Went to a Jiffy Lube once with my '03 Mini Cooper. In the same visit they managed to lose the filler cap for the expansion tank and break the snaps on the air cleaner casing. Never again.

 

I'm not against you :-). They bollixed up your car. You have every right to be angry.

I agree that they should charge more and hire higher grade, higher paid, and better trained mechanics so as to minimize the risk of incompetent workmanship and/or obvious negligence.

There's no getting around the occasional human errors, though. Those are usually the result of working too quickly....rush rush rush. They should slow down, even though they have 15 cars waiting ...with each customer tapping their toe.

Of course, if they charged more and worked slowly, they wouldn't be "cheap and fast"....which sorta takes me back to my first posting :-).

Cheers
DD

 

Definitely due to litigation, when you have them do tire work, they will now torque every nut, take the car for a drive which includes two full figure eights, and then retorque everything. I think that's overkill, but had no qualms with them putting new rubber on the Jag... they were really tickled to work on it and treated it right.

 

Would you let the meth heads down the street give your wife a breast exam because it was cheaper than the doctor? Nuff said! Peace out

 

This is exactly what our trusted, independent service dealer does, and is why, if you care for your car, you don't go to a jiffy style lube joint.

They have a purpose - to change oil for the masses - for the hondatoyofordgmlins that are almost identical and require no forethought, to remove the oil and filter and replace it again, from a worker that has little education and probably a less than rosy future...

That said, we expect more from our automobiles AND from our service technicians. If we don't do it ourselves, we are willing to get it done right and pay for the privelege.

I might take my son's Taurus to Jiffy Lube, I sure as hell won't take my Jag.

 

Perhaps more than I'm even aware of. I can tell you that I've never made a mistake that cost a client thousands of dollars and an untold amount of wasted time.

 

What??? I wasn't supposed to do this? But I saved $125 bucks! I even took her out to a nice dinner with some of the savings just to calm her back down... Something about too many Dr's wanting to verify the first Dr's findings... I don't know, they wouldn't let me into the exam room for hippa reasons.

 

I use them, I check them, I pay them less. Even trusted mechanics will screw up. I also only use them for the basics; oil change, air filter, that's about it. I personally have never had a problem, though I have heard plenty of horrow stories.

You do have to do the QC thing, but that is a lot faster than doing it myself.

I must say I resonate with the thought that laying under the car and watching it drain is about as much peace as I get. It is a good place to hide when the wife is in a mood...

 

Well $125 is $125 and you took her to dinner.....

 

Considering the volume of oil changes these outfits do the defect rate, as a percentage, probably isn't all that bad.






I've been known to take a little nap while I'm under the car :-)

Cheers
DD

 

Well changing oil is not exactly right up there with diagnosing a no start. The fancy french restaurant is not going to be able to make bacon and eggs siginificantly better than the diner on the corner. It might be served on a nicer table cloth, but don't expect to be able to buy it at 7:00AM either. And the bill will rival anything that a dealership will serve up.

Now, one advantage to Jiffy Lube, is the tech is right there. Got caught once out of town with low diff lubricant. The tech did it exactly the way he was asked to, with the right LSD lubricant, in about 5 minutes on a Sunday. As for why the diff was low, you'd have to ask the "trusted independent mechanic" who filled it in the first place.

Ahem... and even when you pay for the privilege, it *still* might not happen

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=51496

pet peeve - missing fasternsers after service

 

And it is not unknown for the rookie at the dealership to remember the drain plug, but forget the oil. Yes, it has happened. And the customer was none the wiser by the time he showed up to pick up the car.

As noted above, there is *nothing* stopping anyone from checking the dipstick before departing from either a Jiffy Lube *or* a dealership.

Indeed, at Jiffy Lube and other similar places, it is customary to show the customer the dipstick before the customer leaves. Presumably this is to prevent arguments after the fact.

 

I spent most of my life running dealership service departments and, yes, it DOES happen from time to time...even with the old pros.

For a couple years we went on a "30 minutes or less" oil change promo. The number of mistakes increased measurably. Rush rush rush!

We all know there are no guarantees. I still maintain, though, that your chances of oil change happiness are better at a non-quick lube type of shop.

Cheers
DD

 

I think you have helped prove my point. Sure they'll both make bacon and eggs with similar results. BUT, and this IS my whole premise, ask the corner diner to make cocovan or creme brulee and you might not be as satisfied with the results.

The Jag is not that same thing as the Honda or Toyota (just as bacon and eggs is not the same as creme brulee) that they can do in their sleep, it requires a little thought - it's unusual and so are its requirements.

And yes, it MIGHT happen at my independant dealer... but I'll bet dollars to donuts that the odds are a whole lot lower.

 

Ahh... but you must admit that an oil change is not the creme brule of auto servicing.

Notice that I specifically talk about oil changes and none of the add-on services. Not flushes, not tire rotations, or anything else.

The Jiffy Lubes of the world do one thing, and one thing only .. oil changes.

That makes them oil change specialists. It is their core business.

The comments are not directed at swaying anybody to use such places, but only to point out that some of the criticisms are not warranted.

As far as being unusual, well, actually taking the time to talk to the person doing the work does wonders. The employees generally like cars and take an interest. For them, a Jaguar is a break from the usual fare. Just like it is for the owner.

 

We have had something in the last couple years that we didn't have before: Google user reviews/place pages. Use these to your advantage. You can pick out the bad places with Google easily. It has completely changed the way I choose places to service my vehicle.

 

True, true ! And McDonalds is a hamburger specialist....but my expectation of a good meal isn't very high :-)

For a *good* hamburger there's a restaurant here in my little town called "The Masthead". Yum.

Of course it'll cost me $9.50 and take a lot longer than 1 minute and 41 seconds to get my meal :-)

All these food analogies are making my stomach growl!


Cheers
DD

 

Did you really save $125? Hmmmm. I like the nice dinner afterwards idea. It just might work....... Can't hurt to try.......

 

Plum, I'll agree to meet you in the middle as we're going to have to agree to disagree a bit... I just don't want the ham-handed oil pushers inside my hood, where a simple, inadvertent bump up against a breather tube or assorted connectors can end up causing a limp mode and subsequent troubleshooting (translation: MY labor) a week or two down the line.

They may well be 'experts' on changing oil, as they probably see 500 Camrys and Preludes per month... but how often do they see an X308? I'll bet not very often.

Regardless, our points have been made and I respect your opinion.

 

and of course Jaguar recommends a new drain plug when the oil is changed, which isn't going to happen unless you bring your own parts. (And no, I don't use a new plug every time myself, but it does get inspected carefully.)