Car dealers and the games they play.

[JP.mpls]

Hawkeye,
I have always done most of my own maintenance, and would also avoid the dealership when I did want something done by a shop. Yes, I'm cheap.

I'm older now, and I actually have purchased a few new vehicles.

I decided to have the dealership do the basic maintenance while the vehicle is under warranty. If something fails prematurely, like an engine or transmission, I really like that they can't blame me for not maintaining the vehicle.

I've also found that their oil changes aren't that much more.

I keep an eye on the manufacturers recommended maintenance too, so they don't sell me unnecessary work.

Take care.

 

[JP.mpls]

I have a confession. I fell for what I suspect was unnecessary work at the dealer.

I get my oil changed by them for warranty reasons.

I drove my truck into their fancy new service bay/garage. The guy showed me a silly video picture of my wheels, and said my front end is out of alignment.

I said, no thanks. It has been driving straight, and no weird wear on the tires.

My partner was with me, and says we should get it fixed. I just buckled under , and went along with my $200 alignment. Ugh.

I really question if they can truly tell if I need alignment with their video cameras. Seems like a dealer mark up scam.

FYI, they showed me another cartoon looking video with straight wheels after the alignment.

 

[Mark2024]

Is it only the dealers are doin this?

Every car repair place is doing this "recommendation" thing. The best defense is do your own research and know if you really need it.

Another thing, do not send your DW alone to a car repair shop for even an oil change. They charged her over $600 for replacing the batteries. And I stop the work for replacing spark plugs for over $700 when she called.

 

[ncbill]

Dead power seat motor on a 11-year-old Chevrolet Suburban.

No longer available from stock.

I'm sure they sold hundreds of thousands of that generation yet I can't get parts for it?

I think I'll have the old one saved and see if I can't get it rebuilt to keep as a spare.

Inherited from a relative with less than 50,000 miles driven so I hope to keep it at least another decade.

 

[freedomatlast]

Oh I read a new one today that stealerships are pulling.

It goes like this: car goes in for a brake pad replacement fairly early in the life (say 30k miles) of the vehicle. Driver is aggressive and hard on brakes.

Dealership won't do the service without replacing rotors and rebuilding calibers because of rust. Calls them "unsafe." They whip out a picture of the parts, which of course are rusty.

Mind you, the rotor surface is beautiful and shiny, but the rest of it is rusty, you see?

Yeah, yeah, I get it about not resurfacing rotors in this day in age. But some of this is getting ridiculous. And calibers also get rusty. Metal does that.

Nothing like charging 3x or 4x parts charge to pad the bottom line.

I'm sure you meant to type "calipers".

 

[JoeWras]

Don't brake my mood, man.

 

[pb4uski]

Dead power seat motor on a 11-year-old Chevrolet Suburban.

No longer available from stock.

I'm sure they sold hundreds of thousands of that yet I can't get parts for it?

I think I'll have the old one saved and see if I can't get it rebuilt to keep as a spare.

Inherited from a relative with less than 50,000 miles driven so I hope to keep it at least another decade.

What about from a junkyard? We use to have junkyards around here where the owner could take you out to that era and model and you just took the part out and then stopped by the office and paid for it. I recall getting a windshield when I was in my mid/late teens that way. Damn thing always leaked a bit though until I go rid of the car.

 

[pb4uski]

Oh I read a new one today that stealerships are pulling.

It goes like this: car goes in for a brake pad replacement fairly early in the life (say 30k miles) of the vehicle. Driver is aggressive and hard on brakes.

Dealership won't do the service without replacing rotors and rebuilding calibers because of rust. Calls them "unsafe." They whip out a picture of the parts, which of course are rusty.

Mind you, the rotor surface is beautiful and shiny, but the rest of it is rusty, you see?

Yeah, yeah, I get it about not resurfacing rotors in this day in age. But some of this is getting ridiculous. And calibers also get rusty. Metal does that.

Nothing like charging 3x or 4x parts charge to pad the bottom line.

I'm sure you meant to type "calipers".

Don't brake my mood, man.

You guys brake me up.

 

[ncbill]

What about from a junkyard? We use to have junkyards around here where the owner could take you out to that era and model and you just took the part out and then stopped by the office and paid for it. I recall getting a windshield when I was in my mid/late teens that way. Damn thing always leaked a bit though until I go rid of the car.

Independent mechanic finally found a used one online...coming from 800 miles away.

Different for driver's & passenger's seats...plenty of the side I don't need.

 

[OldShooter]

Independent mechanic finally found a used one online...coming from 800 miles away. Different for driver's & passenger's seats...plenty of the side I don't need.

Yeah. That's the Catch 22 of junkyards. Where a particular part on a car has congenital problems, all of the junkyard parts have already been sold. Best junkyard shopping is for parts that generally do not have problems.

 

[JoeWras]

This is a pretty bad example of what we've been talking about. Actually, it may be the worst example I've seen.

$2k for a 30k mile service.

Consists of an oil change, transmission fluid drain and refill, a few filters, tire rotation, alignment and inspections. Oh, and about 4 different ways to "clean" the fuel system by "installing" various cleaning methods.

The fact they can't even print this out cogently should be a sign of trouble. They just jam it all together.

Courtesy recent reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Honda/comments/16olxlc/30k_service_quote_at_milpitas_san_jose_2040_2022/