National Tyres - Oil service

[Merlot]

Have had the snotter 306 for about 1,000 miles now and wanted to change the oil/filter. Priced it up at Halfords using their cheapest suitable oil and filter and it came to £25. Great. However, for just £1 more I managed to book it in to my local National Tyres centre a mile from my house and they did a complete oil filter change using Castrol Magnatec and I didn't have to get my hands dirty in the sub zero temperature we're experiencing right now.

I was fully expecting to find that they hadn't changed the filter or didn't put enough oil but no - filter is new and oil level is perfect. No hard sell for tyres, exhaust, clutch or brakes - merely a mention on the bottom of the service sheet that states that the front two tyres are low and a couple of written quotes for replacements.

Brilliant.

[hombrepaulo]

I booked one not so long ago and shortly cancelled it after the guy at the garage informed me he needed to let the engine cool fully before dropping the oil out. Thus leaving crap in the sump which would of polluted the fresh oil.
Probably just that branch though

[Merlot]

hombrepaulo said:

I booked one not so long ago and shortly cancelled it after the guy at the garage informed me he needed to let the engine cool fully before dropping the oil out. Thus leaving crap in the sump which would of polluted the fresh oil.
Probably just that branch though

Must be, I popped in on the way home the day before to confirm the time (when you book online you get the option of AM or PM only). Dropped the car off at 2.30pm, car was on the ramps and minus oil at 2.35pm and keys back in my mitt before 3pm.

Edit: Even the prices for decent 0wxx oil change is damned cheap, but I wouldn't personally take a decent car to a fast fit centre.

Edited by Merlot on Friday 17th December 17:46

[Proxy]

I've only heard bad stories about the NTS branches near me... tend to avoid them.
This must be a rather rare occurance

[redstu]

I've used nts for a few oil changes now.
No problem for them on the passat, but they dropped the oil out of the alfa before finding that they didn't know how to get to the oil filter, so I got an oil change for free.
Took it to kf they couldn't get the filter off either but didn't admit to that and charged me anyway. So after discovering this I took it back and they did actually manage to change it, but it did take a while and a lot of head scratching.

[hardcorehobbit]

I had my tracking done at another national chain that sponsors some british motor racing coverage.

They did a good job and even gave the car an inspection to tell me what exactly was wrong with it.

Didn't even try to get me to do any work. Just let me know. Good service tbh.



Shows, as we all know, that these things are all branch dependent.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Been using my local National Tyres in Winchester, Hants for years for this service on the daily driver.

They do an oil and filter change using Castrol Magnatec for less than I can buy an oil and filter from Halfords for. Which, to my mind, is one of those 'no brainers'.

Maybe luckily enough for me, or maybe because they know me and recognise me, who knows, but I never ever get advised that I need this, that or the other, when I pick the car up. All I get is a bill for £22 quid.

And one time when I went in for it and they didn't have any of the filters in stock, I asked if it would be ok to go and get one from my local motor factors for them to fit. After a bit of chat about 'oooh, we're not supposed to fit parts that we don't supply', the chap relented with a grin and said 'yeah, ok, no worries'.


Nice.