Free oil changes gimmick.
OK, so the place I bought my Ram from offers "free oil changes for life". Yes there's a catch. You get the free oil changes as long as all the services in the book are done by them at the proper int...
Forum Discussion
monkey44 wrote:
I'd guess two things in play here. Keeping a truck serviced cost bucks, and some owners cut service a lot of slack and skip much of it due to accelerating fees.
Dealers want trade trucks in good condition, so they can resell high when an owner buys a new truck after XXX many years. So, the manufacturers offer the 'free' service (which we pay for at purchase anyway) and that helps keep the truck in better condition - they hope, and it's probably true.
And, if you have a well serviced truck - with records - the dealer can offer you a little more at trade-in, which motivates an owner to trade earlier than necessary.
I think it's a win-win, an unusual occurrence when buying a new truck. Maybe?
The free oil changes with other scheduled maintenance program has nothing to do with developing quality used vehicles for future sales. Manufacturers and dealers have no interest in investing money to prop up a used vehicle market.
That oil change program was developed to bring customers into the service department and increase volume there.
A well run dealership's service department profits will totally support the overhead and all costs associated with the total dealership. Then the sales department production generates the profits for the dealership.
