Oil vendors & pricing?

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.

I feel your pain. It took me years of searching prices before I realized its not about price! I have very dedicated customers and most use Amsoil. We believe in the product and educate our customers on the benefits. If you don't keep your customers informed and offer them fair and superior service you will always be competing with the shop down the road. Customers are looking for service they can trust. If you are selling by price you will always be looking for cheaper items and lets face it, We cannot compete with internet prices. We do not install customer supplied parts, We stopped because so many cheap online parts were costing us more time to install and when the part fails the customer blames the shop. We install using quarts or gallons. Oh by he way I am the shop owner, technician, service writer, bookkeeper, etc so we are a small shop as well.

4 minutes ago, Jeffrey said:

I feel your pain. It took me years of searching prices before I realized its not about price! I have very dedicated customers and most use Amsoil. We believe in the product and educate our customers on the benefits. If you don't keep your customers informed and offer them fair and superior service you will always be competing with the shop down the road. Customers are looking for service they can trust. If you are selling by price you will always be looking for cheaper items and lets face it, We cannot compete with internet prices. We do not install customer supplied parts, We stopped because so many cheap online parts were costing us more time to install and when the part fails the customer blames the shop. We install using quarts or gallons. Oh by he way I am the shop owner, technician, service writer, bookkeeper, etc so we are a small shop as well.

Jeffrey, I understand what you are saying. What you also have to recognize as a shop owner buying right allows proper pricing and proper profitability. While service is what we are all about and what differentiates us COGS is something that NEEDS to be monitored closely and as the owner you need to make sure you are not overpaying which will cause you to unnecessarily price too high.

If you wish to use Amsoil and tout it's benefits thats fine. If you can buy it for $50 a gallon from Napa or order it shipped in for $30 a gallon would you care? I hope so!

i did not see this as a cheap discussion as much as a COGS discussion. Whether you offer Amsoil or Full Synthetic oil really does not matter. While you have a one man operation and can educate one person at a time others have 10 or 20 man operations that cater to a much larger niche than you do and therefore may not be able to educate on the level you do and/or do not have the faith in the same products you do yet still wish to offer quality products.

14 minutes ago, Wheelingauto said:

Jeffrey, I understand what you are saying. What you also have to recognize as a shop owner buying right allows proper pricing and proper profitability. While service is what we are all about and what differentiates us COGS is something that NEEDS to be monitored closely and as the owner you need to make sure you are not overpaying which will cause you to unnecessarily price too high.

If you wish to use Amsoil and tout it's benefits thats fine. If you can buy it for $50 a gallon from Napa or order it shipped in for $30 a gallon would you care? I hope so!

i did not see this as a cheap discussion as much as a COGS discussion. Whether you offer Amsoil or Full Synthetic oil really does not matter. While you have a one man operation and can educate one person at a time others have 10 or 20 man operations that cater to a much larger niche than you do and therefore may not be able to educate on the level you do and/or do not have the faith in the same products you do yet still wish to offer quality products.

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.

I feel that I can contribute a little to this. I was also in search of bulk oil pricing and something with decent quality. There are two other vendors to consider: Mighty which can supply the 6 gallon boxes and I believe the cost boiled down to about $2 a quart and the benefit is a nice display rack and several flavors to satisfy most vehicles. I don"t remember the manufacturer they use but I think it was something decent.

The second vendor (the one that I switched to) is Safety Kleen. I never realized they carried fluids because they are known for oil disposal and parts washer maintenance. One day out of the blue I received a call from a sales lady in Texas and they carry their own line of oil and they are certified and Dexos aproved, bla bla bla. They are ultra competitive and they sell either drums or 5 quart jugs or cases of quarts. She said they will beat my current vendor rates however their standard pricing was already low. 

I attached the email she sent me with the current pricing. I have been using this oil and has worked great so far. They don't seem to sell regular oil, but synthetic blend as their standard. I purchased multiple cases of 5W20, 5W30, and a couple 10w30 so satisfy most of the vehicle that I get. An example is that I buy the 5qt jugs of 5w20 and the cost is about $1.75 per qt. When I get my european cars like Benz, Porsche etc. my local Walmarts have the Mobil1 0w40 which is manufacturer approved for certain european vehicles and I pay normally $24ish for a 5qt jug. 

The attachment also has her number if you wish to contact her. I believe they have a guarantee/warranty on the oil as well. 

oil pricing.docx

Another thing to consider is ATF. I have used Amilie and Wolf's Head brand universal synthetic ATF and the pricing at my local Cold Air Distributors is pretty good. Its about $46 for a case of 12qts and if you look at their website they are compatible with almost everything except CVT and even then I think they have a fluid for that. I have never had a problem with them whenther its a toyota, honda, chevy or whatever. They work in european transmissions as well. I will try to link the compatibility list. Call them up and ask for their local distributors list and try to get the best pricing. 

BTW I am not endorsing or selling these products, i am simply a one man operation who doesn't want to keep too many variations of fluids taking up space in my two bay facility as well as getting quality stuff for reasonable prices.

http://www.amalie.com/Universal-Synthetic-Automatic-Transmission-Fluids/Universal-Synthetic-Automatic-Transmission-Fluid/products/files//6158B98821D3/AmalieUniSynATF_3.10.14.pdf