I took my '04 in for it's first scheduled maintenance service a little early at 5,000 miles. I had a $19.99 Chrysler coupon for an oil change. In the mouse type it said "some vehicles SLIGHTLY higher." I knew it was going to be more than "slightly" higher, but figured I'd have some fun with the Service Dept. boys. I presented it when they wrothe the Repair Order and the Service Writer said, " Yeah right. Try $90. plus."

This Oil and Filter change took 90-minutes and with sales tax cost me $99.00. Eight quarts of Mobil 1 add up pretty quickly. I'm not complaining about the cost but the 90-minutes (most of which was spent trying to reset the computer) showed me that they haven't a lot of experience yet.

 

I changed the oil myself it took about 20 min. $9.95 for the filter from the dealer and About $30.00 for Mobile 1 (0-40W) at the local auto store.It took less than 1 min. to reset the computer.

 

35 minutes, $8 for filter at dealer, $45 for oil at walmart.

 

Guess I'll come to Heb80 for my olf, aschrager, I'd have you do it but I think you're farther away!
Won't be till after spring. I don't have 2k on mine yet and don't think it's going to come out much this winter!
Seems like the dealer is the last place anyone wants to go for anything, these days!

 

They took over an hour for mine and the reset was at leat 30 min. I am changeing it myself from now on!!

 

Being a male I am probably putting my foot in my mouth, but I bet your technician was a male cause if he had gotten out the manual the instructions for resetting the display are clearly spelled out in there.

 

Yes the tech and the service writers are male, as am I. They are just stupid, I have also had the car in four times for wind noise and now all they can say is that it is characteristic of the car. They also called me and said it was done and had not done the oil change and tried to charge me for it when I had a free one coming and would you like me to go on??

 

My local dealer let me buy the oil myself and bring it in. Under $5 a quart at Walmart. It saved me $45 on oil alone. They still only charged $10 in labor. So my first oil change was $112. The second when I bought my own oil was about $65.

I prefer not to do my own oil change. (It's a chick thing.) But I do prefer to save the money!

 

About a month ago, I received a free oil change coupon from the dealership where I bought my XF. On it, it says for "2005 Crossfire" "This is good until March 2005".

It will be interesting to see what happens when I go in for that "free" oil change. But, it may be about March until I need that first service, so I will follow-up with this later.

 

I would talk to the dealer in ADVANCE and explain the situation that the regular oil change interval will be beyond the expiry date of the coupon. I would think that they would extend the time-frame at that point. If you wait until the time comes, they could easily say that the coupon has expired and charge you for the oil change.
What do you think?

 

After hearing all the discussion I feel very lucky that my dealer gave me a card valid for lifetime oilchanges. I am allowed a maximum of 4 changes per year. When I went in for the first change the service department wanted to charge for the oil as Mobil 1 is not included but the sales manager overrode their decision and had my record changed to prevent this in the future.

As I don't drive in the winter I expect this card will be worth at least 200 dollers per year.