Taking your vehicle to a dealer’s service department sometimes gets a bad rap. I have taken my 2014 Mustang mostly to Ford dealers for work that I didn’t want to do myself and for the last year plus, have done the same with our 2021 Subaru Forester. The majority of the time, my experiences have been good and I haven’t really felt like I was being scammed or over-charged. During my most recent service appointment with the Forester, the dealership suggested changing the cabin air filter. This was admittedly, something I hadn’t been thinking about. They were going to charge me sixty bucks though. I’ve changed the cabin air filter in my 2014 Mustang before so I knew it wasn’t likely to be a job worth paying 60 bucks for. As I suspected, I saved myself approximately 40 bucks by buying the filter at Auto Zone and replacing it myself. It took all of 10 minutes to do the replacement while recording my most recent video:

If you’re not sure whether your cabin air filter needs to be changed, I recommend checking your vehicle owner’s manual for how often the manufacturer recommends it be changed. If the process doesn’t seem very similar to what I did with the Forester, try searching for a video of someone replacing one in a similar vehicle. It probably exists and it’s probably easier than you think.

I get that not everyone is mechanically inclined or feels confident wrenching on their vehicle, and that’s totally understandable. If you want to try and save money on car maintenance, I suggest reviewing maintenance schedules for your vehicle/vehicles in your manuals or online and keeping an eye on your mileage. Knowing which things actually need to be replaced/flushed/repaired and when can save you money and time. Thanks for reading and watching.