A Lot of Near-Free Products From O'Reilly's -- Are they worth it?
 

Apparently O'Reilly's is offering rebates on a rather large variety of items. In fact, it's nearly $350 worth. Since tax is 6% in my neck of the woods, the total cost may end up coming to $21.50.

Some of the items are very useful. Here's a list of the items that I'm getting for free which I know will add value.

Cleaning Products - Useful

Armor All Wash & Wax
Black Magic Wheel Cleaner & Tire Protectant
Black Magic Protectant
Eagle 1 Car Care Products (Wash Towels)
Gojo Fast Wipes
Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash
Meguiar's Gold Class Wax
Viking Microfiber Towels
Viking Soap Jet Spray Nozzle
WD-40 (2 bottles)

The total cost for these items will be about $5 once I get back my rebate check.

Powertrain Maintenance Products - Useful

Champion EZ Start Spark Plugs (2 plugs)
Mobil Clean 5000 Motor Oil (6 quarts)
Quaker State Q-Advance Synthetic Motor Oil (6 Quarts)
Quaker State Q-Torquw Synthetic Motor Oil (6 Quarts)
Valvoline Durablend Motor Oil (6 Quarts)
Peak 50/50 Antifreeze (2 gallons)
Premium Bug Wash (2 bottles)
Fix-A-Flat Tire Repair (2 bottles)

The total cost of all these after the rebate check will be about $12.

Now here are the remaining items on their list. I am really wondering whether some of these items are really just junk, or whether they can truly offer a return on the investment. I'll put down the tax cost of each.

104 Octane Booster (a fuel system cleaner, 42 cents each, 2 bottles)
Castite Engine Degreaser (13 cents each, 2 bottles)
CRC Guaranteed to Pass Fuel Treatment (42 cents each, 2 bottles)
Glass Science Cleaner w/ Rain Repellent (Rain-x alternative, 24 cents)
STP fuel treatment (42 cents each, 2 bottles)
XenTx Engine Treatment ($1.08 each, 2 bottles)
XenTx Transmission Treatment (72 cents each, 2 bottles)
Pro Blend More Mileage Plus (42 cents, I know this is garbage, 2 bottles)

I'm not too enthusiastic about the above items. But I do buy a few older vehicles during the course of my auction work at the dealer sales. Many of those vehicles are in the 150k to 200k range mileage wise so maybe, perhaps, there can be a justification for it. Oh, they're also offering a 'Gold Eagle Diesel Power' additive that would cost about 36 cents each, 2 bottles in all.

I've never been a fan of additives or 'treatments' but maybe there is actually a tangible return that can be had for them. If anyone here has any experiences and insight, feel free to let me know.

Best Regards

macarose

I'm assuming these are mail-in rebates, where you have to manually mail out an envelope containing filled out forms and the UPC codes, or what not. if they're not just ignore this message.

I don't know how much you've messed around with mail-in rebates before... But expect a good chunk of them to claim you did something wrong or to claim they were lost in the mail. I would also suggest making copies of all the receipts and UPC codes, etc, and noting when you shipped the rebates and keeping pertinent contact information, in case you need to reship due to a supposedly "lost" entry.

Mail-in rebate centers are often very poorly run just in an attempt to cause things to be lost so they don't have to refund the money.

My experience...
 

has always been very good with any Meguiar's product. Of course WD-40 is what it is. The Quakerstate products are well respected. Lots of the other stuff, I have never used. I'm not a fan of Armor All products since my son put a permanent shine on the dash of my new '81 Datsun 280ZX with themk.

Truer words have never been spoken. I use to endure the grief one went thru in an effort to receive a refund by way of these so-called mail-in-rebates.

1/2 the time I never received one.

The last time I attempted to do so, Castrol was offering a mail in rebate. You had to fill out a tiny and I mean tiny label for EVERY qt. of oil you bought. No way my name could fit in the space alloted, let alone address, etc.

Unless it's marked down in the store, I would walk away.

AutoZone seems to be decent about their rebates. Beware! They look like junk mail!

Yes, the AutoZone rebates are usually thrown away because they look like junk mail - probably part of the design.

Man isn't that the truth - my $10 finally came on my silver stars and I almost trashed it. The other odd part the check had a validity date of about 2 weeks to bank or it was deemed VOID.

pep boys has always been good to me....

it makes the cost of synthetic oil worth the trouble

Any rebate over $30 I send certified and always make copies.:P

Yep, in this case it's going to be a really important one.

I always...

1) Make copies

2) Send via delivery confirmation

3) Contact my credit card company so that a track record can be made, and fax them a copy so that they are aware of it BEFORE any issues.

This way I can always go back and get a credit should things get 'lost in the mail'.

I do wonder about the fuel additives, engine treatments and transmission treatment. Out of everything I've bought, that's the one thing I wonder about more than anything else.