OTPAuto

Mistakes happen. Small, sub-$200 stuff, I'll eat if it's a once every few months kind of deal. I tell my techs when I hire them - If they damage a customers car, or break something due to their negligence - first time, it's on me. 2nd time, it's on you. If there's a 3rd time, you won't be here.

We use a variety of filters, depending on vehicle. We stoke a lot of Mann/Mahle/Hengst filters where they're OE for things we see often, mostly Euro & GM cartridge filters. Microguards from Oreilly for the random generic vehicles that aren't picky. Motorcrafts for the ford stuff, AC Delco for the LS & truck filters. I stock filters for vehicles we know we see often. Most of the rest comes from either Worldpac, or Oreilly. 95% of what we stock comes from Worldpac. Why? Price & availability, why else?

My thought on that though - who uses Indeed to find a job? I never have, and don't know hardly anybody in our field who does. But I suppose it's worth a look. Same theory I have with the local Chamber of Commerce. As a regular consumer, I've never dealt with the Chamber before, and neither has anybody I've ever asked, so whats the use?

I'm trying to hire, and literally cannot find anybody. Ideally I'm looking for a full time parts hanger. Somebody that has little or no diag experience or isn't comfortable with electrical work, but can do the basics on their own. Where do I even try to look? I've tried CL and Facebook to no avail. I've called both of the local community colleges with automotive programs, and it's just crickets. I don't even want to pay them flat rate, I'll more than happily pay them hourly. And PLEASE, for the love of god, I don't want to hear the lecture on 'you need to hire nothing but master techs'. That doesn't help me, nor fix my current problems. I know what I need. I just need help trying to figure out how to find it. Nobody becomes a mastertech without doing basics first anyways.

I sell parts at cost to my guys, or if they need to pay by card plus 5%.

Euro syn oils are rated to a different standard, and typical US API certifications don't apply. Most SN oils will breakdown in no time in a lot of European engines. The BMW's, for example, are more like old American stuff. They use bucket lifters with direct cam>lifter contact, so they need a higher ZDDP oil than say, a Toyota or a GM thats a full roller valvetrain. It also requires a more shear-stable oil. A3/B4 oils typically have an HTHS rating of 3.5 or higher. M1 5W-30 will shear to a 20 wt in a matter of miles in a BMW engine that sees redline once in awhile. They also run, for the most part at least, a larger sump and higher oil temps, and see heavy rod bearing loading (sometimes with an inadequate rod bearing - but thats a typical for a whole other discussion. Also of note - not all Euro ratings are the same either. Most of the manufacturers have their own specs, but most of the Euro rated oils are similar. Beware - Euro gasoline & diesel, like the US, are a completely different spec, except they aren't nearly as cross-compatible as US ones are. Rotella can be ran in damn near anything and be happy. An LL-04 BMW rated diesel oil, otoh, isn't the case. Lubrizol is an additive manufacturer, and has a really nice tool to let you compare most of the oil specs on the market and how different their areas of focus are. https://www.lubrizol.com/Lubricant-and-Fuel-Additives/Engine-Oil-Additives/ACEA/Relative-Performance-Tool

Thanks everybody. It seems that VP has a new line of oils coming out, and we have a local distributor with VERY competitive pricing that seems very easy to deal with. 6-gal boxes of syn blends for $1.87/qt, high mileage for $2.42/qt and full syn or Dexos syn for ~$2.70/qt. We'll stick to the Motul for the euro cars, and I'll keep looking for vehicle-specific ATF's.

Thanks, yes this is absolutely a COGS discussion. I have no plans of using a no-name, unknown, untested oil in my customers cars. As I said in the initial post we use Motul 5W-40 in our European cars where it's required, and educate our customers on the benefits of top quality oil in those vehicles. I mentioned Mercon V because we can get it for a good price in the 6-gal boxes from Worldpac. We run Redline & Motul gear oils,a nd am investigating other quality options. I run brake fluids from ATE, Motul & Textar. We use quality oils, and only use factory spec'd fluids, none of the universal 1-size fits all (especially the ATF's, such a good way to burn up a torque converter, if not an entire trans). This isn't a question of quality, this is a question of suppliers, pricing and options. So lets keep this on topic please. Thanks.

Quick update: I've called around to most of the oil distributors that I can find on Google. Some of them are out of their minds, and a few have decent pricing. There doesn't seem to be as much economical advantage to the e-boxes as I would have imagined vs quart pricing though.

Unless the price is just absolutely spectacular, drums are out for me., I just don't do enough oil change work to justify having that much cash tied up in a single weight.

Who and where does everybody get oil from, and what are you paying around the country? I'm still somewhat small and don't use tons of oil. I was buying single quarts and 5-quart jugs, and still do for some things. Have started getting 6-gal boxes of Mercon V from Worldpac, and 20l jugs of Motul 5W-40. The rest has typically been able to be filled in with great oil sales that I find at the parts stores. Typically spend ~$1k or more every christmas at Autozone scooping up all of the $2/qt synthetic or syn blends or HM oils on clearance. Where do you buy? Do you have price limits, while still trying to maintain quality?? For generic synthetics, $3.00/qt is where I try to stay under, but will sometimes grab some of the Napa syn when it's on sale ($3.49/qt lately) if I'm running low on something. $2/qt max for conventional or blend/high mileage. I stock Motul 5W-40 for most of the euro stuff that we work on, and thats obviously a bit more, and those oil changes are of course priced accordingly. The deals are getting harder to find though, and I have a supplier that stopped by the other day with a flyer for decent case pricing, but requires buying 20 cases. Figured before I dump money on that I'd check and see what others are doing. I also like the boxes, I'd love to get one of the racks to store them all on too, saves a ton of space and so much less waste in plastic. FWIW - I contacted Valvoline about bulk purchased, but never heard back. So they're most likely out....

I actually get pretty good pricing on Oreilly's batteries. I always check the retail website and resell them for that price, plus install labor.

In this town we have: Oreilly Autozone Napa Auto Plus Parts Plus (which just got converted to a CarQuest I see, I don't really buy there either). And Advance. I have no major issue with Advance in general - I just can't stand the commercial manager here. There's WAY too many options to deal with his condescending bs attitude. Even so, I do 15-20% of my business with Oreilly and the other 80% of my business with Worldpac. I just wish they'd get better about deliveries. IMC won't deliver here either, as much as I'm trying to convince them they should.

I call them 'Iffy Lube'. Had one in Saratoga Springs, NY across from the Ford/Mazda/Subaru dealership I worked at. At least once a month we'd be doing a motor, trans or front diff that they ruined.