Prepurchased oil changes

When I bought Big Bertha, my Chevrolet Silverado 2500 I also bought an oil change package for the first 5 years of ownership. It was a deal. I usually do my own auto maintenance but the deal was better than I could do myself. Usually I can beat the cost of getting an oil change at a lube shop by at least 30%. Plus the dealership will also rotate my tires, etc. Today I had an appointment to get that service done.

My appointment was at 8 am so I arrived 10 minutes early, checked in and found the waiting room. It didn’t take long, only about 45 minutes. Upon check out I realized the dealership wanted to charge me $82 for the service. I told them about my maintenance plan and they called the dealership I purchased the plan to confirm. All seemed good and the guy checked me out without paying. It was short lived though as I got a call from the dealership while I was in line picking up a prescription from CVS.

Get this, the plan is only good at the El Dorado dealership or its affiliate companies and the dealership here is not part of the network. I had to pay $82 for an oil change. My truck requires 6 qts oil and a 5 qt jug of oil ranges between $20 – $30 depending on the brand and grade of the oil. An extra qt would run about $5 to $10. The filter is less than $10. I think I could have done the job for only less than $50 and I would have been done faster than 45 minutes albeit I’d also get dirty and sweaty. That leaves $32 on the table. I know it’s not much but in terms of being frugal, doing it myself helps me stretch my dollar. Plus I have all the equipment to do it and I love working on my cars.

I have about 2 more years on my 5 year plan but I moved 90 miles away. I still have business in the Dallas area so I’m not going to lose out on my purchase but I will need to schedule the service along with other reasons to be at that dealership. I guess prepurchases are great but think about it before buying because life changes and what might have been a great deal a few years ago might not be the best decision today. Also it’s a good idea to refresh your understanding of the details of those packages from time to time. I think mostly people forget about prepurchases and benefits go wasted. You’ll need to decide if the deal is good or not.