Ask an expert

I recently had my car serviced and was charged $62.10 (including GST) for 4.5 x Helix plus 15W40. This seems excessive when I could buy 4L at the moment from a retail shop on special for $37.00. Is this an acceptable amount that I have been charged?

Take home packs of oil have become very cheap at outlets such as Repco etc recently. It seems that there is something of a price war not dissimilar to that we see with wine at the supermarket. We are aware that most garages charge between $12 to $15 per litre, which is their normal retail price - bearing in mind that they will also be disposing of the old oil etc.
While it seems a bit out of kilter, we're not surprised that the oil is more expensive at the workshop.