The good, the bad and the ugly - auto dealerships.

[edporch]

I don't go to a dealer to have my vehicle worked on unless I want OEM factory parts used for the repair, or for recalls.

 

[danielocean03]

Wow, that's pretty steep for a halogen bulb replacement.

 

[Rookie]

Especially when you consider she's still under her bumper to bumper warranty.

 

[danielocean03]

Yeah, looks like they were trying to make a buck or 295.

 

[Rookie]

She took it in for a rattling noise under the car. The noise sounds like it's coming from the drivers side front tire. Their solution? "We took your skid plate off and put it in the trunk. See if that works."

Needless to say, she's not going back.

 

[lovemachine]

Last time my wife and I went to a dealership, we were suckered into buying a used 2012 vehicle for 6 years.

Never again!

 

[danielocean03]

She took it in for a rattling noise under the car. The noise sounds like it's coming from the drivers side front tire. Their solution? "We took your skid plate off and put it in the trunk. See if that works."

Needless to say, she's not going back.

Wow, that's ridiculous. Those kinds of experiences are what make people hate and distrust car dealerships.

 

[Bigtanker]

WhIle we were shopping for a new family mobile, we went to Gurley Leap in Mishawaka. Found a minivan we (she) liked. Sticker price was ok since it was "on sale." I asked the sales guy to give me an out the door price. $2,100 more then the sticker price. Sales tax was only $910. $1,200 in FEES which included a $495 mandatory window etching inscuance, $350 in document fees and a bunch of other crap. I argued with the guy but it was worthless. I wrote down a price and said when he can do that price out the door, call me and I'd buy it. Never heard from him.

We found a smaller dealership with a Ford Flex we both liked. Price was high but the saleman said he would work with me. Then we found the same vehicle in Ligonier, IN for the same price. We drove out and he started knocking money off the sticker. At the end of the day, both dealerships we're fighting for us. Finally the local guy gave me an out the door price $2,300 less than the sticker price. That was tax and fees included. We drove it home. So props to Tim Martin/Bremen Ford and the Ford dealership in Ligonier. Great and fair people.

And the Ford Flex is my new all time fovorite vehicle.

 

[ghuns]

And the Ford Flex is my new all time fovorite vehicle.

Duh. Has the same styling as the vehicle you drive on your day job.

 

[Bigtanker]

Duh. Has the same styling as the vehicle you drive on your day job.

Yeah but the seat in the Flex is only 2 ft off the ground vs 7 ft in the semi. Actually the semi has a more aerodynamic nose.

 

[Bosshoss]

There are good and bad dealers/repair shops just as any business.
From a different side there are good and bad customers also.
I worked as a mechanic many years ago(1978-1980). I bounced around to several shops or stores.
I landed a dream job at the time at K-Mart and I know what you are thinking K-Mart?????
Well I was 20 years old and the auto repair opened at 10AM and manager let me off at at 5PM instead of 6PM. I made good money with a really good commission. I would get off and go shower and spend the evenings cruising and street racing. Plenty of time to work on the car and still got to sleep in late the next day.
Made enough money that I had to think about it when GM called with a apprenticeship job offer(yeah not for long).
Anyway I was working one day when a gentleman brought in a pickup for new tires and a alignment.
All 4 tires were almost to the cords on the inside edges. Had a great service manager that told the hovering customer(that was really keeping a eye on me) that he couldn't be in service area(signs up everywhere to that effect) so he stepped outside so he could still watch me instead of going to the service area waiting room.
I always checked the front end components before doing a alignment as every mechanic should. The customers truck had a seriously worn out drag link. The service manager went to call about a price for one and I called the customer over to show him what I found. You could tell he was on edge when he walked up and he didn't trust me. I told him he had a problem and proceeded to show him what was wrong by grabbing the drag link and moving it at least an inch up and down. He looked at me and said I want a alignment and 4 tires that is all.
I told him I couldn't do a alignment on it with the drag link bad. He was really getting upset and said I'm not buying anything extra!!!!!
Service manager walked up and handed him a quote with parts and labor. He looked at it and was getting redder and redder.
He told the service manager that I was refusing to do what he asked. I stopped him and politely told him the reason that I wouldn't do it was because I didn't want him wasting his money buying new tires that would be wore out in 5000 miles and him coming back mad at me. I also told him I didn't want my name on a workorder that could come back to me when the part failed and he crashed the vehicle.
He started in on that we were just trying to pad our commission by selling parts. I told him I don't get commission on parts only labor.
Service manager backed that up. He started to cool down a little but still was hesitating about fixing the truck.
I told him that if it helped any I would put the part on for free and wave the labor charge if the boss would agree or I would dismount all 4 tires and turn them around so he could wear out the other edge of them while he saved the money to fix it right.
He finally calmed down and said I have the money go ahead and fix it if I would do the labor for free.
After fixing it and doing a alignment and putting tires on it he paid the bill and still had a bite to him like we were taking advantage of him.
I told him that he should find a different place to get his oil changed that who ever was doing it now had never greased the drag link and that is why it went bad. I figured that he was probably changing his own oil.

Some customers were very creative like coming back a day after getting a oil change and claiming their AC wasn't working and it was before the oil change.
I had one come back after putting a muffler and tailpipe on it. I noticed the brakes were weak after pulling the car in and while on the lift I noticed leaking wheel cylinders on the front brakes(yeah drums on all 4 wheels back then). Made a note for service manager on work order that it had leaking front wheel cylinders. He told customer when she picked it up and she said OK I will tell my husband.
Next day here he comes saying we messed up the brakes as they were fine when we brought it in.
Tons more stories like this.
There are good and bad on both sides of the counter.

 

[edporch]

There are good and bad dealers/repair shops just as any business.

-Snip-

Some customers were very creative like coming back a day after getting a oil change and claiming their AC wasn't working and it was before the oil change.
I had one come back after putting a muffler and tailpipe on it. I noticed the brakes were weak after pulling the car in and while on the lift I noticed leaking wheel cylinders on the front brakes(yeah drums on all 4 wheels back then). Made a note for service manager on work order that it had leaking front wheel cylinders. He told customer when she picked it up and she said OK I will tell my husband.
Next day here he comes saying we messed up the brakes as they were fine when we brought it in.
Tons more stories like this.
There are good and bad on both sides of the counter.

But there's the flip side where dealers actually appear to mess something up and deny they did it.

My wife and I took her front wheel drive Ford Freestar van into a Ford dealer on Michigan Road a mile to two north of I-465 to get a recall item taken care of.

If memory serves, it was a torque converter where it connected to some splines related recall? (it's been a couple of years)

When we went to pick up the Freestar, the horn suddenly didn't work.
They said there was absolutely NO WAY possible they could've done anything to cause the horn to stop working.

But they'd fix it for several hundred dollars, as they said it involved tearing into the steering column. (whether true or not I don't know)

So now my wife has a Freestar that has no horn.

 

[danielocean03]

But there's the flip side where dealers actually appear to mess something up and deny they did it.

My wife and I took her front wheel drive Ford Freestar van into a Ford dealer on Michigan Road a mile to two north of I-465 to get a recall item taken care of.

If memory serves, it was a torque converter where it connected to some splines related recall? (it's been a couple of years)

When we went to pick up the Freestar, the horn suddenly didn't work.
They said there was absolutely NO WAY possible they could've done anything to cause the horn to stop working.

But they'd fix it for several hundred dollars, as they said it involved tearing into the steering column. (whether true or not I don't know)

So now my wife has a Freestar that has no horn.

Sounds like you're talking about Pearson Ford, located at the Northwest quadrant of Michigan road and 106th street.

Not to play the devil's advocate or anything, but how often does your wife use the horn? If I went out to my car right now and attempted to honk the horn, I'd expect it to work in spite of the fact it's probably been weeks since I last used it. I'm just wondering if it's possible that it wasn't working beforehand and she noticed it not working after the recall.

 

[edporch]

Sounds like you're talking about Pearson Ford, located at the Northwest quadrant of Michigan road and 106th street.

Not to play the devil's advocate or anything, but how often does your wife use the horn? If I went out to my car right now and attempted to honk the horn, I'd expect it to work in spite of the fact it's probably been weeks since I last used it. I'm just wondering if it's possible that it wasn't working beforehand and she noticed it not working after the recall.

It's OK if you play devil's advocate.
In my wife's case, she uses a horn ALL the time, like every day multiple times. (NOT in a "road rage" way)

She's a kind safety minded person and if there's any question some other driver may not see her, she gives little courtesy "toots" on the horn to avoid collisions.

So there's no question in her mind (or mine) that the horn worked when it was dropped off.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I took my moms car into a dealer to have them check it out. It had a check engine light on (o2 sensor) that we knew what the problem was and it would be expensive to track it down, he recommended ignoring it and that was at a dealership. And a hesitation/stutter at 45-50 mph that was intermittent. Had a GM certified mech with years of experience tell me that the stutter wasn't the o2 sensor and he had no clue what was causing it, same one that said to ignore the o2 sensor. The sensor itself wasn't bad it was a wiring problem between it and the comp. I took it into another dealership for her. The mechanic there told me that the o2 sensor was bad after I had told him that it was just replaced and it was a wiring problem. And that the stutter was caused by a bad cap and rotor. And that the water pump was leaking on a module and had to be replaced. This was after I told him that we had just changed the thermostat (it was running a bit warm). Then he told me he would wave the diagnostic fee. I told him that was a good thing. He asked why? I told him that the car didn't have a cap and rotor and that the "module" that the water pump was leaking on was the coil pack which replaced the distributor..... He just looked at me and didn't say a word.... Never did find out what was causing the stutter, a tree fell on the car first.

I've have family that has had good experiences with a dealership service dept in the next town over from me. I've never had a car in there for service yet but their parts dept is great. I needed to get a heater hose for my mom's car and the local auto part places didn't have/couldn't get it. I called the local dealership and they quoted me iirc $145, I called the one in the next town over and they told me "Well msrp is $115 but I can let you have it for $70". 40 minute round trip for $75 savings. My wife needed a new key fob for her car, local dealer $75 next town over $30. Replacement key off vin number local $55-70, next town over $16..... And my wife's new to her car had a recall I found out about, called the local place the person that handles recalls was out of the office and never returned the call. Next town over answered the phone asked for vin number and said well actually there are 2 for that vehicle, I'll check and see when we can get the parts and call you back. Called back 15 minutes later and said the one part was special order and would take a week, 2 days later called back and apologized and stated that they just received notice that the one part would be a week from then (2 days ago).

Oh and for names. Connor buick in Chesterton was the one where the mechanic told me not to worry about it, and save the money. Mann chevrolet in Flora was the one that told me my mom's car needed a cap and rotor which the car doesn't have. Hubbard GM in Monticello is the overpriced parts and Dick Kreig in Delphi is the one that my family has had good experiences with and I've had great experiences with their parts dept. and the recall service (so far anyway part is still in shipping, I'll update in a week or so).

 

[CountryBoy19]

2 stories on the same dealership...

#1, most recent. Took my vehicle in to get power-steering pump recall work done. Drop it off, get a call later that day, "we're sorry but your car needs another part, it's also covered under the recall, but we don't have it in stock, it's going to take a few more days. This happens about 50% of the time we're doing this recall service and it's totally normal". My thought, "WTF? If this happens 50% of the time you do this service maybe you should have ordered the part just in case; I scheduled this service weeks ago and told you what was being done, use the brain you have and think ahead a little bit"

After 2 more days they finally get it done; thankfully they gave me a loaner (got to choose between Malibu or 2015 GMC 1500 ext. cab, I took the truck) in the mean-time but I had to fight them to even give me a loaner... Go in to pick my vehicle up and have to sign some papers. As I'm reading down the list of things they ran up on the recall bill I was a bit shocked. They charged everything under the sun. "Customer request 2-way shuttle service", "Customer requests loaner vehicle", blah, blah, blah. I did request the loaner vehicle but not the shuttle so I asked him about it. "Oh, GM pays us money to run our shuttles so if we put on there that you requested it then it's more money for us."

So yeah, greed... by full admittance they are run by greed.

Story #2:
Several years ago my dad had fuel-pump & fuel-level sending unit issues on his truck. He dropped the tank, replaced the pump/sending unit with OEM bought from the same dealership as above, and put it all back together. It worked great for about 30 seconds and the sending unit stopped working again... he took it all apart and the sending unit was charred black and melted. He took it in to the dealership and they hassled him over it. He hassled them back, "This was in the gas tank, this very clearly could have caused a fire, do you not understand the seriousness of a defective part like this?" GM service manager, "Well, I guess you got lucky then".

He was pissed at the Svc Mgrs non-chalant attitude toward a very serious issue. He told the Svc Mgr that he would expect the check to never be cashed or he would see them in court, and he went down the street and bought an aftermarket part. Truck is still running fine today, 10+ years later...

 

[Tyler-The-Piker]

When i was 15-16 yrs old i was the lot boy at a Ford dealership...just washing cars and rearranging the rows of trucks etc. Where my wash bay in the back was...was where the mechanics liked to smoke their joints at lunchtime lol. the service after lunch was probably sub par

 

[Tactically Fat]

I honestly haven't had any "bad dealings" with either service nor body work at dealerships.

Sears Auto at Greenwood Mall - yes.

But in MY experiences, both the wrenching and body shop work at Skillman's shop on the south side have been just fine.

The Mechanic-ing and parts dept at Hubler Nissan on the south side has been just fine, too.

 

[mikebol]

I hate to say it but it's not just dealerships that'll rip you off. I took my daughter's Jeep Liberty to a local mechanic to get an estimate on replacing shocks and struts. He printed out an estimate for me complete with prices and part numbers for Monroe shocks and struts, labor, disposal, tax, etc. I went online and found the same parts FROM Monroe directly for half what he was trying to charge me. Double mark up on parts in addition to $85 an hour labor? I think not.

Bottom line, do your homework with ANY mechanic.

Mike

 

[Tactically Fat]

I hate to say it but it's not just dealerships that'll rip you off. I took my daughter's Jeep Liberty to a local mechanic to get an estimate on replacing shocks and struts. He printed out an estimate for me complete with prices and part numbers for Monroe shocks and struts, labor, disposal, tax, etc. I went online and found the same parts FROM Monroe directly for half what he was trying to charge me. Double mark up on parts in addition to $85 an hour labor? I think not.

Bottom line, do your homework with ANY mechanic.

Mike

Was his total estimate higher or lower than another place?

His prices on parts may be high, but if labor is "half" and if they charge by clock hours vs. book hours... It may all be a wash.

I also wonder if the guy just hated doing shocks and struts due to the work itself - therefore he prices himself out of competition for them just so he won't have to do them.