I tried the $12.95 oil change at two different places this week (yes, two different cars). First was Bergstrom's Express Lube in Neenah on Green Bay Road, just north of Main Street. Very professional, nice 25-point inspection, no sales pressure. While waiting, patrons can have free cookies and soda. Talk about luxury treatment! They did find that two side blinker lights were out on my son's car and offered to replace those. With the extra charge for replacing the lights, the total was $27 -- about the cost of an oil change at other places. Took about 20 minutes.

The next day on the way home I took my car to Saturn in Appleton for their $12.95 oil change. Luxury plus! Same good service, but they have a much bigger waiting area with a television or a TV-free area (I chose the latter, where I typed out this post). They also offer patrons cookies and soda. Saturn had better cookies.

The winner, by a crumb, is Saturn. But I was impressed by both.

Given the price of oil, they aren't making any money off this service. The cost of the oil alone eats up any profits. Could this have something to do with selling cars?