Car Maintenance Rant, Part 2

[frayne]

Original Post:

I always have bought my cars new and drive them 100K+ miles before selling or trading them. The last two cars I have bought it seems whenever I take them back to the dealer for the basic maintenance of oil and filter change they always want to perform some supposedly needed maintenance and of course at a rather expensive cost.

Sorry for the rant but got up early today to take my 2008 Ford Fusion in for an oil/filter change/check engine light, was told the thermostat is stuck and then they broke off the head of a bolt on the plenum and called at 430PM and told me it was ready and at $500+. Told them I would be in tomorrow morning to check repairs and talk to the manager.

Part 2 Post

After doing a slow burn most of the night I went down to the dealership in the morning. They did knock about $100 off the bill but I still think I was taken advantage of. As I was leaving the service manager followed me out the door and said he knew I was not a happy camper but asked if I would please give them positive feedback on the e-mail survey I would be getting. I said not on your life. Funny how I have yet to receive the survey. Needless to say this is my last trip to the stealership. I'm not saying all dealerships try to rip you off as from the small town I came from I always thought I was treated truthfully and fairly. In the bigger city where most people are simply a number, I don't think this is the case. Screw them and I will find another business to provide my car maintenance needs.

 

[mike143]

Stop buying American vehicles. Honda and Toyota have their faults but the are superior in cost saving ways. Every Honda I blew up was greater than 10 years in age and 200k+ miles. I bought a 1996 Civic with 390k original miles and threw a used 50k motor in for $300, after the engine finally gave up (broken valve).

 

[jimbee]

Stop buying American vehicles. Honda and Toyota have their faults but the are superior in cost saving ways.

Wow. Just, wow.

 

[travelover]

Unless you are getting a warranty repair or have a re-programming need, an independent mechanic can do most any auto repair cheaper and with less grief. I've found the Mechanic's Files on the Car Talk website to be accurate for the places I use.

 

[unno2002]

My daily driver is a 1988 Suzuki Samurai.
The wife drives a 1998 Chevrolet Tracker (a Suzuki with a US sticker)

They just keep going, and going...

 

[MRG]

I'm not sure if import or domestic service is any different. In this area one fellow owns a dealership for most manufacturers. Their service is all about the same. If the service is poor, the owner knows, they set the standard for service. As always YMMV.

 

[SmithOp]

Agree with Mike, I owned a Ford Aerostar in the 90s that was nothing but trouble, always in for $500 dealer repairs. Now own an 07 Honda CRV with 110,000 miles, still going strong. Just put on a set if 90k Michelin from Costco, expecting it to make 200k easily. AC compressor went out on a trip to Phoenix last summer at 97k, pulled in a dealership in Costa Mesa and was fixed free under the 100k warranty. $37 for oil, filter, and tire rotation.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

I think it is more about caring for vehicles. I have a '98 Ford Explorer clunker. But I take care of it myself. Pushing 250K miles soon. When the engine dies I'm done. If it lasts long enough for me to get my '88 or '89 Jeep GW going good I'll sell the Ford. Both the Jeeps have lots of miles but I rebuilt the engines and am replacing the rubber parts to make them last another 10 years or more. I have done embedded electronics (microcontrollers) professionally for years but like my vehicles sans microprocessors I can't work on. Maybe I'll go to one of the open source engine controllers someday...

 

[SmithOp]

Be glad you don't have the 4 liter V6 with aluminum heads, leaked like a sieve.

 

[wolf]

OP: Prior to having your car serviced. Did you happen to notice if your
temperature gauge was either, cold longer than normal, or vice versa.
(your post did not mention if thermostat was stuck open or closed.

Did your mileage drop? These would be clues to a stuck thermostat.

Just guessing, odds are you were cheated out of $400.

Your complaint is a common one. Most of us find an honest independent shop and use them. (recommended by friends).

 

[Bamaman]

Stop buying American vehicles. Honda and Toyota have their faults but the are superior in cost saving ways. Every Honda I blew up was greater than 10 years in age and 200k+ miles. I bought a 1996 Civic with 390k original miles and threw a used 50k motor in for $300, after the engine finally gave up (broken valve).

Many of the Hondas and Toyotas are American built vehicles. Their sales number are indications that they are good vehicles, however.

Whenever you do wear out a Honda engine, you'll have to go to the salvage yards. They're not as rebuildable as a 2.3 Ford engine out of a Ranger pickup truck.

You're a very rare car buyer if you put so many miles on your vehicles.

 

[Bamaman]

My daily driver is a 1988 Suzuki Samurai.
The wife drives a 1998 Chevrolet Tracker (a Suzuki with a US sticker)

They just keep going, and going...

It's good that Suzuki's keep giving you good service. Unfortunately, Suzuki USA filed bankruptcy and it is no more. And there are no Suzuki dealers in North America.

Replacement body parts will have to come from auto salvage yards and a great website is Car-Part.com.

 

[Hyper]

Flat rate ! I do almost all of my own but the very few times I have had to take mine back to the dealer they were always tacking on little job after little job. They get so much time for each little thing they do and if they can combine jobs they can make really good $ that way. Even have to watch them on recalls. I make sure to tell them when I take it in, that they do absolutely NOTHING without consulting me first. I also want to see myself what they are having an issue with. Usually keeps them a bit more honest. Sure seems it would just be worth paying them a set wage to keep customers happy to keep them coming back.

 

[BLS53]

I own a Fusion too. The thermostat is a common problem on the 2006-2012 models. It usually triggers the CEL. The translation of the code is "fails to reach operating temperature" or something like that. I had mine done at an independant shop for <$200. It's the only problem I've had with the car in 110,000 miles, other than the 6-CD changer which is a piece of junk. The Ford dealer wanted $600 to replace it. I went to Best Buy and got a JVC single disc unit, with Bluetooth and a USB port, installed for just over $300.

 

[frank]

service writers are paid on commission, so what do you think, they will sell as much service as they can, necessary or not.

 

[frayne]

OP: Prior to having your car serviced. Did you happen to notice if your
temperature gauge was either, cold longer than normal, or vice versa.
(your post did not mention if thermostat was stuck open or closed.

Did your mileage drop? These would be clues to a stuck thermostat.

Just guessing, odds are you were cheated out of $400.

Your complaint is a common one. Most of us find an honest independent shop and use them. (recommended by friends).

No problems with mileage or the temp. and I asked the same question why the temp. didn't run hot or cold. The service mgr. said it was probably and intermittent issue. He said they did get a code noting the problem. They also flushed the cooling system.

IMHO the bottom line, dealerships are going to soak you on car maintenance if you let them.

 

[travelover]

...........
IMHO the bottom line, dealerships are going to soak you on car maintenance if you let them.

Car dealers don't make much profit on new cars, they live on the service department and used car markup. So if you love your dealer, but a used car from them and have them service it.

 

[rbmrtn]

No problems with mileage or the temp. and I asked the same question why the temp. didn't run hot or cold. The service mgr. said it was probably and intermittent issue. He said they did get a code noting the problem. They also flushed the cooling system.

IMHO the bottom line, dealerships are going to soak you on car maintenance if you let them.

That is probably where your money went. They charge a lot ( $200) for coolant flush and completely unnecessary. Just drain and refill the radiator on regular basis, it's cheap and easy DIY. A coolant flush is an extra service item in addition to the thermostat replacement.

 

[travelover]

That is probably where your money went. They charge a lot ( $200) for coolant flush and completely unnecessary. Just drain and refill the radiator on regular basis, it's cheap and easy DIY. A coolant flush is an extra service item in addition to the thermostat replacement.

Dealers love flushes - they will flush your transmission, flush your power steering, flush your radiator and flush your wallet.

Oddly the maintenance recommendations in the back of the owners manual never seem to mention flushes.

 

[ERD50]

No problems with mileage or the temp. and I asked the same question why the temp. didn't run hot or cold. The service mgr. said it was probably and intermittent issue. He said they did get a code noting the problem. They also flushed the cooling system.

IMHO the bottom line, dealerships are going to soak you on car maintenance if you let them.

Last year, I started getting a code on my 2000 Volvo S40 that it wasn't coming up to temperature fast enough. I have a dashboard temperature gauge, and it seems pretty responsive, moving up a bit shortly after getting the car started. So I reset the code and watched the gauge, but it would come back every time after a bit of driving and start/stops. I could not detect any difference in the gauge action, and it definitely did not overheat, and it always seemed to come up to normal operating temperature quickly.

The computer can monitor this much more closely than my eye, apparently. Youtube/web said it was commonly fixed by replacing the sensor and/or thermostat. Thermostat was cheaper, and available locally for as cheap as online, so I did that and it fixed it. Never came on since, no obvious problem with the old stat (though I haven't put it in hot water yet to see when it opened, might be off by a few degrees over time? maybe some rainy day...).

But yeas, skip the dealer unless they give you a good price and the basics, and then be very specific that only X,Y,Z (from the manual) are to be done, call if other needed (safety related) work is noticed.

-ERD50

 

[Hillbilly]

I always have bought my cars new and drive them 100K+ miles before selling or trading them.

Exactly what I do. If I can get 200k, the better!

The last two cars I have bought it seems whenever I take them back to the dealer for the basic maintenance of oil and filter change they always want to perform some supposedly needed maintenance and of course at a rather expensive cost.

I only carry them back while under warranty so there is no excuse to void it (i.e. somebody else has touched it).

Sorry for the rant but got up early today to take my 2008 Ford Fusion in for an oil/filter change/check engine light, was told the thermostat is stuck and then they broke off the head of a bolt on the plenum and called at 430PM and told me it was ready and at $500+.

I would say that the bolt repair was on them since you brought it in without it broke. They were seeing how much you would negotiate in my mind.

As I was leaving the service manager followed me out the door and said he knew I was not a happy camper but asked if I would please give them positive feedback on the e-mail survey I would be getting. I said not on your life. Funny how I have yet to receive the survey.

Bingo! I live in the same city as you and gave a "rough" review of another dealer in a close city. I don't get those surveys any more to fill out.

In the bigger city where most people are simply a number, I don't think this is the case. Screw them and I will find another business to provide my car maintenance needs.

Exactly, it seems to be all about volume to support such large dealers. Here is the difference between the dealer you were working with and a small town dealer: My parents called the dealership in question and asked them to find a car for them. They never did; only wanted to sell what they had in inventory. Meanwhile, the small town dealer understood what they were looking for, found the car several states away, drove to get it, brought the car to my parents house, and sealed the deal. My parent never set foot on the dealership's property. Some loose their way when they get too big for themselves.......

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Dealers love flushes - they will flush your transmission, flush your power steering, flush your radiator and flush your wallet.

Oddly the maintenance recommendations in the back of the owners manual never seem to mention flushes.

Not part of regular maintenance, but if I should be so recklessly irresponsible as to taint my CR-V with non-Honda fluids, I shall flush the evil poison from her veins with extra virgin Honda nectar as soon as possible or suffer mucho bad juju.

 

[David1961]

I'm curious at to whether most folks here follow the factory recommended maintenance for their vehicles. Do you follow it strictly, not at all, or somewhere in between? I'm not talking about any repairs - the car runs fine but is due for routine maintenance. Do you take it to the dealer or somewhere else?

 

[MRG]

Somewhere else, unless it's free! You have to watch some of the chains as they can be as bad or worse than the dealership. One large tire place insisted I needed a battery, I came in for free rotation, the battery was 6 months old!

 

[H2ODude]

Pretty much follow the manual, not necessarily at the dealer if their prices are reasonable. Get coupons for the Silverado for oil changes, always seemed fair.

About these freakin' surveys! Can't even go into Lowe's and buy a can of paint without getting email survey on my experience (have loyalty card w email address). When recently purchased new car must have been begged three times by salesman to please give him high marks. He was sort of a pia but I feel sorry for these individuals who apparently live or die by their damn survey numbers. I wouldn't hesitate to mark down an individual or business for bad service or work though.