to windows.

I was short on time, and wanted to have my cousins civic detailed, I was borrowing it for a few days. They came to my office and did an amazing job for like $50.

I tried mobile mechanics twice and was not pleased with their work, so I stopped using them.

Thing with RV parks is that there is usually a fairly large source of recommendations by local winter Texans
 
I would love them to scam me on a cabin air filter... considering I don't have one
wink.gif


I did buy a service from a shop here when I had the rear brakes done. It was worth it though, got all new brake fluid rear rotors and pads and got the 2 year labor warranty added for having the flushing done. Anyways, I have never had someone try to sell me services I don't need.
 
Originally Posted By: Urshurak776
And the masses roll on like doped white mice in a college lab.........


And they dutifully played with their fidget spinners while waiting.
smirk.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Urshurak776
And the masses roll on like doped white mice in a college lab.........
I'll all were diddling on some kind of smart phone .
 
Friend of mine is one of the best sales guys in all of Wal-mart TLE. He can get people to go for the synthetic oil, the fuel injection service, the head light cleaning, new air filter, all that stuff. His shop literally wins awards for the most sales of certain upsell items in all of walmart.

He only sells what people need too.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
1.) Mid 40's female brings in new Cadillac, and wants to put conventional oil in it. Service advisor says that the vehicle only takes Dexos motor oil (good call). Price doubles from $39.99 to $89.99 for an oil change.


A local mom and pop tire place here has coupons for $20 oil changes using Valvoline and $25 oil changes with Maxlife which is Dexos approved and listed on their ad. The full syn with Maxlife oil change is $40. They advertise it as good, better and best.
 
Originally Posted By: dareo
Friend of mine is one of the best sales guys in all of Wal-mart TLE. He can get people to go for the synthetic oil, the fuel injection service, the head light cleaning, new air filter, all that stuff.


Probably not a hard sell and the price probably is very reasonable. I believe the synthetic oil change there is $50 tops. The fuel injection cleaning service when getting an oil change is an extra $10. As a stand along service it's $20. Headlight cleaning is $30(?) I believe. Air filter runs the cost of the filter with FREE installation so about $15 as an estimate. So about $105 for all that plus tax. All those numbers are off the top of my head when I looked last time and they do vary by location. For cabin filters there's a $10 install charge plus the cost of the filter.

On the plus side it's kind of hard to be taken at a Walmart TLE unless they're not doing the work or are slobs. The one by me does a pretty good job and I know one of the guys that works there.
 
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I've always wanted to open a quick lube place. I see a market where people like me want to have their oil changed but not get scammed. Trying to be upsold with numerous products is a real turnoff. I had a car in the shop not long ago for a serpentine belt and they tried to get $800 from me with BG flushes and whatnot.
 
Originally Posted By: JBinTX30
I would love them to scam me on a cabin air filter... considering I don't have one
wink.gif


I do have a cabin filter in my Honda Accord and I've had someone try to up-sell me for $80 labour to install a new one. It takes me a minute or two to replace that filter. It's good work if you can get it.
 
Originally Posted By: E150GT
I've always wanted to open a quick lube place. I see a market where people like me want to have their oil changed but not get scammed. Trying to be upsold with numerous products is a real turnoff. I had a car in the shop not long ago for a serpentine belt and they tried to get $800 from me with BG flushes and whatnot.


I thought it would be cool to have a shop that charges the oil change labor only. You could have three levels of labor, A B C. Your easy 4 cylinder FWD cars are A level, $15.00. B level is your 4x4, AWD, 6 or more cylinder. C is the diesel trucks. A=$15 B=$18 C=$23 or so. Bring your own oil or get anything we have at real shop cost. Sell tires too, but no stock on hand, just online or local distributor orders after they are paid for.
 
Originally Posted By: E150GT
I've always wanted to open a quick lube place. I see a market where people like me want to have their oil changed but not get scammed. Trying to be upsold with numerous products is a real turnoff. I had a car in the shop not long ago for a serpentine belt and they tried to get $800 from me with BG flushes and whatnot.


The problem is for what you'd have to charge just to keep the lights on, you wouldn't be competitive. You'd probably have to be at $50 for a 5 quart conventional oil change to break even, the type of customer the quick lube attracts will drive past you to the $24.99 place and end up being sold a flush and air filter they don't need and leave with a $100 bill.
 
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
Originally Posted By: JBinTX30
I would love them to scam me on a cabin air filter... considering I don't have one
wink.gif


I do have a cabin filter in my Honda Accord and I've had someone try to up-sell me for $80 labour to install a new one. It takes me a minute or two to replace that filter. It's good work if you can get it.


My local Honda dealer emailed me a couple of weeks ago with service reminders. One of them was cabin filter changeout for 209.00. I paid 11 bucks for my filter in May and as you say, took all of 5 minutes to change it out. Maybe theirs was lined with gold or something.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Originally Posted By: E150GT
I've always wanted to open a quick lube place. I see a market where people like me want to have their oil changed but not get scammed. Trying to be upsold with numerous products is a real turnoff. I had a car in the shop not long ago for a serpentine belt and they tried to get $800 from me with BG flushes and whatnot.


The problem is for what you'd have to charge just to keep the lights on, you wouldn't be competitive. You'd probably have to be at $50 for a 5 quart conventional oil change to break even, the type of customer the quick lube attracts will drive past you to the $24.99 place and end up being sold a flush and air filter they don't need and leave with a $100 bill.


Pretty much. Unless you're geared towards that type of thing and high volume, you would be hard pressed to be competitive.

To give you an example- I do not try to compete with the quick lube type places. Not worth it to me. I charge $20 in labor, $3.89/qt for Chevron Supreme synblend oil and a Wix/NAPA Gold (no second line filters here) typically run $5-7. The labor includes checking of all fluid levels (customer pays for any fluids needed) and a quick once over while I'm under the car. My oil changes typically run around $45 and I generally recommend 5k change intervals, unless you have an iOLM. Any Dexos app gets NAPA synthetic and I charge my cost plus 15% or mid $5 range. Also if there is a one time use drain plug gasket/crush washer, that gets replaced too- typically a $.99 item.

Many of my customers use quick lube type places- and it doesn't hurt my feelings any either, but there are several who don't seem to mind the premium price of my service.
 
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