Cost of Oil Change

[civiclad]

I did my fist oil change last Thursday (8000) kms service. Morningside Mazda charged $89 for an oil change + a tire rotation.

I don\'t believe an an oil change + tire rotation should be this expensive.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

you got hosed majorly!

an oil change is around ~24.95 and is something that\'s set by mazda canada (at least the ads say so), although dealers are free to charge whatever they like for \"maintenance packages\".

what\'s the price breakdown on your invoice? did they include a \"brake inspection\" while they were rotating the tires? did you authorize any of the work they said they were gonna do? did they tell you the estimated cost before you told them to go ahead with the work? in any case, that\'s a ridiculous price and i\'d complain if i were you.

[Snipes]

I\'m with Majestic. That is stupid expensive. I would go back to them and try to play a little blackmail game about how you\'re in a club and and that your voice does matter and that we already know you got hosed yet we don\'t know where you went to get your service. If they don\'t budge you tell them that you\'re going to all the mazda 3 owners on the club and are going to spill. It\'s amazing what you can do with words and have it work in your favour when it\'s a company\'s business on the line with less revenue at stake. I\'ve learnt this over the years of taking marketing. It\'s a fun game, hehe.

[Dr Butcher]

Never, ever, ever take your car to Morningside.....

First off I\'m amazed the trained apes they have working there actually knew how to do an oil change and a tire rotation. Secondly I am amazed you didn\'t come out of there with additional problems. I have been screwed over by them a couple of times. Search my posts here for my hatred of Morningside.

Mazda Canada has had more than a few complaints about Morningside, call them and see what they can do for you. You\'ll more than likely get a call about your sevice experience over the next few days from Morningside. Let them know you\'re pissed as well.

[civiclad]

Thanks for your replies.

I did receive a call from Morningside Mazda last evening wanting to know how was my service experience. And I did mention to them about getting ripped-off with regards to the pricing, service etc. Morningside has decided that my next oil change would be FREE - but it\'s too late...i\'m finished dealing with these folks.

arc

[Dr Butcher]

I\'d take the oil change then find a new dealership. Hell, at the very least you\'ll save yourself 30 something bucks.

I\'ve basically found their service department to be very unprofessional. Every time I go in they have new staff. They couldn\'t do an alignment on my truck because they didn\'t have the proper equipment. I took it to Firestone at Kingston Rd & Morningside and they did it for half the price Mazda quoted me before they found out they couldn\'t do it. I took it in for a CEL and the mechanic purposely broke a part off of my exhaust system and tried to tell me it was like that when I took it in, even though I could totally see the stress marks around the prefectly clean break in the aluminum. Then, after spending over $300 on the repair, the light came back on and it turned out to be a $40 sensor. The blower fan resistor went on me a couple of times and when I took it in the mechanic scratched my front fender with his uniform. The 4x4 started acting up and I took it in for a diagnostic. Even though every time I drove it the 4x4 would engage randomly, they said they couldn\'t find anything wrong with it. Although they were happy to charge me $95 to check it out..... It just seemed that everything they do is half-assed.

[MAZDA Kitten]

OMFG! 89!!!!!!!
My first oil change is free and afterwards its 24.99$

[wtom]

Jeez, I couldn\'t even squeeze a free oil change out of Markham Mazda...

To those who PM\'ed me, sorry I can\'t reply due to the PM limit... looks like I\'m set at 1 PM per day haha.

[bluntman]

Moved to Review of Local (GTA) Body Shops / Garages / Dealers section

[FLIPDADY]

I hope you guys aren\'t mistaking a basic oil change which is only $26.95. On an 8,000km service on top of \"changing the oil\" they do all the the necessary inspections recomended by Mazda Canada, and if needed rotate your tires. The 8,000km service with tire rotation is $72.00. While the 8,000km service without tire rotation is $52.00.

Dr Butcher - If you didn\'t like Morningside\'s service then why did you take it back there?
I would be outta there after the first bad experience.

[bluntman]

I\'m confused. When am I supposed to have my first oil change? I\'m already at +6600km on the original oil.

[FLIPDADY]

Mazda recommends you change your oil every 4 months or 8,000km. If it was my car I would just do an oil change every 5,000km. It\'s really up to you if you want to change the oil between each service interval.

[ken]

Is it better for the car if oil change is performed every 5k? I have heard of it on the p5s, but never know the reasoning behind.

[teambedlam]

Originally posted by ken Is it better for the car if oil change is performed every 5k? I have heard of it on the p5s, but never know the reasoning behind.

Manufactured use to reccommend oil changes every 5k. Nowadays they are claiming that oil lastes longer so you can extend it to 8k. It really depends on how you drive your car and where you drive it.

If you want check your oil at 5k and see how it looks. If it looks ok then wait a bit. If it looks dark and black and dirty then get it changed.

[ZoomZoom Girl]

I just had my first 8000 km service done this morning and my grand total was $33, taxes included, no need for a tire rotation. This was in Mid City Mazda, Sudbury....

Originally posted by FLIPSPEED


I hope you guys aren\'t mistaking a basic oil change which is only $26.95. On an 8,000km service on top of \"changing the oil\" they do all the the necessary inspections recomended by Mazda Canada, and if needed rotate your tires. The 8,000km service with tire rotation is $72.00. While the 8,000km service without tire rotation is $52.00.

Dr Butcher - If you didn\'t like Morningside\'s service then why did you take it back there?
I would be outta there after the first bad experience.

[Dr Butcher]

Originally posted by FLIPSPEED
Dr Butcher - If you didn\'t like Morningside\'s service then why did you take it back there?
I would be outta there after the first bad experience.

You\'ve got me there, it was really convenient because it\'s right on my way to work. I had the second resistor fixed under warranty because it failed 3 months after I had the first one installed. It was at this point the mechanic scratched the fender. After that I stopped taking it in for scheduled maintenance and started putting in Synthetic oil at Costco.

When I decided to sell the truck I went in to talk to a salesman there about the 3 and he seemed nice, when he offered me $1500 for my truck I got pissed and walked out on him with my ownership still stapled to the trade in offer. He had to chase me down to give it back to me. That was the final straw, if they don\'t need my business they\'re not getting it. arc

[ng3]

Oil chages differ in prices depending what you get. You can take your own oil and they\'ll change it for you (Dave Wood Newmarket) for about $22 with new filter. For synthetic they were charging around 60 with Motul 5W20 Synth.

I have done two oil changes on my car one at 5k and another at 13k and both times I got Mobil 1 Supersyn from Can Tire. If you look in the book at the maintenence schedule for Canada (and Puerto Rico) they recommend changing every 4k for normal oil.

6K is way too much to go on the original oil...

Note: If you do decide to do your own oil change, the oil filter for the 2.0L is about $9 and if you don\'t want to take a chance with oil spilling from the filter when you remove it, I recommend removing the platic cover underneath the engine. It\'s an additional 15-20 mins of work but it makes it easier to remove the filter. (also on the 2.0 there are no O-rings)

[Soulcrusher]

I changed my oil at 7000K. I was planning to wait until 8000, but I had a slow leak in my left rear tire. So I booked an appointment at RH Avante. They changed my oil, patched up the tire, serviced the brakes (under warranty), cleaned all of my rims since I had left all of the brake dust on them to show how bad it was, and had an spare key cut for me. Paid about $100 or so.

Very happy with the service and will definitely take my business there.

Anyway, ther service manual (for the average driver) recommends the first oil change at 8000 and subsequent ones at 12000. I\'m planning on making it simple and change it at every 8000. That way it will always be easy to calculate when my next change is. I think 5000 is just a waste. The actual cost of the change isn\'t really a big deal, but the inconveniences of bringing in my car for servicing more often is the real killer. Today\'s engines are built better than they were 10 years ago and going from 12000 to 5000 seems way too unnecessary for me.

But really, whatever makes sense to you and makes you feel at ease, then that\'s what you should do.

[ZoomZoom Girl]

So are you saying that the manual states the first oil change should be at 8000 km, the next one at 12000 km? I\'ll have to recheck my data since I thought I had read every 8000 km.... just want to ensure that I adhere to Mazda\'s maintenance schedule.

[Soulcrusher]

I was mistaken. The manual (Schedule 1 - page 8-4) states every 12000 .... even for the first oil change. If you received the questionnaire from Mazda when you first purchased the car, they included a generic pamphlet which recommends changing oils every 8000 or less. But again, please bear in mind that this is a pamphlet that is used for all Mazda models.

Not sure now why I believed it was 8000 for the first oil change. I must have been ... :zzz at the time.

[ng3]

Check Schedule 2, that\'s the one for us Up North... Schedule 1 is for USA

[majic]

that\'s weird.. b/c in usa they rarely use km.. and it would make sense to do 8000mi which equalls 1280km.. but then again i might be wrong

[Soulcrusher]

The schedules relate to the driving conditions which the car is put through and not to it\'s geographical location. If any of the following apply to you, then you fall under Schedule 2:

- repeated short-distance driving
- driving in dusty conditions
- driving with extended use of brakes
- driving in areas where salt or other corrosive materials are being used
- driving on rough or muddy roads
- extended periods of idling or low-speed operation
- driving for long periods in cold temperatures or extremely humid climates

[gandrigo]

I believe we need to follow schedule 2 not schedule 1 in Canada. Therefore oil changes should be done every 4 months or 8000kms. that is my interpretation of the owners manual (it may have changed as my car is one of the earlier examples, build date Nov 2003)