My 2004 Honda Civic LX is still a wonderful car. I passed 30,000 miles last month and, as I want to keep current with maintenance, I took the car in for tire rotation, an oil change, a new air filter, and a brake inspection.
Last time, I took my car to the dealer and spent about $230. This time, fueled by the helpful comments submitted I took the car to Pep Boys instead. Put simply, I got much more from Pep Boys at $60 than I got from Honda at $230.
The oil change was $24.49 but I have a $7 rebate coming to me. That seems about average. Tire rotation was $10 and the new air filter was $14. The two wiper blades were about $16 total. It seems I made the correct choice this time.
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7:42 pm (reply)
A couple of things:
Sears has free tire rotations (F to B, B to F). Period, no other strings attached.
Wipers, I always elect to purchase and install myself.
The heck with replaceable air filters. I bought a K&N the first I had to change it in my vehicle (54,000 miles ago) and no replacement needed!
I definitely agree that PepBoys is cheaper than your dealer! Especially with Hondas!
7:46 pm (reply)
Hey, good job on finding a better deal. Quick note on the honda…if it is like mine, my honda air filter takes about 10 seconds to change, at a cost of less than 6 to 10 bucks. You just unsnap two little latches, take the old one out, put the new one in.
love the blog!
ncnblog.com
6:41 pm (reply)
ditto on the K&N filter … one time reasonable cost ($50-60) and then it lasts for a very long time before you have to clean and re-oil it
gives your car a horsepower boost too (a small one) and because it’s not disposable, it’s keeping stuff out of landfills.
Consider it for next time :)
8:15 pm (reply)
Absolutely. Thanks for the tips.
7:22 pm (reply)
oh wow 30K on a 2004. You drive a lot huh?
My 01 has er.. 50K on it. It also has a K&N filter (you’ll need to clean it occasionally though with their $10 cleaning kit).
Although pepboy is cheaper, you should consider finding a trusthworthy local auto shop. I know its difficult to find, but down the road they may be worth it.
Pepboy can handle the minor stuff like oil change etc. fine, even wal-mart can do that okay.. but if you ever need any medium to major repair work.. establishing a relationship with a good local mecahnic is helpful.
I’ll recommend going to AAA.com, punch in ur zip code and try to find AAA approved auto repair shops.
I filtered out my results more, but picking the ones that have consistently received customer satsifaction awards from AAA.
7:40 pm (reply)
My commute is something like 50 miles each way. This might change soon, however…