Ford vs after market. Why i do my own oil changes

[Majer]

I worked for the largest Valvoline franchise in the northeast, The profit margins were way above my pay grade. But the owners drove a Lamborghini and a Ferrari,so I'm guessing they were pretty good. 

[Rastus]

My wife's new truck has a deal with free oil changes.  Problem is that the dealer is an hour away.  I suspect soccer moms will go with what is convenient for them. 

A buddy has a shop and sells tires.  He's still doing well with oil changes.

[Rastus]

Background:  I have worked as a parts manager and service writer for a GM dealership, a mechanic at a Ford dealership, and managed an auto parts store (Parts Pro). 

I am not against purchasing parts from a parts store, BUT make sure you get OEM or higher grade.  Watch closely that you don't get counterfeit knockoffs.  This is easy to verify if you have a relationship with the store owner/manager, but difficult in many larger communities with large chain stores.  When in doubt, go to the dealership, and pay the price for quality.
<snip>

I don't want to mention several well known auto parts stores and get sued.  I will say that I pay extra and only buy from NAPA because all the parts I've bought were the right ones and I didn't need to bring any of them back because they failed prematurely. 

Other places will hawk a part and it will be wrong and then you're hooked...waiting on the right part.  Put the right part on and it doesn't work right or fails quickly far too often...

[tombogan03884]

That's a great idea having people check each others work. One person can accidentally miss something, or fake it, but a second pair of eyes can verify if it was done.

We did that in manufacturing.  You checked the last guys work so you didn't waste time on junk, and because you were in the most convenient position to follow their progress.

[TAB]

We did that in manufacturing.  You checked the last guys work so you didn't waste time on junk, and because you were in the most convenient position to follow their progress.

This has always been my sop.  Not sure why people don't do that

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

This has always been my sop.  Not sure why people don't do that

The cost of measuring equipment has fallen during the 80's and 90's.
In the 80's a decent set of calipers would run around $40ish 1980 Dollars, Pretty expensive to put on every station.
By the 90's GOOD calipers were around $60 but you could buy good enough calipers, even digital, for under $25Then it got cheap enough.
Calipers is just 1 example, the same factors effected all measuring stuff so it economical to have a higher level of inspection at a lower level of the chain.