So I took my 2008 Tech to the stealer for the A-1 service. Quoted a price of $70. Not too bad I think. Synthetic oil costs more and they rotate the tires and do some other bulls**t work.

I pick the car up.. no worries. I look at the little oilchange sticker and I see that they used non-synthetic pennzoil. I thought we were only supposed to use mobil 1 synthetic. I'm alos p*ssed that I spent $70 bucks for a $25 oil change.

Are we required to use Mobil 1 or an equivalent synthetic?

 

acura either recommends or requires it. i know after i purchased my car, acura sent a mailer about the importance of only using mobil 1. your dealer, outta anyone, should have been the first to use it. i call them up and get on their @ss. u def want synthetic in this truck. they should drain it and fill it up with Mobil 1 at no charge to you.....

 

It is baffling that an Acura dealer could not be aware of the requirement for Mobil 1. Acura standard HTO-06 (Mobil 1) was created for the RDX:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/...1_Brochure.pdf

Not only should they change it immediately, but this dealer should be reported to Acura Customer Care.

(Ignorant/dishonest dealers: another reason to DIY)

 

The requirement isn't for Mobil 1, it's for an HTO-06 certified oil, of which there are many. You'd need to find out exactly what the dealer used to check if it was certified or not (it would say so on the back of the container).

 

Report the dealer to Acura and put the name on the board so everyone is aware...

 

Sometimes they just have random stickers laying around. Just because they slapped a penzoil sticker on your windsheild it doesn't mean that's what's in your car's engine.

If it's an Acura dealership, I highly doubt they use anything other than Mobil 1. But you should go in and make sure.

And yet another example of why learning to change one's oil isn't the worst thing in the world. Auto mechanics can NOT be trusted for anything...seriously...

 

I'll double check tonight, but the next suggested oilchange is 3000 miles, not 5,000, which leads me to beleive it is a non synthetic oil.

 

As far as I've been able to determine, only Mobil 1 and Shell's new Plantinum full synthetic have the Honda/Acura HT-06 approval.

The Mobil 1 literature shows that it greatly exceeded the HT-06 approval tests, and showed another, un-named oil that barely made the grade.

When you look at Shell's ads for their Platinum engine oil, they only compare it to "conventional" engine oils.

I suspect that Mobil 1 indeed outperforms the Shell Plantinum, and I'm not too crazy about testing the Shell product in a turbo-charged engine, where the bearings in the turbo are in extremely severe/high temp conditions.

 

Whatever else is going on, I can almost guarantee you the dealer didn't put any type of synthetic oil in your car...

I've never found a dealer that did much of anything right, which is why I do all my own work.

 

How do you "confirm" that dealerships uses syntehtic oil for the RDX? I guess the only way is to wait towards the mechanic side and see if they pour the oil via plastic bottles, versus the pneumatic oil dispenser. I really dont like to wait, but I would, to make sure it is correct.

I would probably drop it off early saturday and hope to wait in front of 3-4 cars ahead of me. I would definately look to see if they use them little grey bottles of Mobile One Oil. I asked my cousin (sales), and he confirmed that the oil is dispensed via plastic bottle containers (someone confirm again?)

 

It is just impossible to imagine that an Acura Dealer would not use synthetic oil that meets the standard. Nonetheless, you do need to confirm. BYW, it sounds as it they wrote for you to return for serice in 3000 miles. Just ignore this and go by the maintenace mnder, which undoubtedly will give you many more mile than this.

 

I called service and they said that they used a Pennzoil synthetic. When I asked why the sticker says next service in 3,000, they said not to worry, when the service interval is up, the computer will notify you.

I hope that they did use synthetic. Anyone hear if Pennzoil synthetic is any good?

 

Pennzoil Syntheic oil has a grade that meets the HTO-06 standard:

http://www.pennzoil.com/products.html

 

but still remains the question: WHY NOT MOBIL 1????? on top of which, they are an Acura dealer, the first oil they should be reaching for is Mobil 1. could demonstrate what kind of dealer u have, cost cutting at owner's expense? use whats on hand? i dunno, should still be mobil 1. i think it would still be beneficial to notify Acura. they go thru the trouble of sending a seperate mailer and putting people/owners/MECHANICS on notice of the mobil 1....ya should have gotten it.

 

I got a phone call from Acura last night asking me about ranking my recent A-1 service. I told them about not using Mobil 1, but using an equvalent (I hope) Pennzoil synthetic. I told them my biggest problem was not being informed beforehand.

He said "That's not good."

Bottom line is I'm being sent something to fill out for further use. I don't know what it is, but will let you all know when I receive it.

 

It is an e-mail survey from what it sounds like. Your dealer is graded very high on the phone call and also the survey. Don't take this the wrong way but by filling out the survey poorly (not lying about it being perfect), can and may affect how your dealer treats you in the future.

I'm not saying they will nor that it should be that way but you cannot grade someone poorly because you were uneducated about your vehicle and the oil it requires. Some dealers do not have Mobil 1 due to the pricing of it. We are charged about 7.80 a quart for oil (whereas you can go down the street and get it for 5.49/qt). We carry it because of the name but some places may not (your dealer that uses a Pennzoil).

If it's that much of an issue, bring the oil the next time for your oil change. That should cut your bill down by a decent amount. As far as dealers that "can never do anything right".. give me a break. If we were all so bad, how would we stay in business.

 

Don't take this the wrong way???

Don't take this the wrong way???


What is wrong with you man? How can you cast threating aspersions like that and say "Don't take this the wrong way" ?? The dealer screwed up and deserves to be called on it again and again. Maybe you think that the veiled threat of poor service is license for the dealer to continue doing this to others?

I dont get it.

 

Explain to me how he receieved poor service. They put synthetic oil in his car and he thought they didn't. An oil change on an RDX would run in the neighborhood of about 50 bucks + around 19.95 for a tire rotation. The sticker for 3,000 miles? Give me a break.

I'm not saying they will treat you differently but for an uneducated customer to give a bad score based on what they do not know.. is quite unfair to the dealership. I'm not trying to talk bad about the OP, just stating facts.

 

You just threatened an Acura customer with poor future treatment for returning an ACCURATE survey. Lie about it being perfect or we will retaliate??!!!

What is this.....the Acura syndicate? "Yous fix dat survey, or Rocko here gonna hafta break your windshield wipas. Ain't dat rite, Rocko?"

Appalling nonsense from an Acura representative. It is the dealer's basic responsibility to insure that the customer understands what work was done, and what his/her vehicle requirements are. This is never more important than in the case of HTO-O6 for Acura's FIRST turbo application!!

For a difference of $2.31 per quart an Acura dealer can't be troubled to provide the expected level of Acura-quality auto care? Has it occurred to you that you have competitors? Are you aware that the premium auto business is evaluated largely on quality and service?

YOU don't know what they put in his car!! The 3000 mile sticker is further evidence of their incompetence, lack of knowledge, or outright deceitfulness.

My understanding was that if the dealership taught salepeople nothing about cars, they at least trained them in basic positive-interaction people skills.

There is a consumer perception that auto salespeople are pathetic losers, who have failed at everything else. Your responses on this board have done little to alter that image.

 

For what its worth, I rated the dealer 8 out of 10 for the service experience. My only complaint was with communication, not with the service itself.
When I talked to the dealer about it they were fine.

They explained that the Pennzoil was an equivalent grade of synthetic oil. They didn't seemto think I was uneducated, quite the opposite. I suggested to them that in the future they communicate more up front so that misunderstandings do not occur. If I were truly undeducated, I would not have known the difference between what was reccomended as being used in my car vs what was used.

On another note, if you are saying that the Acura dealer gets the names of the people who take the survey and then gives them poor servicce, that really doesn't make sense. What businsssman would turn away hundreds and thousands of dollars in future service because of one review, which, being 8 of of 10, is still a B on the standard grading scale.

Let's stop the flames and get on with the forum discussion.

 

How did I know you would be the one to respond. Let's start with the basics. I'm not saying they will treat him poorly because I don't know. I have quite a few friends throughout the country that have given less then satisfactory surveys and have been treated different (maybe not direct, but going from RL/MDX loaners to TSX loaners, availabilty of appointment times seem to drop, and how frequent they had loaner vehicles). Again, all of these things can be taken either way. They could be booked, they could not have any cars, or they could have all TSXs but I think we all know this is not the case. Granted, he trashed the salesman on his survey and service on there department (his was for some maintenance).

Don't take it as me saying "it needs to be perfect or don't come back". That's a far cry from what I'm representing. I'm merely saying that for him to not know what oil can go inside of his car, is not the dealers fault. I'm not sticking up for the dealer nor am I siding with the customer. I don't know the situation. I couldn't tell you exactly what goes in every single one of our customer vehicles. I know what is suppose to but how can I say 100% for sure that it was synthetic unless I watched the oil come from the bottle into the engine.

The dealer not having Mobil1? Yeah, I could see how that is unexceptable, however, you, nor I know the dealer and there case. Maybe they are charged 10 dollars a qt. Are you going to spend 11 dollars a quart at the dealer, or are you going to pick-up your oil at AutoZone and save yourself 20-25 dollars? It is about being competetive and maybe this is the only way they can do it. Maybe Pennzoil has a more reasonable cost for oil. It's not like you can have the dealer eat the other portion of the cost because they want to be competetive. At least, I know we can't. Not when on average, we perform around 15-20 oil changes a day.

As far as salesman go, you're pretty on top of that one. MOST are pathetic who failed at everything else. The salesman that do the majority of our selling are great. It's the ones who come and go and only care about there own pockets. They don't tell the customers about the oil, what it takes, how expensive it is, etc. They leave that up to us, to make us the bad guy. And at there first interval, the salesman has already been fired for a less then spectacular job. / vent.

Don't make me out to be the bad guy, I'm just being the neutral one. I've been on both sides and still am in fact. I know what goes on and what doesn't go on at dealers. Unless you are there, how can you say 100%. Maybe his car doesn't have synthetic oil, maybe it does. I really can't say for sure. The only thing I can recommend is either trying a different dealer or going and buying your own oil and taking it into the dealer.

 

Maybe this is an internal problem within Acura by placing to much emphasis on surveys. When I bought my RDX, my salesman informed me how to fill out the survey. He told me to give all 5's or he wouldn't get a commission. He even had a sample survey on his desk that showed all 5's circled, lol! Needless to say, but I gave him all 5's because he really was helpful and was a pleasure to work with. It's just that it negates the true results of the survey when there is pressure to manipulate the results.

 

First of all I am not trying to pick a fight it is just my

It is the dealerships responsiblity. I take my vechicle to dealership because the mechanics are suppose to know how to service and fix my vehicle (that is why I pay a higher price for the service).
I feel that I should not have to question everytime I take my vehicle in for service are they putting the right oil in my car.

There are alot of people that know next to nothing about maintaining a car (that is why the created the maintence minder in the first place) that is why they take it to a dealership for routine service

As far as using Mobil 1 versus other brands, I think that if Acura's number 1 choice is Mobil 1 (that is what they still recommend in the manual and on there website), then all dealerships should be using Mobil 1 on all oil changes for the RDX.

 

this topic was beat to death 5 months ago...here is the link
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1803

there is 11 pages on customer survice, emphasis on surveys, and stealerships...enjoy the reading...bring some coffee!