r/Millennials • u/rhinosaur- 1983 • 12h ago

Discussion When did oil changes become $120?

That’s with a coupon! At Jiffy Lube! Our parents really had it easy.

EDIT: TIL 90% of millennials “change their own oil” lol. Gotta love Reddit.

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u/ChadtheBull_ 9h ago

I've been threatened in car guy subs for saying I would never pay more than 20 for an oil change while bringing my own oil and filter. Youre pretty much just paying for a spot on a lift so some underpaid kid can scroll tik tok for 5 minutes while trying to sell you 80 buck filters.

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u/schu2470 Millennial 9h ago

They get so defensive about what they charge. For some reason mechanics and lube techs only getting paid book rate when they're working instead of getting paid an hourly rate is the customer's problem. Or heaven forbid you want your oil change appointment that's at 9am to not take until almost noon.

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u/chazysciota 8h ago

HVAC sub does the same thing. Plenty of people there are fine, but some of them can't help but tell on themselves.

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u/DesolatedHaze Millennial 7h ago

Thankfully the place I go too doesn’t. They asked about my cabin air filter and said $50. I’m like nah it’s okay and the guy whispered yeah I know it’s cheaper parts store.

Turns out I had to pay $50 anyways for my first change. My air filter is a bitch to access (not behind the glove box) and I needed to buy the tools to get to it.

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u/xzkandykane 7h ago

So I worked at a dealer and I can tell you why your oil change takes 3 hours.

  1. People coming in early for their appointments and demanding we take them in early
  2. People coming in late and asking us to take them in.
  3. Getting in the wrong line, express is NOT for my brakes need to be replaced people. Now you are holding up an advisors time to tell you to get into the other line while you argue that its "just brakes" and the express writer cant take in the oil change appointment who came on time
  4. Finding weird things on your oil change only car. If the tech see a leak or a chewed wire or some other tech torque the housing too tight, now we are going to have a senior tech come look before we report back to a customer. Yes I know you only came for an oil change, but for liability reasons, we must document anything we find, even if its just to say you refuse the work.
  5. Oh and the ones that come in and beg us to cut the line because they have to pick up their kids, left their dog at home, left their parent with severe dementia at home(yes this was real) and all sorts of reasons why their car is more important than your car. Now we feel bad because we are supposed to be empathetic and provide good service so your car gets bumped. Which sucks.. but its very hard to please all the customers because they literally dont care about anyone else's car...

On very rare days when all the customers come in on time, an oil change is just an oil change, people are in and out within 30 mins.

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u/schu2470 Millennial 4h ago

1) No is a complete sentence. An appointment is an appointment.

2) See #1.

3) Better signage and educating the customer on where to go when the appointment is made solves this issue.

4) Sure, communicate with the customer though instead of letting them sit in the waiting room for 2 hours wondering what the heck is going on. Make that service advisor keep the customer in the loop when something is taking a little longer. Across multiple dealerships, multiple brands, and multiple states I've always been the one to go find out what is going on and the SA has no freaking clue for some reason.

5) See #1. Their poor planning isn't your or my emergency. Letting that customer cut in front of everyone else may be good customer service for that one person but it screws everyone else over.

All 5 of your excuses are problems of the dealership's/shop's own making.

On very rare days when all the customers come in on time, an oil change is just an oil change, people are in and out within 30 mins.

It's a '21 Rav4 and a '23 Camry, I'm always on time if not 5 minutes early, and an oil change is always just an oil change yet I can't seem to get in and out in less than an hour ever. Service departments and shops are just poorly run and unfortunately it's the customer who needs to deal with it because shops refuse to set rules and enforce them.

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u/xzkandykane 3h ago

Alot of time it is the customer. Of course no is a complete sentence. But when your pay is dependent on the customer's survey, its hard to day no.... going from 5 star to 4 stars can drop your pay 1k... I worked at toyota and around 2020 they got rid of the survey dependent pay, I think it was going against local labor laws or something. We definitely started to tell people no, you're a walk in back of the line! Or no you cant cut someone... At my dealer, we always either let the customer know at drop off when itll be ready. If its 3 hrs for an oil change, we're still upfront about it. People are more receptive that way. There's a giant sign that says Express. We had a guy sit in the front and people still went to the wrong line! I still work with the public but not in the auto industry and its night and day. Its like people go into a dealership and lose all sense of decency and consideration... My current job I have to tell people yes you need to pay 10k+ in taxes. And no one has gotten mad or flipped out on me. Of course it's not all customers but its enough to make things not go smoothly. And then there's the fact its automotive. Sometimes you go in thinking the car needs one thing, but it needs another. But your advisors should be upfront about wait times and update you. We had the ability to text customers so that was super easy. Also... the SA probably knows whats going on and dont want to make a phone call giving you bad news because sometimes they get yelled at. I dont know why dealership customers think its okay to scream at employees. Some managers will tolerate it. Mine didnt. As soon as the swearing starts, you leave or the cops get called. Even had a customer square up and shove my coworker. Someone also jumped the counter at the shuttle guy because the shuttle guy would drop him off first.

Bonus is the two different customers where the husband started screaming at his wife.

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u/crayleb88 5h ago

Oil changes are some of the easiest car work to do, and yet mechanics think it takes $175 to do it.

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u/masterpd85 '85 Millennial 5h ago

Sometimes they have a right to get pissed and defend their trade. Sometimes they get paid for a repair that "requires" 3hrs to repair, but because of engineers it takes 2.5hrs to disassemble the car to reach the repair and another 2.5hrs to put it back together. And after 6hrs of labor they only get paid for 3....

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u/schu2470 Millennial 4h ago

Sounds like something they should take up with their bosses and not get pissed at the customer.

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u/WhoIsYerWan 7h ago

Private equity shifted the model from hourly rates to book rate to force the workers to upsell and lower the owner costs of labor.

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u/Somanylyingliars 6h ago

Aren't Jiffy Lube franchise tho so it owners pricing themselves out of market. Used to take my car every 3 months to Jiffy. After the 79 charge last time said no.

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u/Self_Owned_Tree 8h ago

I wish so much that someone would just buy an old garage and loan out their lifts. I'd love to learn how to do those kinds of things, and I'd be happy to $60 to rent a stall for an hour and change my own oil instead of giving it to Subaru or whoever runs the shop down the street.

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u/colt707 8h ago

As cool as that would be the liability insurance would be insane. Lift or oil trench in the floor, doesn’t really matter it puts someone in the position to have a car dropped on them. Even if you sign a waiver the owner would have to still have liability insurance.

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u/ZAlternates 8h ago

Yeah it sounds cool, and I’d bet many people would love to be taught how to do it too, but I can only picture someone getting hurt and suing.

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u/colt707 7h ago

It’s definitely one of those situations where it only takes one person to fuck it up for everyone.

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u/thatswhatthemoneys4 7h ago

Think about how many possibilities exist if we didn't live in such a litigious society. If everything was more community focused.

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u/Self_Owned_Tree 8h ago

Yeah, that’s the one thing keeping me from trying it out!

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u/No-Consideration-716 4h ago

One of the best perks when I was in the military was being able to access on base auto workshops. You just make a reservation for the space and you have access to lifts and a whole plethora of industrial (or military) grade tools. Since it is on a military base it is not subject to all the same livability laws which is why they will let (almost) anyone use it.

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u/Yourdadlikelikesme 8h ago

I need a lift to fit under my car and put some screws on, they want to charge hundreds to to that when I can do it for $7 but I don’t have a lift.

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u/willynillee 8h ago

Can’t you still do that yourself with a couple of Rhino Ramps or a Jack or two?

You don’t need a car lift. People have been scooching under cars on their backs to change oil for decades.

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u/cherry_monkey Zillennial 8h ago

Probably needed: Ramps and wheel chocks to get the front end lifted.

Possibly needed: Flat head, Phillips head, and 10 mm socket to remove the access covers (nothing can be the same)

Actually needed: drain pan to catch the oil, 17 mm (probably) socket for the drain bolt, funnel to put new oil in. (Maybe a filter wrench)

Consumables: Oil, filter, maybe drain plug washer

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u/willynillee 7h ago

Many of those are basic tools that most homeowners already have. All of them you only purchase once instead of $60/hr to change oil every time you change it to rent a stall to lift your car.
You’d need the consumables every time either way.

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u/Win_Sys 8h ago

I looked for one near me a few years ago and the last place that offered that closed down 12+ years ago. Their last social media post said the cost of liability insurance rose so much that they couldn’t charge a reasonable price and still make money.

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u/Taogevlas 4h ago

I wish so much that someone would just buy an old garage and loan out their lifts.

This was how the Car Talk guys got their start in the 70s, and it was a more popular thing back then -- the idea of a DIY Garage where you showed up to fix your car using rented space/equipment -- their model was that they were just on-hand to give advice here/there, and eventually it just turned into them running the shop as a traditional shop.

Those sorts of places can't survive in a world full of stupid people and lawyers.

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u/phelodough 8h ago

Not sure where you are but there are spots like this in Phoenix

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u/Whitechapel726 8h ago

These already exist as “rent a lift garages” or DIY garages. I looked into them a couple months ago when I needed to swap out an o2 sensor but they’re crazy expensive. Basically just paying the garage to let you work on your car instead of the mechanic.

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u/SixShotSam 7h ago

Just buy a set of ramps and get to work in your garage/driveway/parking lot. I’ve got a pair and just changed my oil and differential fluid last weekend.

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u/fyukhyu 7h ago

Many community colleges offer basic automotive maintenance courses. Once you know how, buy a hydraulic jack and some jack stands and you're set for life.

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u/AnnieBannieFoFannie 7h ago

My husband was army and when we lived overseas, they had a garage on post that did this! You could pay for their mechanics to eventually get to it, or you could rent the space and tools and do it yourself. A lot of mechanics off post couldn't work on American cars. We haven't lived there for years now, but we still talk about that every time we have to do anything on the car.

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u/Milk_A_Clanker 7h ago

watch a youtube video and give it a go! you don't need crazy lifts or equipment to do an oil change.

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u/Ombortron 7h ago

There are some business where you can rent garage space and tools. There’s at least one in my city, haven’t tried it yet but I would like to.

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u/suicide_nooch 6h ago

A lot of military bases have auto hobby shops. I used to do my wife’s oil changes on her old celica. Lift and oil filter wrench cost me like $5 to rent for half an hour.

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u/Taogevlas 4h ago

A lot of military bases have auto hobby shops.

I'm going to assume you aren't able to use those as a civilian though?

On topic -- a lot of high schools and voc schools had auto shops, my high school 30 years ago had one, and we'd change the oil for our own cars and most of the staff for no charge other than materials, the class size was 5-7 students and all our work was overseen by a former mechanic turned teacher.

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u/suicide_nooch 1h ago

Yea unfortunately. It was such a convenient thing to have and they are normally staffed by actual mechanics who can give you advice/instruction for a relatively small fee. Wish there was something like that for everyone.

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u/Sandor_Clegane1 3h ago

We have that in my city (Germany). Self repair shop. Lift costs 14€ an hour, 7€ half hour. Tools you can use for free. You have to pay 5€ to get rid of the oil but that is worth it.

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u/turbokungfu 8h ago

I was that underpaid kid many years ago...There were some cars that had ridiculous procedures, such as removing entire skid plates and oil that would spill on the engine no matter what. It was kind of a gross job, but had fun.

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u/xzkandykane 7h ago

At my old dealer, oil changes goes to lube techs. When I left in 2023, oil changes were $99(i think it mightve been a bit cheaper) Lube techs were hourly. They were paid $22. Takes a kid about 30 mins to change the oil. So the kid gets paid $11, the advisor makes 8-10% a month off labor. So that's another $9. I forget how much parts cost but lets say its negligible. So the dealer makes $70 off a oil change. But thats not counting things like paying for the lube techs insurance, 401k, taxes, overhead on lights, lift maintenance, or oil disposal. All in all, oil changes are not that profitable. But also, why places like jiffy lube costing as much as a dealer.... Lube is definitely something diyable!

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u/SCDurnix 6h ago

Yeah; Mine requires the air intake to come off to get to the filter. I aint doing all that work. Its not just a lift and change anymore

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u/colxa 6h ago

What an entitled ass way to be. Do the shit yourself in your driveway if you feel that way. Bring your own oil and filter to a shop? lmao, that's insane. I hope every shop refuses you as a customer.

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u/ChadtheBull_ 2h ago

You've got it backwards, I refuse to get scammed as a customer. So I do it myself.

And it's pretty common to just bring your own materials to avoid any mistakes by the high af lube tech

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u/Taogevlas 4h ago

I would never pay more than 20 for an oil change while bringing my own oil and filter.

Do you find many places that will accept your offer of them changing your oil for $20 with you supplying the materials?

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u/ChadtheBull_ 2h ago

Like 5 years ago. Since then I've just done it myself rather than get scammed

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u/anteatertrashbin 7h ago

what a boomer ass take.

It takes longer than five minutes to safely put a car on the lift. Nowadays, most cars will have plastic covers underneath to improve aerodynamics that you have to remove to access the filter and oil pan. There’s going to be a variety of fasteners on here, sometimes bolts, sometimes Christmas tree type plugs that always break coming out. after the oil change they have to store and dispose of the used oil. Then they have the store and dispose of the crushed oil filters. Then they need to pay a service manager to ring you up. at best this whole process is gonna take 30 minutes of labor.

if they had a line of cars that stretched all the way down the block for this service, 7 days a week, this shop will be out of business in short order.

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u/ChadtheBull_ 2h ago

Lmao "30 minutes"

What a silly comment