I needed an oil change and there was a problem with my window. So they call me and tell me that I need new rear rotors and pads--> $530.00, then they tell me I need a new air filter that cost $20.00 and an hepi filter that is for the interior of the car---$80.00 installed.. they say they have to take out the whole dash to put it in.

I tell them just to do the oil and ask them if there is a charge for putting in the air filter, it's 2 bolts... I can do it myself. Dave gets the roters and the pads for $200.00, so I tell them to disregard doing that.

I talk to my dad and find out the hepi filter that costs $30.00 to buy is put in by removing two bolts in the glove compartment. I tell them not to do that...LMAO. I ask them if there is a charge to put the filter on, if so.. I will get it myself and do it. They tell me it's no charge.. so I say go ahead.

I go to get my car and they tell me the total and I say: Let me see the bill, notice they charged me $22.00 to change my air filter... wow, I tell the guy, take that air filter off my car and put the old one on, I'm really pissed that they are now charging me to put on an air filter that they said would cost nothing.

I tell them that they are just a bunch of rip off artists and I will find somewhere else to take my car now on!!!

So they take the charge off my bill and leave the new one on: I still paid for the part. I tell them that they just try to take advantage of people and that service like this is the same as theft!!! They charge a mechanics fee of $100.00 hr to do work at the dealership.

Warning--> Do not deal with dealerships unless it's warranty work!!!

LOL, been there, done that. I stay clear away. I've had to purchase parts at the dealership though, that doesn't seem too bad. Sometimes there are parts that you can't get other than at the dealer. So you're cornered there too!
"And a hepi filter" That's like saying you need a Watchamajigger in your thingamajig! And that's going to cost you $1,000...

The new car dealers are not making much money selling cars these days so they're left with overcharging folks on service matters.

I do as much work on my car as possible and enlist my father-in-law for more extensive repairs. Between us we've covered about 90% of repairs and maintenance. Brakes, alternators, batteries, fluid changes, some electrical stuff, interior work, filters, etc...all hundreds of $$$ cheaper!

My wife took her Toyata Camry into the dealer for an oil change a few weeks ago. To be honest, I don't even remember at this point what else they "found" wrong. It ended up costing $800.00. I drove the car off the lot and the check engine light was on. I had to go to work but took the car in the next day and told them that light was not on when my wife dropped the car off and to correct the problem and that I didn't expect to get charged for it (oh, yeah, there was an alignment that wasn't aligned in there as well- the car still pulled left). Well, they keep the car another day and then come back telling me it's some "fuse" that they have to take half the engine out to get to- yadda, yadda. I tell them that whatever happened to the fuse happened while they were working on the car and it was their responsiblity to fix or replace it since it wasn't broken when we brought it in.
He said "they just break. It could happen anytime".
I told him to shove it up his ass and that we wouldn't be back.

I miss our old mechanic. He moved away, but he'd change my wifes oil for only the cost of the oil, and top off the fluids. He'd tell us when things weren't worth the cost to fix, like a cracked strut that made a lot of noise, or power light motors that burned out, or the power sun-roof motor that burned out (crappy ass Saturn). But he explained these weren't really needed and way too expensive. So we took his advice and traded the car in, lol. We got more than we thought it was worth. Clearly they didn't try to start it and check everything. Yay for CarMax!

How about $206 to replace a 550 cranking amps battery in my Lexus?

Their big gotcha with battery replacement is the loss of memory in the some of the electronics if you don't parallel a voltage source during the replacement. So most everyone pays to have them do it.

(Yeah, I could do with an even higher rated battery and save over $100 but I would rather not get my hands dirty. I'm such a lazy retired guy.)

Old Man Mike

Oh yea, they also tried to tell me that I needed my tires rotated....lmao, I just had that done 2 weeks ago. I think they know I was mad, because they just called me from the dealership about 5 mins ago to appologize. I guess they only change the filters free for the Q45 models...LOL, I guess because those models are more expensive.

I like the old junker cars that you can drive forever and never have to change the oil...lol, I blew up two engines while in University and my dad rebuilt both. That's when I learned if the oil light comes on, tell your dad right away... don't wait until a month later when the car dies and smoke is coming from the engine compartment....LOL (True blond moment!!)

Bargod, I bet you paid a ton for parts you didn't even need. My dad told me today that he checked by brakes the other day and they were still good.

Mike, that the same happened with my door... loss of memory?? It's a window... still working, just not properly. Well, they scammed me out of $50.00 for that... no parts at all.. they had to reset the memory. Really sounds like the scam of the year to me.

Mike, Lexus really gets you there... and I thought they were just trying to scam me because I was a female!!

When I was in college my dad was kind enough to pay for car repairs as needed. The only problem was he was going to a BP Procare shop that replaced an alternator on my first car that caught fire a few days later. The fire department said it was too burnt to be sure, but it looked like they installed it wrong.
Yet, my dad still went to these guys.
So, used car #2 leaks oil. I'm putting in a quart every other week or so. There is a stain on the driveway to prove it. My dad has me take it in to the shop where they find nothing wrong. I tell them I know it's leaking. There is the stain and the fact I keep putting oil in. They check again and say there is no problem. A week later I'm about to leave my wife's (we were just dating) appartment at about 4am. I had to drive through some very shady areas to get home. I got a really bad feeling about it and stayed the night instead.
The next morning I drive home and at the most dangerous part of the freeway, in the most dangerous part of town, I throw a rod! Oil and engine parts are spewing out behind my Mazda 626! The idiot to my right stays even with my looking at the oil and smoke spewing from the hood of the car. I'm waving frantically for him to move so I can coast to the shoulder. Luckily I was close to an off ramp and a gas station. I used a pay phone to call my wife. She came and got me. I took what I wanted from the car, and never looked back.

When I have 3 hours, I will spin the yarn of a 2006 HHR, and a man who was bent over the hood.

wow.... this is a heluva topic there folks....

please keep in mind that i can name four individuals who have LONG careers at new/used car dealerships that are MOB and Reg members...

perhaps not such a "general" and "all encompassing" thread of car dealerships as a topic could be used as i am sure there are good ones out there. : \

signed:

Overheated - the service manager

Overheated is absolutely correct. Not all car dealers are bad. It's just that 90% of them give the other 10% a bad name.

My most recent story involves my local dealership. I used to own a GM product but was extremely unhappy with the service department at my dealer. They were never able to fix ANYTHING on the first attempt. So I got rid of that vehicle and got a different brand of truck from a different dealer, one who had a really good reputation for excellent service. They were infinitely better than the first dealer, but then out of the blue the first dealer bought the second dealership and I was back with the same bunch of yahoos I started with.

Earlier this spring I had my truck in for service and they did one of those "courtesy inspections" and told me that one of the bulbs that light up the license plate was out. I told them to go ahead and fix it, but they called me back and told me that they had to replace the whole assembly and it would be $50 to replace it. WTF? While I was glad they let me know, I though that $50 was a little steep so I declined, thinking I would just live without it (there are two anyway).

A couple of months later I was back at the same dealership for an oil change at thier lube shop and they again mentioned that the bulb was out. I told them that I was aware, but wasn't willing to spend $50 to get it replaced. They told me they didn't have to replace the assembly and the bulb could be done for $7. THIS WAS AT THE VERY SAME DEALERSHIP. While $7 is a lot of money for a small bulb like this I still find it hard to believe the service department thought they could get away with $50. I had them do the $7 repair and vowed to never take my truck back to that service department, although I still go to the lube shop.

I'm beginning to suspect that I didn't need the muffler belt and blinker fluid they sold me either... LOL

Dealers are bad. Some 25 years ago i took my car in for some simple work. Replace the plugs and wires. The calls me at home and says $75. I say fine, go ahead.

I go in to pick it up, and the guy hands me a bill for $219. I said "you told me $75". The guy said said he screwed up it's really $219. The Dealership Owner (The guy with his name on the sign!) come over and says they screwed up but you have to pay the $219. I said no F'n way. I approved the work at $75. The Owner actually yelled at me saying "Fine, Have it your way" and stormed!!! LoL
What an idiot!

I had the same thing happen to me at a dodge dealership. I really dont want to go into detail, But I have to say since that happened to me I will never buy dodge product again.

Sorry to hear that 6...do what i do...take the bus

lmao! I have a feeling theres a few "ears burning" in the background. Just the other day i was at the store and they were selling home made pies. They were charging 12 bucks a pie. Can you believe it! I can get the apples, flour, and the sugar for one pie for about 3 bucks! These shady bakers are rediculous! You think thats bad...Before fishing last week i decided i better stop off at the bait store. 4 bucks for 12 worms! wtf! There worms for christ sake! Then i filled my car for $1.20 a litre/$4.54 a gal of gasoline which i could have got south of me for about $2.75 a gal...



We're getting ripped off on all ends people....

Don't worry Overheated, they called and appologized which I guess makes it a little better.

Bad to worse Corey, after dealing with all this crap... I get a call from a private garage that rebuilds old engins. I had my 340 6pak for my t/a rebuilt, they said it would cost $2,500.00 which I thought was decent. Well, got the call today that the engine is ready and it's going to cost $5000.00. I wonder where the money tree is growing?

Do we ever get a break?

Well 6 legally they can only charge you what you authorized them to spend, go over the papers you singed, they can not just tell you it's done and this is what you owe unless you singed on the line that says " I do not request an estimate" - Redline (service advisor for a reputable car dealer)

I know a good one !! LOL

Lady calls and says car is loud and dragging something . Me and that other fella drive to her place and I find exhaust hanging . She tells us to fix it. I crawl under vehicle, tie it up , in the rain and drive it back to shop (For Free). Call her with estimate . She agrees and I performed the repaires . Me and that other fella, drive the vehicle back to her (For Free) with a detailed receipt. Made her day! Never had to go anywhere , no towing charges and no hidden costs. She only comes to us now. We even did this for a customer that lives 36 mile away from the dealership. I would say this one went the extra mile.



-Gereau

These losers at my dealership fight me over every warrantee item. I always win and they have to eat it. Takes a little yelling. $28,000 for my jeep, nothing better be going wrong until I pay it off.

Also, order the right parts buddy. How hard is that? You mess it up evry time. "Oh they sent us the wrong part"
Bullcrap.

I'm sure Overheated is a fine service manager.
I would drive to Green Bay, but I would need service by the time I got back.

CAR TROUBLE:

A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the
mechanic it died.

After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly.
She says, "What's the story?"

He replies, "Just crap in the carburetor."
She asks, "How often do I have to do that?"

INCREDIBLE! If it wasn't you saying this I would not believe it! Nicely done!



I must say that there are an aweful lot of private repair shops that are extremely dishonest. It is just soooooo easy to take advantage of people who know nothing about cars.



I don't change my own oil much anymore. I now take it to a Jiffy Lube or something similar. Every single time they try to sell me an air filter when they know it is perfectly good and still looks new! I really feel bad for the ederly and people who don't know, and just pay out extreme amounts of money for nothing.

LOL Capt. Andtennille, I just got that joke in an email a few days ago...lmao. Maybe I should drive to Green Bay to, after talking to Jack last night ... I was suprised to learn quite a bit about how things work. I have to admit, for the longest time I thought the world of this dealership. I even brought several friends to them to buy cars. I have been dealing with them for years and this is the first time that I've ever had this problem. One thing that I would like to know is why this car dealership doubles the price of the parts for the car. Before going else where, I called the parts department and asked them the price for a roter, it was $138.00 each and $80.00 for pads. Dave called NAPA and got the roters for $62.00 each and the pads for $42.00. This makes a savings of over $200.00... taking into account taxes. I guess it would save over $300.00 with Dave doing the work (hopefully he doesn't charge me)....LOL Please don't take offense if you work at a car dealership, I am sure that you can understand why I was not a happy camper. A lot of my friends own dealerships, one of my good friends just lost a dealership last year. I guess hard time have hit Ontario and money is tight.
Gereau, we need more good people like you!!!!

6, to quickly answer your question and not get into pricing martix and other blah blah.... the parts that i and other dealerships sell to the customer are OE. the parts that customers purchase at NAPA are what are refered to as aftermarket. the diference is that factory parts are designed by the manufature in conjucntion with the vendor who supplies them and then those parts are installed on new cars in the factories and sold through the dealer groups. the parts "aftermarket" at NAPA are not from the original factory supplying vendor but made by a company who copies the design and then sells them to the aftermarket companies at a greatly reduced cost due to very little investment in their design.

we have an electronics aftermarket company in our area who will buy as many as 20 of each electrical component from us, dissassemble, investigate it's operation, and then manufacture that part for the aftermarket marketplace. these may or may not be as good as the OE parts. i say not - first hand experience.

the cost paid by the dealerships for the OE parts that we are required to sell to the public often times cost us more then the retail price of the aftermarket parts through NAPA....

i could go on for days on this this topic but won't : ) i will say this though. calendar year 2006 my dealership saw fit to cover the replacement costs of 106 transmissions that had in each case over 100,000 miles that the owners had no reason to expect any assistance at an average cost of 2,500 USD. there are dealerships out there (and perhaps many of them) that have poor customer handling skillz, bad policies, and are just bad places to do business with but, there are others out there that strive to the umteenth degree to satisfy everyone who walks through their door. the rub comes when people generalize that my industry is a bunch of crooks, rip-of artists, and the like. it is NOT so.

peace

jack

Don't get overheated Overheated. We're just venting a bit. LoL!
I have had positive experiences at dealers also. But there's no fun in those stories!

I actually took my Dodge Charger to the dealer I bought the car from yesterday. Told the guy that the parking brake release handle fell off of the cable. (I had to crawl under the dash and use some vice grips to release the brake).
I asked him to put the handle back on. He said I had 39,000 miles and it's past it's 36,000 warrantee. So I left. I wish I lived near Gereau's dealership! Bet he would have fixed me right up, no charge. I won't be buying my next car at that dealer.

I take my words back, it's not all car dealerships... just mine and on one occassion or maybe two. A lot of my friends work or own dealerships... sometimes you just feel you got the short end of the stick as I did yesterday.

The one thing I can say it that dealerships warranty the parts better than anyone else. Any suggestions for a car CD player that reads--> CD error FO. I've googled it and it looks like there have been several G35's that have this problem. Kind of wish I bought a Honda:) I'm thinking a nice S2000 would be sweet!

So guys, to solve your problems with dealerships is easy. Just buy a honda and move to Green Bay.

I've had my share of horror stories with car repairs, that's for sure. But I've also had some great things happen too.

When I drove a really old car back in my lean days, I had this great mechanic who owned/operated A+ Automotive here in Austin. He knew I didn't have much money, so he would jury-rig a broken part to get me back on the road, search junkyards for parts, and even gave me a lift home when I had to drop my car off. As my income improved, I still went to him, and he always gave me great service and prices.

Then I bought a new Saturn. Twice I had to call them to help, and they came right away. They never charged me for warranty parts or work, and gave me a fee rental car when they had to keep the car overnight. I'll definitely be buying my next new car from them.

dont ever and i repeat,dont ever buy a volkswagon! everything on the car will fall off of it except the actual engine.

Hey, with that attitude, you will probably die of old age.

Great news, I got new roters and brake pads for under $200.00. Bought the parts through a private company and installed by Dave and my Dad. Total cost at dealership would have been 640.20 with tax. All it cost me was under $200 for parts and dinner:) Pretty good return I must say!!

well, from my time working in the shop, sometimes the customers are just assholes, little example.
Had a guy come in bitching his car wont start, "all hell is breaking loose", is how he put it. So, i get to work on it, hooking it up to the computer, doing test on it like mad, probably for about 3 days. We'll, to make a funny story short, me and the guys had trouble finding out what the problem was for just about a week. the whole while, this guy would keep calling us every hour, every day, and stop by twice a day to yell at us. For some reason, i just said to my self, "self, this guy is a big dick", so i decided to take a quick look in the gas tank, dropped it down to find so much sugar, i couldn't believe it. I guess i wasn't the only one who thought he was a jerk, and he still didn't like the price, after have to re due all gas lines and injectors, but it was funny.

Everybody just do yourself a favor and Lease (for 2 years) the car of your choice and turn it back in (under warranty) Never, Ever have to worry about whether a repair is covered...

After two years it is someone else's problem... and you get a brand new car to start over with...

*This only applies if you drive low mileage....

I have a list of horror stories a mile long on dealerships..... but I won't bore anyone with the details

i agree,i leased a new vehicle recently and everything including brakes are covered.when this lease is up ill have another new car.

Leasing is great! With only one drawback...it's flat-out the MOST expensive way to operate a vehicle, bar none.

25 bucks more a mnth than the piece of s volkswagon i bought.i think the only draw back is if you go over on your miles. for what i pay ,and its not much ,a girl in my office found a fat mercedes and they shipped it to her ,so i think if you shop around and work them a little it helps.

Hey 6 - I had the same problem with my G35. It popped up randomly and I got around it by selecting the second track on the CD. For some reason, it didn't like the first track. Also, some early G35's had some real problems with excessive wear on the brakes. I think it was because of the traction control system, but the irony was the brakes and rotors would need to be replaced just AFTER the warranty expired.

I used to go to a dealership that was rated #1 in the nation by JD Powers. I had a bad right CV joint and called them to tell them I needed it replaced. They quickly scheduled some time for me and requested I drop the car off. Because they were so quick to get on the problem, they didn't have a loaner available. Kind of a hassle, but I was glad to get the car fixed sooner rather than later. I dropped it off, and caught a ride back home and then returned that evening and was greeted by the service manager who smiled and said, "You were right, it was your CV joint ... we'll have to order the part."

I was dumbfounded that they burned up my time when I had told them precisely what needed to be done. He explained that they get lots of people who "think" they know what is wrong with their car.

I had to schedule another day to drop the car off and I choked at the bill they gave me. Stapled to the bill was a JD Power rating form. I noticed I could submit it through the mail, or I could fill out the form online. I got home, jumped on the computer and was quite surprised when I went to submit my evaluation to discover they wouldn't accept it. My evaluation had already been entered, I learned. A little digging revealed the DEALER had submitted my evaluation and had given themselves a perfect rating.

I called JD Power and spoke with a very nice customer service rep. She affirmed that dealers were not allowed to fill out their own forms and she would launch an investigation.

A short time later, that dealer could no longer advertise that they were highly rated by JD Power. I've since had many bad experiences with that dealer and, even though I love the manufacturer's cars, I'll never buy them again because there isn't another dealer around to service them.

grrrrrrr