Step seven: buying the oil

At last you've settled on which oil you need. Now you're facing an even harder task, in essence — buying it. That is, the hard part isn't so much buying some oil or other, as buying the exact oil that's written on the label.

We're talking, as you've guessed, about counterfeits. I won't tell you that you should never buy oil at markets — that much is more or less obvious already. But if you think buying oil at an expensive shop is a guarantee, you're mistaken. As it happens, sellers at markets usually don't counterfeit the engine oil themselves, and the sources (wholesale depots) they buy it from are roughly the same ones the shops use.

That's why I try to buy oil from the primary source — that is, from the manufacturer's official representatives. The trouble is that far from every representative office handles retail sales, or sales at all, so everyone has to find their own path here. As one option, you can buy engine oil from a trusted parts supplier who orders directly from manufacturers and doesn't buy from wholesale depots. Incidentally, such suppliers can be found at markets too, but you have to look for them and check them out.

Another way to buy a reasonably good-quality engine oil is to buy it from an official representative of your car's brand (for example, at a brand dealership). But that's one of the most expensive options. Even so, before making your final choice, it's still worth checking the prices at the official dealers — you may well be pleasantly surprised. What's important to understand here is that an official representative of the car's brand will most likely offer to put in whichever approved oil best suits a new engine. So if your car has already covered 100,000 km or more, it's worth studying the acceptable options even before your visit to the official dealer.

Well, that's about it. All that's left now is to buy filters, head to a service centre and change the oil.

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