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

[danielocean03]

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.

Understood, just a thought I had reading your post.

 

[Rookie]

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

I ran into that too. I took my suburban in to have the rear main seal replaced. They quoted me $250. When they were done, they tried to present me with a bill of $900. I wrote them a check for $250. Of course, the rear main seal still leaks as well as the oil pan. Go figure.

 

[edporch]

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

It's common for shops to also make a profit on the parts.
This a part of the reason they typically frown on installing customer supplied parts for just the cost of labor.

 

[mikebol]

It's common for shops to also make a profit on the parts.
This a part of the reason they typically frown on installing customer supplied parts for just the cost of labor.

I'm Ok with them making money on me. After all, I'm paying for them to do it right, convenience factor, they have the lift that I don't, overhead, etc. But I would expect them to be getting a discount of some kind from the vendor too on the parts so they make a little on me, make a little from the vendor discount too. What I find salty is quoting $239 for a part I can by myself for $109 from a variety of locations. If this price included labor, then Ok. But on this quote labor was EXTRA.

I suspect they don't like doing shocks but then again, the customer waiting area had all of the normal Monroe Shock displays.

Mike

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'm Ok with them making money on me. After all, I'm paying for them to do it right, convenience factor, they have the lift that I don't, overhead, etc. But I would expect them to be getting a discount of some kind from the vendor too on the parts so they make a little on me, make a little from the vendor discount too. What I find salty is quoting $239 for a part I can by myself for $109 from a variety of locations. If this price included labor, then Ok. But on this quote labor was EXTRA.

I suspect they don't like doing shocks but then again, the customer waiting area had all of the normal Monroe Shock displays.

Mike

I agree. You KNOW these high volume shops like Car-X DEFINITELY get a discount from their parts suppliers like NAPA. And yet they insist on gouging us at 2-3x retail. I recall getting a quote from them for new rotors at $140 each... Rotors that I now get retail for under $50 because I learned to DIY.

There is a difference between making a comfortable profit and ripping unsuspecting customers off. Maybe I'm doing it wrong... but I tend to charge no more than 25% when I have to pass through a part for something I'm fixing. Cover the cost of my time to order and float the cash. Now if I was ONLY selling a part and it wasnt part of a labor deal I might charge more. But charging a customer outrageously simply because they dont know any better is bad ju-ju.

 

[Rookie]

I agree. A few months ago, I changed the calipers on my suburban. One of them was leaking around the banjo bolt. Since I was at work, and it was cold, and I was over changing brakes, I told my wife to take it to Midas and explain the problem. They wanted $1,000 to fix the problem! Even if it needed new calipers, why would anything think they're getting a good deal by paying $1,000 for $200 worth of parts? That's insane.

 

[Rookie]

Another one...

I had a vacuum leak. Dealer tells me it will cost $600 to fix. I grabbed my Chilton's manual, spent $15 for the gasket, and spent six hours replacing it. I know it took me a lot longer than it would have taken an experienced mechanic, but, even if it did take them six hours, $100 an hour?

 

[lovemachine]

When I had some O2 sensors go out on my jeep, the local dealership wanted $85 to change them for me.

 

[danielocean03]

When I had some O2 sensors go out on my jeep, the local dealership wanted $85 to change them for me.

Parts and labor or just labor? Remember, auto dealers go by flat rate, so if a job pays half an hour, you're quoted half an hour. Sometimes the tech wins, sometimes the customer wins. I've seen book times all over the place for similar jobs depending upon the manufacturer and model.

 

[lovemachine]

Parts and labor or just labor? Remember, auto dealers go by flat rate, so if a job pays half an hour, you're quoted half an hour. Sometimes the tech wins, sometimes the customer wins. I've seen book times all over the place for similar jobs depending upon the manufacturer and model.

That was just labor.

 

[danielocean03]

That was just labor.

What was their labor rate? How many sensors?

 

[lovemachine]

What was their labor rate? How many sensors?

$85 will cover the replacement of either 1 sensor or mutiple.

 

[danielocean03]

$85 will cover the replacement of either 1 sensor or mutiple.

That's strange, unless they consider it's just that much labor "overlap." So is $85 their labor hourly rate?

 

[lovemachine]

That's strange, unless they consider it's just that much labor "overlap." So is $85 their labor hourly rate?

I've no idea what their hourly rates are. I was just shocked they charged that much to change out O2 sensors.

 

[looney2ns]

Nope, no dealer service departments for me unless it's warranty or recalls.
The 3 or 4 times in my life I foolishly used a dealer service department, they screwed the pooch.

Once upon a time, we owned a Toyota Solara. Dealer offered a years worth of free oil changes.....so....took it in for it's first free oil change. When they finished 90 minutes later....geez....we go to leave and the drivers side had oil hand prints and foot prints all over the door, steering wheel, door threshold, and floor mat.

I blew my stack, and made quite the scene in the showroom in front of several potential customers, purposely. Had the dealership manager and the service manager and a lackey doing a cleanup job pretty quickly.

 

[Rookie]

Back in the days of off reading, I had a buddy who bought a brand new wrangler. A few months later, he wants to go wheeling with me, so he took it to the local dealer to get the oil changed. They finish and he idles it into his trailer. We got to Attica and hit the trails. About halfway into the day, he starts up this spot where everyone crawls up nice and easy. Not my buddy, he starts up and hits it with a wide open throttle launching his front tires over the peak and not touching dirt until his back tires are up. He continues like a bat out of hell and almost hits a tree before he manages to kill the engine. I'm looking at him like, "what the ****?" as he climbs out and opens the hood. He finds the oil cap wedged into the throttle, keeping it wide open.

The next day, he returns to the dealer and explains what happened. Their reply? "How can you be sure it was our fault?"

 

[Bosshoss]

Sometimes the tech wins, sometimes the customer wins.

This^^^^^
Back in the day I had a complete exhaust job. Not like today with SS pipes that last almost forever. Pulled old exhaust and had a exhaust manifold stud break off. Couldn't get to it to drill it out. A pain but no big deal just pull the exhaust manifold and drill it out. Well one of the exhaust manifold bolts snapped off in the head when removing manifold. Could not get to it to drill it out. Two options pull head or disassemble front suspension and hope I could get a straight shot at drilling it out. Pulled suspension and luckily could get it that way. Customer got a free alignment also. All day on what should have been a one hour job.

Next exhaust job might take 30 minutes to do the same thing if everything goes right.

Both customers above get charged the same.



Some dealers/repair shops may charge more for parts than a discount house but the discount house sells you the part and waves as you leave. If there is a problem with the part they give you a new one in exchange and waves as you leave.
If you buy the parts at a dealer/repair shop and there is a problem with it, even if there is a warranty he has to take the time to get a replacement and deal with getting reimbursed from the manufacture. Labor to reinstall the warrantied part is something he will have to eat.

IMO the dealer shouldn't charge anything over retail for parts if any in fact do.

Careful comparing prices of cheap discount replacement parts to OEM quality parts.
I'm sure if the cheap tools sold online were just as good as Snap-on and Mac tools that they would be in every mechanics tool box.

 

[flightsimmer]

I was leaving on vacation the coming weekend and wouldn't you know it, the alternator quit charging and I didn't have time to swap it out so I took it to a dealer to get it fixed.
They ( checked it out) and said the alternator was bad and it would cost almost $1000.00 to fix. WHAT!!!!!!! So I took them one of my new alternators from stock to have them change it.
They called back and said the new alternator wouldn't charge either, that was the clue that it was the ECM module but they said "Oh, that almost never happens", and I said, " did you check it?" There answer was, No!
So I went and got it and they tried to charge me. I said, for what? You didn't fix anything, took the keys and left and fixed it myself late at night just so I could leave on vacation on time.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I use O'brien Dodge in Greenwood. If you buy the 4 pack of oil changes it's cheaper than I can do it myself, and they've never "found" things wrong that weren't wrong. They want to rotate the tires too often, but a simple "no thanks" ends that and they aren't pushy.

They've also been the cheapest on new cars sales twice. I sent out bid requests as far away as Frankfort, KY when I bought my truck, and they were within a few dollars of the cheapest PLUS put in a spray in bedliner, making them the overall cheapest.

 

[mondomojo]

I was in the market for a car in November. Ray Skillman couldn't get me done on the used car I wanted bc of the high mileage so I moved on and bought one with less miles from Tom Wood. In June a Ray Skillman rep started calling me to sell me a car - 6 months later!!! The calls went to VM and the caller was relentless. After no less then 10 calls I finally returned the call and asked them to never call back. I don't know why they thought I'd still be in the market 6 months after the fact or why they thought relentless calls were a great marketing strategy. Idiots!