Just like Erin's post in December, our friendly Honda Insight popped up a little Maintenance Minder message the other day, but this one is B1. And unlike our Prius's cryptic "Maint Reqd" light, it turns out this B1 thing is pretty specific.
Besides a bunch of additional inspection items that the A1 service didn't require, many of you will be happy to notice B1 does call for a new oil filter.
According to the manual, the car is asking for the following:
The "B" part:
Replace engine oil and oil filter, Inspect front and rear brakes, Check parking brake adjustment, Inspect these items: Tie rod ends, steering gear box, and boots, Suspension components, Driveshaft boots, Brake hoses and lines (including ABS/VSA), All fluid levels and condition of fluids, Exhaust system, Fuel lines and connections.
And the "1" part: Rotate tires.
Since A1's simple oil change/tire rotation should have cost us $40, but ended up being $73.44 (oof), we have our doubts that this one is going to less expensive. According to Edmunds.com's itemized Maintenance Guide for this car, the total cost should be about $65 bucks. We'll see. Maybe we can convince Dan to do another weekend DIY project.
Chief Road Test Editor, Chris Walton @ 14,775 miles
mrjost55 says:
10:27 AM, 06/10/10
That Edmunds calculator is flawed. I tried it for my car and it gives you the most optimistic low-blow prices ever. If you're going to a dealer, the cost is always going to be higher than a regular mechanic. But I think even for a regular mechanic those prices are too low. It tells me that the oil for my car(about 7 quarts) is $16.50..now I don't think I have ever seen oil for that cheap, except maybe for a Shoprite store brand oil. I do my own oil changes with full synthetic oil(which is obviously more expensive), but I get it at around $5 a quart and that's if there is a sale. Now the price of the oil filter is about right, but that's only if you buy it at the lowest price by shopping around. Now come to think of it, the dealer uses dyno oil which is probably that cheap....but I doubt they would ever sell it for $2.30/quart.
Anyways, my point is being is that the calculator should show you a range of prices that are acceptable and not just the lowest possible number, if you want it to be effective. For example, the oil for my car should vary from $16.50(yeah, right..) to about $40
bc1960 says:
11:49 AM, 06/10/10
Yes, I'd be interested to know if anyone, anywhere, has found Edmunds' service cost estimates to be close to accurate.
ssaxsma says:
01:28 PM, 06/10/10
I certainly haven't found it to be accurate in the least. I find it's usually off by half or more. I appreciate their taking the time to put together such a tool, but when it's so ridiculously incorrect, they should either fix it so it's valuable to me, or else get rid of it altogether if it's going to be half-assed and inaccurate.