THE LUBE BAY
Full synthetic, out the door.
$79.95
Five quarts, filter, and the checks below. Most cars.
No appointment and no waiting room, because you stay in the car. Pull onto the pad, hand over the keys to nothing, and you are back on Walnut in about fifteen minutes.
THE WASH BAYS
Open all night.
$8 to $16
Automatic. The two self-serve bays are $2 for four minutes.
The self-serve bays never close and never have. The automatic runs seven in the morning to nine at night, and it is the one to take in February when there is salt underneath the car.
What an oil change costs
| Oil | Price |
|---|---|
| Conventional | $44.95 |
| Synthetic blend | $59.95 |
| Full synthetic | $79.95 |
| High mileage | $64.95 |
| Diesel | quoted at the pad |
| Each quart over five | $6.50 |
Cartridge filters and a few European sumps cost more, and you will be told the number before anything is opened, not after.
What a wash costs
| Wash | Price |
|---|---|
| Basic | $8 |
| With undercarriage | $12 |
| With undercarriage and wax | $16 |
| Self-serve bay, four minutes | $2 |
| Self-serve, each minute after | $0.50 |
| Vacuum, four minutes | $1 |
Between December and March the undercarriage is worth the extra four dollars and the rest of the year it mostly is not. That is the honest version.
What is in the price
- Oil and a new filter
- Tires set to the pressure on the door sticker, not to the number on the sidewall
- Washer fluid, coolant, brake and power steering topped
- Wipers, belts, air filter and cabin filter looked at and reported
- The old filter kept on the bench until you have left, if you want to see it
Wipers are $14 a pair fitted, an engine air filter is $22 and a cabin filter is $28. Those are the three things a lube shop is most often accused of pushing, so the prices are printed here and you can decide before you arrive.
Photograph to shoot here. The pad from the driver's eye line, taken from a car waiting second in the queue, so the customer sees exactly what they will see. Bay door up, one car on the pad, a technician upright at the fender rather than posed.
Do not shoot the sign from the road. Every lube shop in the state has that photograph and it tells a driver nothing.
How the bays run
- Automatic bay is touchless, so nothing but water and soap touches the paint
- Self-serve bays take quarters, cards and the tokens from the lube counter
- Both self-serve bays are lit and covered by camera all night
- Foam brush, tire cleaner, rinse and spot-free on the self-serve dial
- Two vacuums and a mat beater on the north end of the lot
The automatic freezes and closes on the coldest handful of mornings each winter. The self-serve bays stay open on those days, which is the reason they are heated.
Photograph to shoot here. A self-serve bay at night, from outside looking in, lit from the bay's own lights with the wand hung on the hook and the floor wet. Long exposure, no flash.
The point of the shot is that the place is bright and safe at eleven at night, because that is the actual worry and no sentence answers it as well.
One lot, one entrance, and a queue that moves
The lube pad and the wash bays share a driveway off the highway, and the only time that matters is Saturday between nine and noon, when it is the busiest three hours of the week and the queue can reach four cars deep. If you are in a hurry on a Saturday, come before nine or after one.
Everything else is quiet. Weekday mornings you will pull straight onto the pad, and a weeknight wash is usually an empty lot.
Hours. Lube bay 7:30 to 5:30 weekdays and 8 to 4 on Saturday. Automatic wash 7 in the morning to 9 at night. The two self-serve bays are open all the time, every day.
Two Bay Lube and Wash. 123 Main Street, Cameron, Missouri.