took my car to the shop...

[perchin]

Re: took my car to the shop...

hmmppfff.... I have never been able to get work done at a reasonable cost from a dealership....in fact the last place I would even consider taking a vehicle in need of repair would be to a dealership...this is only based on the ones I have personally done business with though. What I've gotten from the dealership's around here has always been overpriced (highly inflated) parts, overpriced labor rate's, and work being performed and not needed.

I got a new off the floor taurus (I know..I know...a taurus:redface and within the first two years the transmission went out of the thing... I was past the warrenty on miles. I took it into two different Ford dealerships and was astounded by their quotes to repair it. The first place wanted $2,800 and some change to replace it with a new one and $3,300 to rebuild the existing one because of the added labor of tearing into one. The second place wanted almost the same amount but a few bucks more.. And both places only came with a 30 day guarantee.

I then went to the local "Edmore Transmission" shop 5 minutes from my house and he said he would pull the old and see if it was rebuildable...if it was it would cost me $980.00... If he couldn't rebuild it, then he would get me a lightly used one and install it for $1,200.

I ended up with a used one from edmore transmission for $1,200...and he even gave me a written guarantee in the amount of 1 year regardless of miles put on the vehicle.... find that at the dealership.

 

[jtmarten]

Re: took my car to the shop...

$89 for an oil change???? CHEAP. BMW wants to charge me $119, I do it in 10min without getting under the car, just the oil and filter run $60-or-so.

I did get work done at a dealer that was cheaper than my local Meineke. Intake gaskets on my '96 K2500 Suburban. $650 dealer, $850 Meineke. Only had them do it because it had a small leak on one front corner, and I was leaving in just a couple days for Detroit to tow the new boat home. Didn't want to chance a catastrophic failure while towing 1300 miles from home.

 

[Florida]

Re: took my car to the shop...

I keep a car manual, a boat manual and a lawnmower manual in the bathroom. I read them everyday. I cant see paying a days wages just for an hour of work.

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: took my car to the shop...

and tax? cant you only tax physical goods, not a service?

Here in Canada we are taxed on products and services. Won't be long before we are taxed on THINKING about buying a product or service

 

[roscoe]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Do you ever get them back?

Not yet, they are waiting on parts. But they aren't charging me any storage fees while it sits there, or somewhere.

 

[BigB9000]

Re: took my car to the shop...

no one will rebuild your custom geared gearbox

Actually, it is the stock box. its a 1996 caprice. they has 2 options. 1 was the civilian version, and the 'service vehicle' option. I have the service vehicle box.

I don't take my vehicles anywhere but the dealer. They know what they are doing and don't "experiment".

I see no reason to go anywhere else.

I completely agree. They have done work for me before, and I was happy, so I figured I would try to save $ and let them handle it.

I don't take my vehicles anywhere for anything anymore if I can do it myself.

Usually I would, but I don't have a garage anymore now that I'm in the apartment, and I just really didn't want too.. I'm more motivated now to just do it in the street. Ill save 80% of the repair cost, and it'll get done right.

Learn to do maintenance yourself. Once you have that down, you can start doing repairs yourself and save some big bucks.

The only time my vehicles see a shop is for transmission work.

usually I do, just not thins time, as I should have.

What do we preach here? GET THE MANUAL!

Actually, I have the 1000+ page, $190 FSM (factory service manual)

 

['96 Charger]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Dealerships used to have an earned reputation for overcharging and performing unncecessary work, but that's changed (at least around here). I just got rid of my Sierra because it was about to nickel and dime me to death. However, I have the highest praise for the dealership that sold it to me. Their service department was beyond reproach. Wish I could say the same for the trucks they sell.

Which dealer? Thanks to the lifetime warranty on the driveline in my Ram I can't decide if I want to let Landers do the critical scheduled maintenance (plugs, tranny, rearend) or let my regular mechanic and tire shop (Cross Tire) do it. What I do know is my top row of plugs need changed at 30k as well as my tranny fluid. Wouldn't touch the tranny but when I pull my heavy Charger I drive it like I stole it.

 

[DaNinja]

Re: took my car to the shop...

I posted this review for Willy's Performance Automotive in Killeen, Texas a while ago...

Willy's is the best shop that I've never hired. With estimates ranging from $900-1500, I went to Willy's with an a/c problem. One of his mechanics came out to take a look and in ten minutes had a splice put on a simple vacuum hose. No charge!

Another time, Willy looked at my dripping water pump and he recommended a $3.00 radiator sealer before he did the several hundred dollar repair. It's still working three years later!

Willy will get my business just based his on integrity and honesty.

When I get back to Texas, Willy will be getting some business with this old truck.

 

[windshield_time]

Re: took my car to the shop...

First, the only place that has ever messed up one of my vehicles has been the dealership. On a pontiac they destroyed the engine, hard to prove, harder to get it fixed from pontiac. On my wifes Chrysler they messed up the front end by not tightening the bolts and almost got us killed. Both were under warranty at the time.

Since then, I go to NAPA, ask them for the name of a NAPA shop close by and use them. The guy I use now is great. The biggest test was sending my wife in the first time. I knew what was wrong and they didn't try to sell her a flux capacitor they just fixed it.

I dealt with a goodyear for 3 years before i had to send the wife in one day, and they told her it would be 1700 to fix the car, it cost me 400 at a competitor who did not find anything wrong with the stuff goodyear says was bad, and that stuff never went bad in the 80k miles i drove the car after that.

I own the manuals and most of the tools, but lack of time and no garage means I have to trust somebody.

I just took my father in laws truck to my mechanic. He fixed all that was wrong, and found the dealer where he was having the work done hasn't been greasing anything and when they replaced the brake lines last winter they left them leaning on the exhaust manifold. He won't be bringing it to the dealer anymore, while it's an inconvenience for him to have me take it to my mechanic, (we live an hour away) he finally got the point.

On top of all of this why pay the dealers price, As I just did this the breakdown was this,

675.00 for dealer to replace to power steering pump in a 2000 gmc 1500 w/plow. Their prices are not given to us for the parts.

400 for my mechanic to do it. The pump is 100 bucks, the high pressure line is 60.00. That's 240 in labor and fluid.

Assuming the parts are close to priced the same, that is almost exactly 1/2 off the labor. Why in any economy would i pay double just to say the dealer did it ?

Sorry for ranting.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: took my car to the shop...

My local Chevy dealer is wonderful. Sure their hourly rate is high but they'll charge partial hours for stuff other places will charge an full hour for plus it's always fixed right the first time. Unfortunately the only vehicle I have to take to them now is my old truck that I don't drive much. Our '07 Impala was the worst car we've ever owned and got me off of GMs for a while. We bought a Honda and we bought it from the dealer next to my wife's work specifically for ease of service. Well this place screwed us ten ways to sunday on some initial quality issues that we will never ever go back there. They lost a customer that would have been there every other month with the number miles we pile on our Accord.

 

[98Shabah]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Last summer my neighbor took his '98 Civic to a local AAMCO transmission shop to have the fluid "flushed", the day after he got it back he noticed it seemed to slip a little when shifting, I took a look at the fluid level, it was almost 2 quarts low...

More stories!

A guy I used to work with had a high mileage 97 F150 that needed upper and lower balljoints, he took it to Dobbs, they replaced all 4.. The next time he took it to a local grease monkey for an oil change/lube that told him that whoever installed the obviously new "greasable" (with zerks) balljoints didn't put any grease in them at all, the boots were empty.

Another guy I used to work with took his mid 90's explorer to another Dobbs for some fluid changes.. front and read diff, tcase, tranny.. Within a couple months the rear diff started howling so I took a look at it.. upon pulling the diff cover I was a bit suprised when a watery fluid that looked like a mix of antifreeze and gear oil came out.. And his carrier bearings and pinion bearing were shot. Sabatoge or a case of "oops, grabbed the wrong fill hose"?

 

[kenferd843]

Re: took my car to the shop...

As far as the plus tax. There is no charge for tax on the labor. The tax only applies to the parts and fluids used within the repair.

 

[perchin]

Re: took my car to the shop...

The main reason for a dealership being in business is to sell new cars. They would not have a franchise from a car manufacturer if this was not the case. If you sell new cars, you have to warranty them. That's why dealerships have a service facility. That "free" warranty you get with a new car, is why any other non warranty service (customer pay) you have performed on the car is so expensive.

The dealer will tell you, it's because the technicians need to be constantly trained on new product, and all the special tools have to be purchased. This is true, the franchise mandates these things (you can not do new car warranty without these). What they do not tell you, is the money they loose doing warranty repairs is made up by doing maintenances and service to older cars out of warranty.

Warranty repairs are dictated by the manufacturer. The time that is paid to do a specific repair is also set by the manufacturer. They have control over what is repaired, how long it should take to do the repair, and how much time they will pay to diagnose the problem (Dealers are paid on a flat rate basis by the manufacturer, that means if the manufacturer say's it will take .5 of an hour to do a certain job, they get paid .5 of their hourly service rate).

You have probably heard of book time, that's Chilton or Motor repair time guides. There is also warranty time. Warranty times set by the manufacturer is considerably less than what Chilton or Motor would allow. For a technician to do eight hours of warranty time in an eight hour day is very difficult.

The Dealership is usually broken up into three parts. Sales, service and parts. Each department runs on a budget, and each department wants to show a profit. Years ago, it was always new car sales that made the most money for a dealer. Recently, it's parts and service that makes the money (along with used car sales).

Most dealer service departments do more warranty work than regular customer pay work. It is in the dealer's best interest to get paid as much as they can for the warranty work they perform. They can not change the amount of time the manufacturer will pay them, but they can change how much the manufacturer will pay, by raising their labor rate. The more warranty work a dealer does, the more likely the labor rate is high.

The dealers have also found that customer pay service is quite profitable. So they compromise on the labor rate they would like from the manufacturer, and the rate customers are willing to pay out of pocket.

Independent repair shops have the ability to spend their time on service work, not warranty work. This, tied in with lower overhead and profit on the parts sold (something a dealer service department does not get, the parts department gets all profits from parts sales) allow the independent to charge a more competitive labor rate.

so I'll stick to the ASE master certified tech. down the road at half the cost.

 

[hostage]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Granted when I did get my transmission cooler and power steering cooler installed. I bought the parts online from another Acura Dealership and had mine install them. Got official Acura parts and had the dealer install it. The parts are overpriced, but I supplied the parts.

I did also buy a battery for $100, but they said the battery is guaranteed for life (so long as I own the vehicle). I plan to drive this car to the ground. Also the cold weather up here in upstate NY kills batteries quickly, so I am guessing 2 to 3 years, then get a new battery.

 

[aspeck]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Not yet, they are waiting on parts. But they aren't charging me any storage fees while it sits there, or somewhere.

Heck of a commute ... have you been able to get anyone on the phone lately? You might want to take a drive down there and check personally ... I'm just sayin'! HA!

 

[DJ]

Re: took my car to the shop...

funny you mention that. i purchased two trucks. same brand, same dealer, 1 year apart. only difference between the two trucks was that I allowed the dealer to do maint on one and I did everything on the other. these are newer trucks 2002.
few years down the road, dealer maintained truck is dead, 71,000 miles on it. they call me to come get it, because they can't figure it out. wound up dumping it to get another vehicle. (different brand) everytime the dealer worked on that truck something else would break within a couple weeks. one time I let them work on truck #2 and yep something else got screwed up while they "fixed" it. that truck now has 130,000 miles on it and runs flawlessly.
my vehicles right now are '02, '07 and '08 car and trucks and '09 and '10 bikes. I'll do my own fixing thanks. they're not hard to work on once you get over the fear of the electronics in there. it's still internal combustion engines. suspensions are very much the same as before. brakes and such all the same.

oh yes I do have a manual on all of the vehicles.

I wouldn't call 2002 trucks even close to new. The technology shift between 2002 and 2011 is EXPONENTIAL.

If you are talking about diesels, multiply that times five.

 

[eclark53520]

Re: took my car to the shop...

I wouldn't call 2002 trucks even close to new. The technology shift between 2002 and 2011 is EXPONENTIAL.

If you are talking about diesels, multiply that times five.

Technology shift has nothing to do with the difference between the two vehicles being maintained by different entities showing different terminal performance.....

I'm not sure how your argument here fits what he is trying to point out via anecdotal evidence...

 

[roscoe]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Heck of a commute ... have you been able to get anyone on the phone lately? You might want to take a drive down there and check personally ... I'm just sayin'! HA!

No contact lately, but they said they'd call when it's ready...... in 5 to 10.

 

[Aviator5]

Re: took my car to the shop...

Nobody touches my car or boat but me. All maintenance and repairs done by myself. Just swapped the engine on my 98 Astro this summer, all by myself.
The only job that I let mechanic do once in a while - is wheel alighment (equipment cost too much ).

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: took my car to the shop...

I don't take my vehicles anywhere but the dealer. They know what they are doing and don't "experiment".

Granted, some are better than others.

If you REALLY shop and compare what you get for the dollar, you might be surprised at what a bargain the OEM dealer is.

As an example, my local dealer offers an oil change, tire rotation and a 23 point inspection for $39.95, including a hand wash/vacuum and dry.

It's $29.95 after a manufacturer rebate. Even at the $39.95, it's a bargain.

NONE of the "Quickie" places can touch that and I know I'm getting the right stuff.

They know me by name. They check for any updates (service bulletins, recalls, etc.) and do quality work.

If I need something like Brakes, their prices are within 10% of any of the Quickie places and they don't replace what doesn't need to be. If the OEM pads went 60K, why should I chance a Quickie place pad deal?

I see no reason to go anywhere else.

I think this depends on the dealership involved. I once worked for one that I guarantee, you wouldn't have walked out of for only 40 bucks, unless you beat someone half to death to get your car keys away from them.

Dealer or independant - there are good ones and lousy ones.



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