Newbies: Do not go to the dealer!

I love the exchange with the VW 'expert'.

It reminds me of a training session I had for a Hunter Safety Instructor class. There were over 100 people in the room and the instructor told everyone to stand up and orient themselves to an azimuth of 75°, so the class did...all but one old guy, who then started berating the rest of the class for being wrong and said they needed to do it correctly, like he was (he was the one that was wrong).

He still passed and is teaching today.

79_Limited said:

Had my car towed to the dealer because it would not start. They said it needed a new injection pump and would replace for $2,200.

I called my guru who is 1 1/2 hours away. He said it was just the seals which is very common. I asked the dealer to replace the seals but they refused.

I told the dealer no thanks and had towed to my guru who fixed it for $200.

It never hurts to get a 2nd opinion.

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The wagon I bought had the IP replaced by a stealership, cost her $2K and it was just leaking. They also gave her an estimate of $1,600 to replace the ECU for a "memory module error", which was just the little hose inside the ECU. Thankfully she declined.

All 8 fault codes that were present when I bought the car were a result of the dealer or certified garage doing improper work, and all were pretty simple fixes.

Asseyes said:

I called the local dealer to order the parts for a trans fluid change on my 02 Jetta automatic. Just for kicks I asked what they charge for the fluid change and they were INSISTENT....let me repeat that, INSISTENT that the trans is a sealed unit and they don't change the fluid. I was stunned. Needless to say my that was my first and last experience with a dealership.

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I went to the local one to get some G070 transmission fluid and they had to order it. I asked why they didn't stock it, and the parts manager said they just use bulk gear oil (non-synthetic) from a 55 gallon drum. I then asked if it was GL-4 and he said it was GL-5, but that was OK to use in all VW transmissions. I then asked if they'd warranty mine if it failed from GL-5 use when VW specifically stated to use GL-4 and he said 'of course not'.

My final exchange:

I honestly wish every customer that went on forums and becomes a hypercondriac about there car would never come back to the dealer. Thats good news you'd go to a "GURU", I feel bad for any tech that would have to work on your car. With that said I wish you the best of luck and pray you and everyone like you never set foot in a dealership service department again. And please no more responses. Will you lave me alone now please.

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Yep. With this is the genius that is working on your car.

English as a second language?

Actually, there are a lot of Bosnians working at dealers in the STL area. Not sure if that is a trend in other cities though. They usually speak good English, though.

Foreigners usually don't screw up homonyms in my experience because to them they aren't the same.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

darkscout said:

Newbies, do not go to the dealer.

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I never have, and not because I am tight, but because I like things done my way...100%, and I sleep a lot better knowing so. Maybe that is why all of my vehicles runs so well for as long as they do.

Interesting thread, been using dealership for my 10k, 20k, & 30k maintenance. Found this thread, I've considered myself warned.

Nothing wrong with a little diligence, and remember the old adage: "trust, but verify".

Here is another tidbit of advice. If you ask a guru for advice, follow it. I asked Oilhammer awhile back whether to buy an aftermarket part or an OEM. I went with OEM, because when I fix pcs for folks on the side and when they fail to follow my advice, they get to pay again. Pay for it once, do it right, or not at all is the way I look at this. Don't get cheap on parts. Buy good parts and have a guru install them if you don't have the inert ability.

ymz said:

Many do... it's just that these cars seem to be less forgiving to shortcut-taking, and the realities of dealership work almost force the dealership techs to cut corners... (We've heard of too many instances of dealerships changing only the timing belt and tensioner (and occasionally not even the tensioner) instead of also replacing the idlers and water pump... They also routinely neglect to replace bolts that their own guide books list as "Always Replace", and so forth... (just for fun, phone the parts department at your friendly local VW dealership and ask if they have p/n N 102 096 03 or N 905 969 02 in stock...)

Yuri

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I actually have story to relate about replacing all of the parts.

We had a Phaeton V8 come in for a timing belt job. The customer had his arguments over price and our service manager at the time was proud of himself that he managed to get the job. What I later found out was he sold the job as a belt only job. And we quickly found out why the price originally quoted was so high. To make matters worse, the customer was explicit in his wanting the "out the door" price with no add ones or "we found your xxx needs to replaced as well".

So long story short - the manager and I got into a screaming match in the middle of the shop. I still work there, he was fired a few months later.

The common theme is we (the dealer) are not competitive on price and have to discount or cut content out of the service. It is common for customers to bring in quotes for hundreds less from independent shops, to later find they quoted he cheapest Autozone parts and/or only belt and tensioner. But we have to match them and still get the job done right.

The first thing cut is the bolts. I fight for it, but sometimes we have to cut one or more of the rollers as well. I try to do the job right, but still need to keep my job to pay bills. I'm sure a lot of other dealer techs end up in the same squeeze. I believe oil hammer ended up with his own business for these reasons?

There are few of us there trying to do it right. Please give us a chance.

Jason

I'm friendly with dealers. Typically, most owners go elsewhere for service after warranty expires. I just buy parts at BMW/VW that aren't available elsewhere.

My Mercedes dealer gives me new car to drive when they service my MB - rarely fixed 1st/2nd, even a third time (warranty - high price repairs, costs me zero except aggravation)

My opinion - Dealers are great, because without them, we wouldn't have cars !!
Remember - they are the original PO.

Like a lot of things, service is often poor and getting worse !!

leicaman said:

Pay for it once, do it right, or not at all is the way I look at this.

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On another forum, one of the shop owners said that he never replaces the transmission input shaft seal when doing a clutch job unless it is leaking...and they rarely leak.

I fail to understand why a shop owner would not replace a $20 seal when the labor involved to drop the engine/transmission for the clutch job is many times that.

Now you know why nobody touches my vehicles.

I buy some parts at the local dealer and am on a first name basis with the parts manager.

That being said, I'd NEVER have work done there because THEY'RE IDIOTS. They use the wrong oil, replace just the belt after a TB failure, and charge insane prices and then cut corners ($900 for a 1Z TB job and they didn't replace the tensioner?!?).

No, not all dealers are bad, and I used to take my Isuzu to one, until the mechanic I used left and those remaining weren't worth seeing. But the local VW dealership to me is really, really bad.

If someone goes to a good dealership, keep going there. They're out there, you just have to find them.

Abacus said:

But the local VW dealership to me is really, really bad.

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And that is what gives any manufacturer a bad name. Of course, it is also in the manufacturer's best interest to have shops work to a high standard. And if they don't maintain a high standard, do you think the manufacturer will pull their dealership? Not likely.