Getting Oil Changes Oustide of Dealership
 

Does anyone go get their car serviced (oil changes, etc.) outside of dealerships? I hate going to dealerships- they take too long, charge too much, and I feel they do a worse job.

I had an appointment for a free oil change tomorrow, so I call the dealer to make sure and of course they have no record of my appointment. So I want to go to an independent shop.

Are most shops pretty knowledgeable about the RX8?

No, same thing goes for most Dealerships. But doing an oil change on an RX-8 is not any different than doing it on another car. I would just make sure they know about not shutting down a cold engine. Also keep all receipts in case you need to prove to Mazda you have being getting the oil changed.

Ditto........for sure keep all your reciepts. I do my own and keep all of them. There is a long thread on this forum concerning Stealerships not or may not be honoring warranties due to non-records of oil changes. Like I said, I also keep all my reciepts and because I'm sooooooo anal, I use the http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...ersHome.action site that Mazda provides and I keep track of all maintainence items on there. They provide that site and allow you to use a pull down menu to select "oil change" as an option, so I put the mileage, cost of filters, oil, and anything else down each and everytime. I also include all the costs of my mods and everything I do, but that's just me. I defy them to not perform warranty on my car. So far so good, but I haven't done anything too radical.........yet.

i would be carefull, most places dont know about the oilcoolers, they will drain the oil, then add 5 qts, and then your in a pickel

Thanks for the help guys. I think I'll give the dealerships another chance. Maybe I can find a good Mazda one in Houston.

I do mine myself. That way I know the oil coolers are drained. Plus I enjoy it. I save my receipts when I do them. Castrol GTX 5w-20 and K&N oil filter everytime.

its fine to take it anywhere just save your receipts.

+1 on all counts