True Car's thoughts on oil changes

[Neil Frutuoso]

How often do you really need to change motor oil? - Yahoo! Autos


I know what the manufacturer says, but I love my 3000 mile oil change customers.

I don't like these articles, they pop up every so often and I feel it should be up to the customer

I was not surprised this was a product of true car, first they attack sales now service?

sorry for the rant

/rant

 

[mcampo2501]

I love a customer that wants to pay sticker, but that doesn't often happen these days. I do think it's confusing for a customer when sales tells them 10,000 miles and service tells them 3,000 miles. It creates a disconnect, and a credibility issue. Congruency is important, and as much as you might want a 3,000 mile oil change customer, you will probably be more likely to retain that customer if they feel like they can trust you. I'm not a GM and I've never worked as a service advisor, but I think you would have a hard time telling a customer that thier owners manual is wrong. Your customers still need to come in for tire rotations, fluid refills, and inspections every 5,000 miles. If you tell them they can visit you 3 times to jiffy lubes 1, and yours will cost more, you will lose.
With that being said, the article does have false statements. I am looking at a 2012 Mercedes-Benz service book, and it says 10,000 miles not 12,000 miles for oil change intervals. I'd love to see the BMW book that says 15,000 miles! Any BMW guys here wanna verify that statement. 15,000 mile oil change intervals on 2012 models???

 

[john.quinn]

Mcampo is on the right track here.

3,000 mile Oil Changes are older than "Just Get 'Em In."

I broke into the business selling new '95 and '96 Honda units. Even waaaay back then, the book said 7500 miles, or 5000 under "severe" conditions. (everywhere is 'severe')

It's as simple as sticking to the BOOK in today's transparent marketplace. But honestly, new car dealers need not debate this point much longer: as every high-line salesperson will tell you, before long, you simply bring the car in when the CAR tells you to bring it in.

Hell, even our new Honda does that already.

 

[Neil Frutuoso]

I do not advocate for telling them one thing in sales and another in service. In sales or service we will never tell them to get an oil change every 3,000 miles. We can only recommend what is in the manual.

Our store is a single point Buick dealer. The majority of our customers want to get their oil changed every 3,000 miles because that is what they have done forever. My rant was more aimed at all these 3rd party sites over the years who write articles constantly telling the customer the dealer is out to get them in service, how they should service their car and what they should pay for it. They are always riddled with inconsistencies like pointed out above and just leave a bad taste. Simply put I say leave it up to the customer, we tell customers every day that they don't need to change their oil every 3,000 and they don't care. If it makes them happy it's good for them and good for us.

After all that was exposed about true car I just didn't like to see that they are now becoming experts in service and wonder if they will crusade to do what they did to new car sales with service.

 

[mcampo2501]

Sorry Neil, I didn't mean to attack you. I too hate the third party articles that make car dealers look like we never evolved. Confessions of a car salesman, or whatever that yahoo article was called, was a horrible thing to publish. I'll be the first to admit that I was told to do some shady stuff when I first started out in the business, but that stuff doesn't work on the majority of todays consumers, and good dealers recognize that. In a dealerrater, socially charged market, the buyer has more information than most of the salespeople. I still don't understand why this is the only industry that's not supposed to make a profit. Then again it's the only legal profession I'm aware of that pays 6 figure salaries to the often uneducated and undeserving.

 

[Agrrip]

Sorry Neil, I didn't mean to attack you. I too hate the third party articles that make car dealers look like we never evolved. Confessions of a car salesman, or whatever that yahoo article was called, was a horrible thing to publish. I'll be the first to admit that I was told to do some shady stuff when I first started out in the business, but that stuff doesn't work on the majority of todays consumers, and good dealers recognize that. In a dealerrater, socially charged market, the buyer has more information than most of the salespeople. I still don't understand why this is the only industry that's not supposed to make a profit. Then again it's the only legal profession I'm aware of that pays 6 figure salaries to the often uneducated and undeserving.

To answer your question above...The world thinks that this is worthy payback for the many years the dealerships screwed the people...now it's punishment time for us and they don't care whether we profit or not.

This obviously does not apply to all people or all dealers, there have been many that have been upright and honest from the beginning...but a few bad seeds have ruined the overall reputation for our industry.

Best thing that we can do is give honest and fair prices and treat our customers like pure gold. If we did that, not only would we retain customers, we would also change the world perception of us...and these 3rd party sites wouldn't sway anyone's opinions.