I mean I've heard bad things about the filters and stuff but If I gave them the right (and ACDelco brand) oil filter is it just fine with them doing the change?

Yeah I was wondering this too. Any places that are better than another.

Well I will ALWAYS change my own oil, I don't trust those guys there. Not saying that they're all incompetent, but the fact is, I don't know which ones are and which aren't. ALSO, they change the oil on a level surface, I prefer to do it on a slanted surface as to drain out any accumulated sediment on the bottom of the oil pan.

My other main reasoning would be that I used to take my mint cutlass ciera into those places. They overfilled the crankcase on two occasions and didn't even tighten the drain plug on another. Its not always their fault, their business is to get cars in and out as efficiently as possible, normal people forget things when they're rushing. It happens. I would prefer to do it myself so that I know nothing goes wrong.

Your choice. The only place I would even BEGIN to trust would be a dealership, simply because they're all ASE, and you KNOW it.

I always take my cars to Valvoline and have for years. They know me, they know my cars, and besides, I literally stand there and watch them through the whole process. I would change my own oil, but my driveway and street are both on a steep incline.

Same here. The shop I go to is right around the corner from my house and it'* locally owned

My place is LubePro'*. A not to big chain of places in illinois (and a couple in Wisconsin!)

There was a Lube Pro'* down the highway from here. They ruined our door on our Ford Taurus cus a guy was going in reverse while having the door wide open and hit a guard post. WTF he did that, ill never know. On our 93, one of the guys started the engine without closing the oil filler cap, and oil washed out all over the place, windshield et all. And one of my friends who took his car down the same place only had to pay half of the regular oil change bill, because they only changed half of the oil. For no good reason.

Besides this, even dealerships will do a shoddy job. On our Cadillac instead of putting in the full 7 quarts of oil they only put in 4. Found out about it 2 days later when dad took it to work and the oil level dinger went off. They will also guarentee to absolutely KILL your oil drain plugs by over tightening it and using the wrong sized socket. The last straw was when I had to remove one with vise grips. After having to replace oil drain plugs on the Cadillac and the 93, I swore id do the oil changes myself from now on.

Save yourself the headache and do em yourself. Yea, it will take you longer, and you will get messy and have to wash yourself afterwards. But you wont regret it.

I won't take a personal vehicle to one. I'm sure there are some who employ competent, well trained staff but I have seen some scary things go on. As an example, we took our ambulance in one day and I watched the staff work. (we have a fleet agreement... not my choice :( ). A young lady, and I'm sure simply due to a lack of training, made me glad she wasn't working on our truck. She was trying to remove a filter under the hood. Wrench in hand she'* giving it everything she had, putting her body into it. After a failed attempt, one of the other staff finally came over and explained she was tightening it .

Furthermore, we have our fleet maintenance performed at another shop who has shown me front end components which clearly haven't been lubed in several visits for oil changes. IMO there is too much inconsistency and not enough training. Not something I will make my car endure.

A friend of mine is co-owner of a Petro Canada CertiGard franchise. They guys know me, they understand how incredibly picky I am about my car and there is an understanding about the level of performance and service I expect.

I stopped going to Valvoline because I found out the hard way they weren't perfomring the lube part of the job. And the one I was going to is managed by an old highschool buddy

I don't trust any of these places anymore. I do it myself, including the lube, for under $15

I used to take our cars to a local place, not even a chain. They have cheap oil changes, used to be $13 a couple years ago. But I really got to hate going because it seemed like every other time I was there they tried to tell me something was wrong, or tried to sell me something extra. At one point a few years ago they told me my wife'* car had an oil leak, then a couple weeks later told me my car had one. And then a couple months after that we traded her car for a 2 year old SUV, and they said it had a leak Finally I had the last straw a couple years ago when they left the oil cap off on the SUV and started going to another local place that is owned by a good Christian family. I had a good experience there, but the price is like $26. So now I'm doing it myself. I've gotten pretty good at getting it done pretty quick now, so it'* not a bother.