DealersEdge Professional Forums

Hello all! I am once again writing to see how everyone is handling their oil changes. Long story short, our Service Manager and Assistant Parts Manager went to a NADA 20 group meeting session and claim that the dealers in their group do not buy from the GM oil plan. Our Service Manager is crying that she is losing money on oil changes. Now the factors from Parts is that we use Option A pricing for oil and sell at trade price, i.e. 19432334 0w20 @ $5.56 ea per quart and 19432354 5w30 @ $5.14 ea. Which is around 30% markup. We sell all oil filters at $7.00, no matter what the cost. We exclude all diesel oil changes from this pricing and use regular list price across the board for those. Now on the Service side she is paying .9 hours for a LOF and rotate, which means she's probably overpaying the technicians. We are part of the National Retail Plan, so I believe we have to buy on the GM oil plan (am I correct in thinking this?). With plan A we receive a 10% discount which goes to 687. We also receive a dollar for every gallon purchased which gets spent by sales for mailers and advertising. We also get return reserve which is built up and cashed in at the end of the year. The other problem is that we do not own our own tanks, oil pumps and equipment. If I switch to a different vendor, there will be costs for those items as well. If anyone is buying bulk oil, what kind of costs are you having to endure? I have suggested raising the price of oil changes, but we are a small town dealer trying to compete. I know that many dealers around us are at our sale price with one exception charging $20 more. Any help and suggestions are appreciated, thank you.

We are on the GM program with Option 2 pricing, and not being on the GM program will likely kill you on purchase loyalty.

Our Dexos oil changes are $37.20 for oil (up to 6 quarts, $6.20 per quart over that) and $6.50 for the filter. Diesel oil changes are $60.48 for oil (up to 10 quarts, $6.59 per quart over) and $13.30 for the filter. Non-Dexos oil changes are $23.40 for oil (up to 6 quarts, $3.90 per quart over) and $6.50 for the filter. These prices are only for GM vehicles. I'm not sure what Service gets for the labor on an oil change, but I do know that they call around regularly to check prices and we are very much in the game. So much so, that we may be issuing a price increase soon.

We own all of our equipment.

If you stop purchasing oil from GM you would be going down a slippery slope.

1 - If you don't use GM oil you cannot be reimbursed for the included maintenance on new vehicles. Someone will have to pick-up that expense.

2 - joecool17 is right, loyalty, both purchase and sales could become an issue. The penalties for not being PASE compliant are SEVERE.

3 - Consider changing your purchase option from GM. Or lower the selling price and keep the discount and return reserve. We gave up and went net a long time ago.

4 - Paying .9 hours? At what rate? Are your lube techs really flat rate or are you having line tech do them.

Yes. They are all payed flat rate with the exception of one technician. The Line Technicians are doing them as well. Their pay scale varies from tech to tech so I don't have a solid answer on that. The Service Manager was very clear that she's losing on all oil changes with the expense we're seeing.

If service is paying .9 for a job that shouldn't be more than .5 I would image they are in the red.

She's losing all kinds of money. She needs to hire some quick lube kids

I doubt they were really told at the 20 group that all those other dealers aren't on the GM program. - Find out who they are and give the parts managers a call.

OWNERS AND GMS USUALLY ARE NOT IN THE TRENCHES SO THEY MAKE UP SHIT IN FRONT OF THERE COUNTERPARTS.

THE GM OVER HERE WAS TOLD BY HIS DM(GM SALES MANAGER) WHEN THE HEATED SEATS STARTED ON ORDER RESTRICTIONS, THAT WE COULD HAVE HEATED SEATS INSTALLED BY OUR AFTERMARKET AND THEN GET GM SEATHEAT SWITCHES. WHAT A BUNCH OF BS. ALL THE CHEVROLET SWITCHES ARE PART OF ANOTHER EXPENSIVE PART(MODULE) LIKE THE HEATER CONTROL.

AGAIN A BUNCH OF KNOW IT ALLS , KNOW NOTHING

I was under the impression if we jump off the GM oil plan then we could risk the ability to do warranty work. Never read into or asked. Just something to think about. Can anybody confirm?

I have read through the forums for a bit but never created an account. This thread is what lead to the username

You are required to use GM Oil for warranty work. So you would have to buy the bottled oil to cover that.

Welcome to the Forum!

a couple years ago we fell off from PASE, and a good portion of why, was because we were not buying our oil from so every oil change on a GM vehicle was hurting us.