For sure, some dealerships (and independents), are better/worse than others. Within an establishment, some employees are more ethical than others. I've often mentioned my friend who owns an indy MB shop, he'll recommend the heck out of repairs that a car should have but he will never, ever lie to a client and tell them that something is urgent when it is not, etc. There is PLENTY of money to be made making legit repairs in the auto repair biz, there are a zillion cars out there and they are all machines that wear out.

2 standard responses from me:

1) Don't do any of that work. If this thing is that unreliable, I'm gonna dump it and buy a brand new - ????? (Name a brand they don't sell)

2) I was a mechanic in college (kinda true) and I'll do that myself....

Not a repair but the one of worst tales I've personally heard of was a large GTA nissan dealer.

My buddy worked for them as a used car salesman and he sold a family a minivan for "full-pop" that means for the full asking price. They paid full-pop because they wanted a no nonsense, A1 condition van.

The next morning he comes in and says "where the Fork is my van?" the manager says it's around back getting it's prep. So he runs around back and they have taken off the 90% tires with mint perfect rims and replaced them with sub 40% tires and f'ed up road rash rims.

He runs back to the manager and says WTF? "Well we're not making enough on it." Buddy is "like WTF you're not making enough??? I got full-pop for it!!"
Manager tells him too F'in bad, suck it up and call the customer for the P/U".

Bud called the customer, told them the truth, then told the manager go fork yourself and quit.

He never worked in car sales again.

To the OP, call local consumer affairs in your state as well as the media, sounds like a good sting to be had there...

They are great at keeping guys like me in business .

It's sad. Lots of uninformed fish in a world of skilled sharks. It's feeding time.

An alternate viewpoint, albeit a rare one: our local Honda dealership is actually quite honest, at least to me. I only take the Odyssey in there for oil changes because we have a 10+ year old book of coupons, and with the $10 or $20 off coupon, I can get an oil change for $50, tax in. I can't do it myself for that price. Occasionally they'll mention something they notice is wrong, but they never quote on it unless I ask, and certainly have never pressured me to get anything done. It's more like a courtesy - "we noticed your brake fluid is low" or whatever. Even when I bought another Odyssey and had them do the safety, I said just do what it needs to pass safety (after reviewing the list) and was pretty happy with that. No pressure to do anything else.

So they're not ALL bad :)

Yep, and what you imagine is probably right. Other than the very few good, honest places, they all do it. Some to a lesser extent than others, and some more maliciously than others. I've seen and heard some horror stories. I am thankful that my dad taught me well and I have an inclination for mechanical work.

They do it to men too. Many of us on the board are mechanically inclined or at least knowledgeable, but many, many men, especially the younger guys who have only ever had modern cars have no clue and are just as clueless as women.

I was in that business for the majority of my professional life.............................too long really. When I started, the business was corrupt then (late 70's / early 80's). As vehicles progressed engineering-wise, technology and consumer demands for longer and more inclusive warranties - prospects for COD repairs and maintenance work, read 'service profitability' declined.

So 'new' ways of of running the service department to sustain and maximize net profit were implemented. The resulting business model today regardless of indie or dealer is everybody whores every one else out. IE: with each other in their own department, other departments and customers.
To quote a famous phrase from the movie Wall Street "Someone's paying, and it's not going to be me"

Also, there is a duality with health care providers where the administrative costs are a large part of the final bill. People who nothing more than push paperwork.

Today's 'system' really leaves most technicians, general service techs and service writers with no choice but to up-sell regardless of risk.

Most dealers offer their "Free 50 point safety inspection" with every service appt. which is essentially their way of trumping up additional "needed" work for "safety" reasons and then also to have the justification for finding these deficiencies in the first place.

When I told a very young group of techs that there were no 'flushing machines' 20 yrs ago..................................they were astonished!

Just say no. Camrys should get 200-300k miles with normal service and normal driving. Upselling uneducated customers is the bread and butter of most types of business.

It's been years since I had to deal with a dealership service call, but I do remember getting the car back, and having a new, undisclosed problem develop on the car (several different times) while under thier care. It's almost if they were intentionally loosening a bolt, or draining a fluid down to give me problems later (which they could take care of at an additional cost to me)......Scoundrels !

I got in the habit of asking for the old replaced parts that came off of my car.....not that they couldn't just hand me a part from a different car, but after awhile, I was questioning whether they were replacing anything, and then charging me.