Although I'm fairly well clued up on Vauxhalls, I was wondering if anyone knows what the difference is in the oil used in the workshop when a car is serviced, to the oil that you buy at the parts dept - if any.
I've just had the Vectra serviced today and was charged £28.20 for 5 litres of 10w/40 semi synth (invoice breaks it down to £5.64 a litre - 5 litres needed)
I then bought separately another litre of 10w/40 semi synth from the parts dept @ £3.28, to be used for topping up purposes. A saving of £2.36 (or a total saving of £11.80 had it been used instead of the stuff they used in the workshop).
I asked at the parts desk what the difference in the oil was apart from the price, and he said basically the label on the bottle!! The oil is from the same supplier, but the stuff sold over the parts counter is rebranded with Vauxhalls name on it.
Does anyone know whether this is true?
I did joke that maybe I should have bought the oil beforehand and supplied it for them to do the oil change with ;o)
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The oil sold by the parts dept is supplied by Delphi, but Delphi don't make oil so I'm not sure who it is really made by, but it is made in Belgium.
The workshop oil is a version of Shell Helix made specifically for GM for use in their workshops, they pay 80p a litre for it.
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Dave
It's interesting they used that spec oil in your Vectra engine - thats the same as they used in mine in Dec last year.
There's a different spec mentioned in the handbook but it's definitely not 10w 40.
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There's a different spec mentioned in the handbook but it's definitely not 10w 40.
There's the long life stuff GM-LL-A-025, which is for 2 yrs, or 20,000 mile service intervals,
and then there's all these to chose from for 1 yr / 20,000 miles service intervals
0W-30, 0W-40,
5W-30, 5W-40,
10W-30, 10W-40
For all of the petrol range of engines.
I chose not to go down the 2yr / 20,000 mile route and still want mine serviced annually. I don't do more than 10,000 a year, and they recommended the semi synth 10w/40, which is half the price of the long life.
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they pay 80p a litre for it.
Cheers for that Rishab. Why does that not surprise me ;o)
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I've just had the Vectra serviced today and was charged £28.20 for 5 litres of 10w/40 semi synth (invoice breaks it down to £5.64 a litre - 5 litres needed)
A local Vauxhall dealer tried charging £36 for 5 litres of oil when I last had mine serviced at a main dealer. I bought my GT Magnatec from a parts supplier at £12 and asked them to use that - which they did! I wasn't paying the best part of £8 per litre.
I also wondered about they oil as whilst I was waiting for the car to be serviced, the parts desk was advertising 5 litres of oil at £15 - Duckhams IIRC
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Its not just vauxhall, Their all at it. Ive just had my Chrysler Voyager serviced today & they charged me £46 for 6 litres.
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Although I don't know this for a fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all if each Vauxhall Franchise made its own arrangements for the oil it uses in the workshop.
In the garages in which I worked in some years ago (although I know nothing has since changed in two of them in this regard) there is one oil tank. Every car got, and still gets the same oil if it goes into that workshop. I suspect this is common practice.
IMO there is a lot of fuss made on this site about oil specs. I think, in most cases, it is many times more important to change the oil and filter regularly than to use exactly the right oil when you do so.
The obvious exceptions, where oil quality is really important, are those engines with a particular feature that demand special lubrication, like a heavily loaded fuel injection cam lobe, or if an extended change interval is being followed.
Number_Cruncher
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I agree with number cruncher. Often the workshop is a different 'cost centre' to parts dept. and the workshop will be using different oil to the stuff sold in parts dept.
I know that the main dealers I used to deal with would generally buy the cheapest that that local oil distributor was selling (that met the required spec., of course).
There is a lot of fussing about oil, but in many years of fixing cars I've only seen a few that had lubrication problems. Any oil of the correct weight and appropriate SAE/ACEA spec will do the job. It is most important to keep the level topped up and change it regularly. Obviously there are a few cars where spec is a bit more critical (e.g. VW PD).
I believe it is very difficult to make a good case for using the expensive PAO/Ester synthetics unless you are on either extended drain intervals or running the car on the track.
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I to have a vauxhall and just had the oil and filter changed at National Tyre and Exhaust for £15 for semi synthetic. Its the advertisements in the national papers. Did me ok
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Vauximan, was the oil the right one for your 2.0dti?
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It's no wonder dealers have such a bad reputation - they really are taking the mick! To charge nearly £4 / litre is bad enough, but to then charge nearly £6 / litre in the workshop is outrageous! I would be complaining to the dealer, but then they'd probably just up the price of the over the counter oil!Quality 10W-40 Semi-synth oil costs <£10 at the factors.
And you guys with new cars keep paying the dealer price for that lovely stamp.
Wanders away shaking head....
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Whilst we are the subject of VX oils. What oil do i need to put in a 04 Zafira DTI ?. I am running this on a yearly service interval and it,s going to do about 9K a year. Local Vx dealer sold me a litre of Shell Helix to use as a top up, but i can't remember exactly the rating. The VX website appears not to list the oil spec for this particular model.
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I can buy bulk 5W-40 fully synth GM oil (25litre drum) from my local GM dealer for £50 - and they deliver it to me. Mind you, that's about the only thing I do buy from them.
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Blimey thats cheap, what time do you want me round for an oil change
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That's the trade rate for the oil (to be honest I think the last lot was £55 rather than £50). They still make a healthy profit on it though. I suspect the likes of Kwik-Fit pay well under £1/litre for their oil when buying in volume. Bought a pattern filter for a Honda recently and it was £2.11 with 'proper' trade discount - so you can see that there is a fair potential for profit, even by charging only £15 for an oil and filter change.
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It does make you wonder why it's so cheap.
Cheers
Simon
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It does make you wonder why it's so cheap. Cheers Simon
Come on Oilman! Your company must be buying oil in considerable quantity, so you must know the base price of this stuff.
The GM stuff is made in Europe (Belgium or Germany IIRC) and comes in a blue plastic barrel with a silver sticker on it. They also sell Dexron III(g) ATF at a similar price, whereas if you go into a factor they want £20+ for 5 litres of the stuff. There must be a lot of money in retailing oil in the UK.
I use Redline oil quite a bit. Their gearbox oils are very good, but an obscene price in the UK. They want £18 a quart!! I can order it from the US for US$7 a quart; surface shipping is $12 for the first quart and $6 for each additional quart. Even if I get stung for import tax (which happened this week!) it is still a considerable saving on the UK price.
I had an amusing phone conversation with the Redline UK sales guy when I moaned about how expensive it is. He said it was expensive because "basically its just very expensive to make". I asked him how come it only costs $7 a quart in the US; about 1/3 the UK price - he didn't have an answer!
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Vauximan, was the oil the right one for your 2.0dti?
Yes 10w-40 semi synthetic. I change my oil twice a year anyway to protect the engine
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