Like Having Your Own Pit Crew

I will be taking a couple of road trips before Summer’s end, so this morning was the perfect opportunity to get an oil change and a check of fluids, belts, and hoses. After work, I drove to the Elmsford, NY Valvoline location, and my experience there was unlike previous oil changes I’ve had. For the record, I’ve changed my own oil years ago, but it’s not worth doing these days- I don’t have a garage, I don’t have the time, and I don’t want to deal with recycling used oil. Better to have professionals in a fully appointed workshop handle things.

I had been to this particular shop before, and it was a typical ‘give the manager your keys and wait forty-five minutes’ place. Today, I went to a drive-through facility- a very pleasant young woman verified my information in the system, and then I was off to the races, specifically a pit stop. I pulled up to the designated area and a whole team of mechanics checked the fluids, replaced the dirty air filter and fraying wiper blades, and changed the oil (I pay extra for full synthetic, it has a better lifespan). Within half an hour, I was ready to pull out and hit the road. I was so impressed by the staff, a bunch of African-American and Latin twenty-somethings, that I gave the manager a gratuity so she could buy them pizza for lunch. Don’t ever let somebody badmouth ‘these kids these days’ without challenge- the young people who worked on my car today were a marvel.