lol..I wouldn't know the first thing about changing the oil myself and although my husband could do it I'm sure, he is busy working 80+hrs a week (self employed..ugh!) and I don't trust any of my employees (who do change the oil in our work vehicles) with my car. Easier to head to Nissan, get a shuttle ride to the mall, and be done with it. But I agree..$90 is a bummer.

*Edited to say: Hmm..now that I think about this...if you add in the $ spent at the mall while waiting, it's no longer "really" a $90 oil change, it's even worse for my poor hubby..lol...

In the long run, yes. Short term, not exactly. Let's assume the person doesn't have ramps or any other components of disposal of the used oil.

So, race ramps run $300. A drain pan, filter wrench, socket, jugs for hauling it to the service station and such run another, say, $30. Those are fixed costs.

A new filter is $10 and the oil, as you noted, is $40. So, my material costs are $50 per oil change, netting a difference of $40 saved per change.

That means I won't see any savings until I'm 8 changes in, or about 40,000 miles (assuming an average of 5000 per change).

It still seems like a smart thing to do to change it yourself, but realizing I won't see savings for 2.5 years or more makes a $90 change from the dealer start to seem okay to me.

The best thing to do is buy the oil and filter yourself and then find a good place that does the labor for you. I bought the royal purple and KN filter on sale for $40 and Nissan charged 12.50 for the labor. If I had bought the oil from them, even non ester oil, the guy said it was way more than if you buy it yourself. I did Mobil 1 before and everything cost $60 all said and done.

Side note: Did I read somewhere that royal purple has ester in it too?

:iagree: