Oil-change retail shops are a large part of the automotive aftermarket – many consumers choose these shops for oil changes and other basic automotive maintenance services because they are quick, affordable, and convenient. However, oil-change retail shops aren’t the only game in town when it comes to maintenance and repair, and changes in the economy and to the automobile industry will have an impact on these types of businesses going forward. Other influential changes include increasing complexity of automobiles, longer-lasting synthetic oil, economic recovery, the increased electrification of cars, and the imminent arrival of autonomous vehicles.

In this report, we will be discussing consumer behavior toward oil-change retail shops and oil changes, how often consumers are changing their oil, to where they are taking their vehicles for oil changes, to how they know when to change it, to consumer perceptions of oil-change retail brands.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel defines oil-change retail as locations that offer oil-change facilities and services to the consumer. These may be bundled with other auto maintenance packages or offered as a single service.

Several main types of outlet are covered in this report: independent repair shops, fast lube chains, franchise car-repair shops, and franchised new-car dealerships (see Abbreviations and terms for further definition of the operations of these outlet types).

This report primarily focuses on sales, trends, and consumer behavior involving oil change retail outlets. This report does not cover self-service oil changes at home.

Value figures throughout this report are at retail selling prices (rsp) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.