Transferred a company Diesel car to another site during the week, so checked the oil, sure enough just above the minimum.
Popped into the first main road garage (far too early for anywhere sensible) and after perusing the handbook to double check went in to buy a litre of VW507 spec.
Only one oil there suitable, Castrol Edge 0W30 but £23.47!! for a litre, stuff that, we expect Dick Turpins pricing regime at an MSA but how do these places stay in business unless people with expense accounts don't bother abotu value.
Rechecked the oil, about 3mm above min so carried on and informed at destination oil needed.
Does anyone actually assist this daylight robbery by buying at such inflated prices?
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Presumably some do, or they either wouldn't be in business or would reduce their prices.
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I imagine that they keep going because there are people who never check and will just buy it anywhere when (or if) a warning light come on and company car drivers who are not paying it out of their own pocket
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Oil bought in a main road service station is always a an immediate need, distress purchase, and with every such purchase in any scenario, circumstance or need, you will always pay through the nose.
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If you need to buy a litre of oil at the roadside, ... you NEED that litre of oil, and so, the garage can charge what they like. They would be daft not to.
What's much less forgivable is the inept Vauxhall garage in Scarborough who couldn't muster up 5l of 10W40 for SWMBO's Astra whilst we were on holiday.
Back home, I restocked at our local Vauxhall dealer, buying in 20l quantities, the 10W40 was £1.50 a litre, and the 5W30 synthetic for the Astra H, £2.40 a litre.
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>>Does anyone actually assist this daylight robbery by buying at such inflated prices?
Yes. I was in a Skoda DSG thingy that an acquaintence bought new a few weeks after purchase, when the oil light flickered occasionaly on corners. They didn't know what the light meant and it took me a good time of perusing the handbook and stickers on the car to find out it was on 'extended servicing' (they didn't know that either) and thus required that stuff containing unobtinium. They went and paid some ridiculous price from a filling station for a litre of the stuff.
It runs in families!
Just checked the car of the son of the above. I serviced it over two years ago. I suspect they've never dipped the oil since , as it took a litre to bring it above min!!
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>> it took a litre to bring it above min!!
Guh... who are these people?
When the light goes on again they get a new one perhaps. And shower the secondhand, 'pre-loved' market with, er, well run-in examples. Some of them may be all right actually.
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>> >> it took a litre to bring it above min!!
>> When the light goes on again they get a new one perhaps. And shower the
>> secondhand, 'pre-loved' market with, er, well run-in examples. Some of them may be all right
>> actually.
When I bought my Carina E a few years ago it barely had two litres of oil in the thing... Took 3L to top it up to max. Never had a problem with the engine in the 25,000 miles I kept it.
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>> Just checked the car of the son of the above.
>> I serviced it over two years ago.
>> I suspect they've never dipped the oil since , as it took a litre to bring it above min!!
I expect they will blame you when it expires - you were the last one to touch it...
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Look at it another way. The average driver who has his car serviced at a garage probably only needs to by one litre of oil every year to top up. If he buys that litre at the price you were quoted he is paying a fiver or so above the price he could buy a litre elsewhere, say Halfords.
Now in the global scheme of things does saving a fiver a year amount to much when looking at your total motoring costs? He's probably spending £1,500 at the garage in fuel costs alone.
Sometimes life's too short to worry too much about a few pounds, a bit lazy perhaps but understandable
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My VW is on long life servicing. I check oil level (still fine) but I got the car in early October 2011. It still insists first service is over 4000 miles or 87 days away! Not if it was my car.
If the oil level low I could buy some I guess with the fuel card - right grade for a VW diesel outside dealers??
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>> If the oil level low I could buy some I guess with the fuel card
Check, most of the time you can't.
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>> >> If the oil level low I could buy some I guess with the fuel
>> card
>>
>> Check, most of the time you can't.
>>
Too right, couldn't even fiddle a small bag of Maltesers on the card with a £109 splash of DERV last week !
Ted
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Halfords charge £46.99 for a 4 litre container which is £11.75 per litre. The smaller the container the higher per litre it costs to produce it. The cost to garages in overheads to stock small containers will be quite high per container, so a selling price of £23.47 isn't that bad.
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>> Halfords charge £46.99 for a 4 litre container which is £11.75 per litre.
Halfords charge £16.99 for a 1 litre container. tinyurl.com/qyd2hwd £23.47 from a roadside garage that you just happen to be passing is beginning to look really attractive.
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The last lot of VW507 5w-40w I bought from eBay cost me £35 for 4 litres (Castrol Edge FST), and it came in 1 litre bottles which made it handy for topping up.
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I buy a litre of the right oil at the best price and keep it in the boot with what passes for my tool kit. I appreciate that this isn't the answer if you want 5 litres for an oil change!
Last edited by: Meldrew on Sun 28 Jul 13 at 08:23
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Not too bad a price for what is a very expensive oil - Opie oils gives the list price as £19 for a 1 litre container.
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BTW are you sure that the required spec is 0w30 - it looks like vw507 is a 5w30 oil.
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Sorry I was doing this from memory, I did actually buy 5w30 (not 5w40).
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>> BTW are you sure that the required spec is 0w30 - it looks like vw507
>> is a 5w30 oil.
Yes you are right Biggles, indeed it must have been 5w30 because it definately stated VW507 on the bottle i didn't buy...incidentally OPIE oils are selling 1 litre of this for £13.98.
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Not the first time i've seen really strange pricing on OPIE's site, they charge you £72.19 for the extra 5 litres if you opt for a 25 litre drum over 4 x 5 litres, weird.
Last time i bought Millers in bulk (50 litres) my local Carmaster shop did me a very good deal, worked out between half and two thirds the price of buying the usual 5 litre cans from the well priced shop.
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I used to work somewhere which gave me a fuel card which could be used for oil, so I bought 1 litre of Elf oil every month or so. I suppose this is the modern equivalent but in the era of mega-rip-offs.
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Main road service station rip offs. - Slidingpillar
