Oil Change - Cost or Quickness

When getting your car serviced, you want to go to the best and quickest place. It's a given that you don't want to be stuck at the mechanic all day long, no more than you'd want to stay at the doctor's office all day. How do you figure out where to go to take care of your oil change? Do you go with the cheapest, or do you go with the quickest?

Well, often times the two might intersect, but not always. The cost of an oil change is going to vary between shops. It all has to do with what brand they are using, how much they have to use, and the overall cost per barrel. Gas isn't the only thing that goes up when the prices rise on Wall Street. It affects all petroleum based items. Sometimes, though, you might find yourself staying longer at a cheaper place. Why? Well, because everyone is going there to get their car serviced. In this case, it has nothing to do with how quickly the mechanics can get the cars in and out. It has everything to do with how busy they are.

The thing is, an oil change shouldn't take much longer than fifteen or twenty minutes. During this type of procedure, the fluid is drained, the filter is taken off, and then everything is replaced. If you go somewhere that takes an hour to do this little job, then they are taking far too long. Of course, that is, if they are not swamped. You don't want to waste time on a mechanic that is taking forever just to run up your bill, since it's just a way to make more money. You should go to someone where this service has a set fee, and is not dependent on how long it takes.

When you're pricing maintenance, then you should ask what is included in the price. You need to know what they are charging you for. Some of that will be labor charges, you have to pay for someone's time that's important, but depending on the site the charges may vary. While some of the parts prices won't vary much from one place to the other you can save some money on the labor charges.

There is no harm shopping around for a good oil change place. Going to a general mechanic for just anything might cost you a lot more money than a business that specializes in this type of service. You just have to ask yourself do you want to save money on cost or if you want to save time too. As always, make sure that they do the job you are paying them to do. There have been reports, few and far between, of some smaller businesses not changing the filter and charging you for it. Don't be embarrassed to ask questions to ensure that your service is performed correctly.