The old saying goes, time is money. But just how much do we spend in order to save a little time? Almost everyday we pay someone to do something we could probably do ourselves. All this month our Fact Finders are taking a look at the cost of convenience. In this report, we are focusing on taking care of your car. Every 3 thousand miles you pay 30 dollars for an oil change, but is it worth it?
Every three thousand miles, the little sticker in the corner of our windshield says we should probably get it done. Maybe even the light on dash reminds us. But when most of us see the signs that our oil needs to be changed, we pull into someplace like Kinney's Complete Car Repair and pay someone else to change our oil.
And that’s part of the cost of maintaining our cars. According to Matt Kinney typical oil change runs "right around $30. We are at $29.95 for oil and filter that is pretty standard for most shops." But is it worth it? What is the cost of convenience? To decide if it’s worth it, you kind of have to know what you are paying for. What does it take to change your oil?
Matt explains "the first thing is you have to crawl up underneath and get the oil drained, then use the same catch pan to drain the filter because there is going to be some oil in there as well. Get the filter and plug back in it, get back up to the top and fill it with oil." That at most shops takes about 15 minutes and costs about 30 bucks. Technically, it's not that hard to change your oil even if you’re not much of a grease monkey. So what would take to actually do it yourself? You would have a one time cost to buy the tools you need. Matt says those tools should run "about a $10 filter wrench, and maybe $10 for the wrench and socket"
After you have your equipment, then you need a little bit of knowledge about what type of oil and filter you need. Check your owners manual because there are a lot of different options these days. For an oil filter, you will spend around $5. For the actual oil, depending on your car, you will probably need between 5 and 7 quarts. According to Matt, a quart of oil will cost about $3.
So filter and oil alone (not including the cost of the tools) your looking at around $23 to "do it yourself" compared to around $30 for the "pros" to do it. The average driver changes their oil 6 times a year for a total "do it yourself" savings difference of around $42.
The professionals point out two things. First it’s not a lot of savings to change your own oil, and second, when you pay the "pros", even with a standard oil change, you get some of their knowledge for the couple of buck difference. Matt points out when you bring your car in for an oil change, their tech's do more than drain and refill. He says "we are going to do a full inspection. We are going to be looking at things like belts, hoses, fluid levels, transmission, anti freeze, brake fluid, power steering fluid take a good look at your tires, air pressure, see if they need to be rotated, or maybe we have an alignment issue."
Something else to consider if you "do it yourself"; you still have to get rid of the old oil you drained out, that might cost you some money as well. Bottom line, when it comes to the cost of convenience, there may not be a huge savings in getting your own hands greasy versus letting the pros change you oil.
Have a thought? Share your comments below.
