I usually go to Jiffy Lube to get all of my oil changes done. With coupon, I normally pay about $35 including tax and other fees. I go there for time efficiency and convenience. However, one thing I hate is their reminder stickers. Typically, they will have a reminder sticker pasted on the corner of your inside part of the windshield. It’s there so that you can easily be reminded so you don’t miss your next oil change service. I would find it nice and useful if the information they put was accurate.
You see, maybe around 10 years ago or so, the cars required normal oil changes. Typical rule of thumb back then was to change your oil every 3,000 miles or every 3 months, whichever came first. That may have been a good rule of thumb then, but nowadays, the engines are designed and made with better parts and electronics where it doesn’t require as frequent oil changes. If you look in your car’s owner’s manual, you will more than likely discover that the recommended oil change is far less frequent that Jiffy Lube’s recommended mileage of every 3,000 miles. You’d be pleasantly surprised that your manual would recommend changing oil every 5,000 miles, or even 10,000 miles!
So, how much money can you actually save by changing oil less frequently? I drive a Nissan Rogue and my wife drives a Honda Accord. My owner’s manual suggests changing oil every 7,000 miles. My wife’s car has an oil life indicator where the oil should be changed if the oil life drops to 10%. For her, that equates to changing oil every 8,000 miles. Let’s assume the life of both our cars is 150,000 miles. If we followed the conventional suggestion of 3,000 miles, we would have 50 oil changes each. But if we followed the manufacturer’s recommendation, my Rogue would go through about 22 oil changes and the Accord would go through 19 oil changes.
At $35 per oil change, we would save $980 from the Rogue and $1085 from the Accord.
- Every 3,000 miles: 50 oil changes x $35 per oil change = $1,750
- Every 7,000 miles: 22 oil changes x $35 per oil change = $770
- Every 8,000 miles: 19 oil changes x $35 per oil change = $665
So, stop wasting your money on too many unnecessary frequent oil changes. Read your owner’s manual and save.
This is the latest edition of our new series called MoneyFail.
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My van works out to about 6,000 miles before the oil life drops to 10%. It seems fairly consistent and is definitely nice not to worry about every 3,000 miles. I am too busy so it helps with time management as well.
cashflowmantra recently posted..How to Make $1000 Per Month as an Etsy Seller
yeah my wife’s accord is pretty consistent too. At around 8,000 miles or so, the indicator drops to 10%. I wonder how they calculate it.
Charles recently posted..Crazy Things People Say After Being Pulled Over
Wow! thanks for doing the calculations!!
sure thing Lena. Let me remind you that the math is carried out over 150,000 miles. My wife can reach that in 5 years. so she’s saving about $200 per year. It’s not great savings but definitely savings. Think of it as additional $200 cash back on your tax return!
Charles recently posted..MoneyFail #5 – Prevent Oral Cancer
What a great illustration of a way to save money on car maintenance! I used to freak out when I saw that 3000 miles had passed and would hurry to get the oil changed, but I stretch it out to 4000-5000 miles now. How do you like your Honda Accord? I’ve been looking for a used one, because my 2006 Toyota Sienna, with only 84,000 miles has been a money pit. In fact, the check engine light came on and the mechanic said that the diagnostics indicate that it needs both catalytic converters replaced, at a cost of $1600! Both times I have owned a Honda, they were good cars, but I haven’t tried the Accord.
Monica recently posted..Benchmarking Mutual Funds: Are You Missing the Mark?
we have about 36,000 miles on the accord now and it’s been running great. The only maintenance we’ve done is oil change and tire rotation. even the dealer told us not to worry about anything else and just maintain the oil changes. My parents have 2004 sienna and they don’t like it too much. it only has about 70,000 miles on it but it crapped on them already. Something to do with water pump. Can’t remember exactly.
Charles recently posted..Are You Protected Against Job Loss?
We let the cars tell us when it’s time to change the oil except we will have it changed if it has been six months since the last change, which happens quite often for us as my wife is a stay-at-home mom and I have a commute that’s five miles round trip, meaning pretty low mileage on my car.
Money Beagle recently posted..The Economics Of Free Coffee
My car’s manual suggest oil changes every 5,000 to 7,500 miles, and I use synthetic oil so I can even go a bit longer. But I admit I get kind of worried something bad is going to happen if I wait just a little too long…like right now it’s been 7,600 miles and I’m itching to go get my oil changed!
American Debt Project recently posted..Want to Get Out of Debt? Top Ten Posts That Changed My Views on Money, Debt and My Life
Our diesel car only needs an oil change every 10k miles, which is nice, except that the oil our car requires can only be bought from the dealership, so no Jiffy Lube oil changes for us. It works out to an oil change once every 6-7 months.
shanendoah@the dog ate my wallet recently posted..Sunday Evening Post #28
Thank you for doing this post Charles. Recently I was wondering whether I was supposed to go by the date on the sticker or by the mileage. I will have to look up what is actually recommended for my vehicle. Out driving today it did feel a big sluggish which is probably a sign that it’s time to change the oil. So JiffyLube will have to be on my to-do list soon. Good to know about the misleading stickers though.
Modest Money recently posted..Buying A Pet – Investing In Happiness
Those stickers are genius. Now it seems like every industry is using them. Hair stylists. Dentists. Mechanics. Pretty soon retail stores will begin telling you when they recommend you to come back.
funancials recently posted..How Do You Judge Value?
My local grease monkeys also “inspect” my car and offer suggested “maintainance” to bump up the bill.
Now I change my own oil.
Shaun @ Smart Family Finance recently posted..Comment on Valentine’s Day: Proof that Men Will Pay Twice as Much For Something They Need by Shaun
Yeah, the people that are hurting the most are the oil change places such as Jiffy Lube. With improved engine performance in cars these days that allows us to go longer between oil changes, they gotta be suffering a bit in terms of business.
Charles recently posted..Read The Fine Print When Applying For Balance Transfer Credit Cards
I never wanted to be the “dumb woman” who forgot to get her oil changed…now I can’t wait to check out the owner’s manual and see what is recommended for my car.
Super Frugalette recently posted..Should You Refinance Your Home?
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