things that annoy me, #456...

i need to do an oil change on Das Auto, a.k.a. The Blue Beetle, my 2001 VW New Beetle TDI.

it’s not the oil change that annoys me. maintenance is a fact of car ownership, and doing one’s own repairs leads to a warm suffusion of contentment based in self-sufficiency.

what annoys me is the process of buying oil.

Das Auto uses 5W-40 full synthetic oil and needs changed every 10,000 miles. there are lots of choices of brand, but the accepted “gold standard” is probably Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck oil. like pretty much every other oil in this grade, it’s intended for use in large-capacity truck systems – not just little Vee Dubs.

and that’s where the annoying part comes in. there are three major auto part chains locally: AutoZone, Advance Auto, and O’Reilly. AutoZone doesn’t appear to stock Mobil 1 TDT at all. Advance does, but only in quarts. O’Reilly only stocks it in gallons.

a gallon costs $30, a quart $8.50… and Das Auto takes 4.5 quarts. so i can pay $60 and try to store 3.5 quarts in an open container for 10k miles without contaminating it, or i can pay $42.50 for the five quarts i need.

or, i can do what i actually do, and that’s drive to multiple stores and pay $39. which is dumb. and annoying.

argh.

quote of the day:

“A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.” – Harold Coffin

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