Hi guy's, anyone know what 5w30 oil National tyres use in there oil changes, and would it be Vw 504.00 spec for my 1.8TSI...

Yes, you need VW504.00 for your engine. However, I wouldn't trust national tyres to fit a round black rubber thing to a round steel thing and get it right way round, never mind let them have a whole car to bugger about with.

Ahhh  the humble oil change...

How do any of us know what "they"  put in?

You just accept they use the right stuff, they certainly charge you for it!

Do main dealers put the right stuff in??

It makes you wonder!

Last year I went to National Tyres to swap over from Cold Weather to Summer Tyres, they stated it would be £40 and take about an hour as they were busy.

Came back an hour later to find my vehicle parked up with the same tyres on. Was told by the fitter the manager told him the price was £70.00 as I should have been charged for valves, balancing and tyre disposal. I explained as it was a straight swap, none of that applied. They wouldn't budge. Went to my local garage and they swapped them over in 20 minutes for £10.

Wrote a letter of complaint to National Tyres head office who sent me a £10 National Tyres voucher.

To make sure the right oil is used, you could always take your own oil, filters, etcetera.and just pay the labour.

Then the fitter puts your oil in the boot of his car and uses the 20w 50 multigrade big drum for yours, same as all the other cars. You just paid for his own oil change on his wifes car.

Going along those lines, how do you know the container you bought actually holds the correct oil it states on the label, and the manufacturer has not just stuck the cheapest product it makes?

There is only so much you can do to safeguard yourself when you get another person to carry out work on your vehicle.

I would trust Shell or Mobil way more than a national tyre monkey. I'm sure you would as well.

Looks like pays your money and take's your chances. They quoted me £38 which I thought was a great price as the oil would not be far of that price on its own. Sure it was last changed about 6 months ago but skoda put vw 502.00 in as I told them I like to service the car yearly, or every 10000 miles and I've been wanting to put the 'correct' better spec oil back in since..

I used to work for a large servicing chain back in the '80s.  

 

To get people into the workshop we'd do an oil & filter change with a safety check (to get more work out of the customer) for $10 which was about 1/4 of what everyone else was charging.  People would flock in.

 

We had one big drum of bulk oil that we were told to use in all the cars (despite the protests of all the mechanics).  It was full of recycled oil that cost 19c per litre - I think Castrol GTX was about $1/litre at the time.  

 

All the old engine oil, gearbox & auto trans fluid, brake fluid, coolant & battery acid was all poured into a sump & sold back to the oil recyclers for 5c/litre (which we eventually repurchased for 19c).   I think we bought all the common oil filters for a $1 each when a quality item was about $3-4.

 

At the time we were told to put a "next service" sticker on for 3000km later (I assume because that's all the oil was good for).  Management was quite happy to take the risk that we wouldn't cook too many engines.

 

I had a few "rusted-on" regular customers with nice, newish cars and I pulled them aside & told them to bring in their own oil & I would look after them.

 

I doubt things have changed too much - you get what you pay for.  I can't quite see the point in trying to save $50 on a 6-monthly oil change when the vehicle is worth $10,000 - $20,000.

I have to say I read all this national tyres bashing with interest.

 

I have used them for over  a decade for tyres and oil changes.

 

Never had a problem, never had bad service, always had great value for money.

 

as with all group garages like ATS Kwik Fit etc etc its more about the actual branch than the actual group.

 

the one I have used the most (but not for my Octy as its not close) was Dorchester. Mikey the Manager has been excellent for a long time with advice, good deals as a regular customer.

 

They also use Castrol edge & Magnatec for their oils to the correct specs so don't see how all this bashing can be justified.

Edited 10 May, 201511 yr by mroberts

Your experience differs wildly from mine. I had 4 tyres fitted by my local branch (coincidence that they recently went out of business?) and they fitted the wrong ones. They fitted standard car tyres rather than the Commercial rating tyres which were specified. And they inflated them far too hard as well. I had a right argument with the manager, then the area manager before they finally realised that I knew what the hell I was talking about and agreed to remove them and fit the correct ones. Patronising little smartarse he was when I went back and had them replaced. Kept spouting on about no one having complained before about their service, and ( I quote) "It's only a van. I can't see what the problem is!".