Sleazy dealership group

[berettafan]

So my retired mother takes her '06 Camry to the Toyota dealer for an oil change.

This dealership group sells many different brands and is the dominant dealer in our area.

She gets her car back and a story that a lot of work is going to be required. She gets an estimate two pages long totaling $4,500. it included:
replace steering rack
reseal oil leaks in various places
alignment
4 new tires
etc etc

She was a wreck. 'I can't afford to keep this car now!'

150k on the clock driven by an old lady.

I asked if her steering was loose. No.

Asked if she had oil on the garage floor. No.

So forget about what they said.

This is on the heals of my wife being told a timing belt change special advertised by Honda (they also have a Honda dealership) doesn't include tensioners and this would bring the price to almost $900. I show up and question this practice and the service girl gets all pissy. As we were about to leave another service kid shows up and tells her 'we need just an oil change on the blue civic, I tried to upsell but they wouldn't bite' right in front of us.

Friggin scheisters.

Never again will they get $1 of business from anyone in my family. Ever.

[rwest]

Yes, I hate bringing a car in for anything- sitting on 3 recalls on my Toyota Yaris just because I "dread" having to listen to all the stuff that needs to be done on my car.

Thankfully I'm mechanically inclined as well as very distrustful! I can only imagine the amount of money some people spend on repairs because they're guilable.

[widgeon13]

I've had a similar experience with a local Honda dealer, immediately stopped using them. I think they do this to women customers all the time.

[berettafan]

unfortunately for the service rep at the Honda place i'm too old to tolerate BS any more. so I was totally frank about the issue. if you're going to make the decision to operate in a sleazy manner then i'm going to make the decision to not follow the rules of polite interaction with you.

[911boost]

This is exactly why the Indy shops that treat there customers well will always be worth their weight in gold.

Find a good one and stick with them.

My F350 goes to Ford for oil changes only because it has a 100K power train warranty, and if something happens I want to be able to prove that they did all of the oil changes, etc.

All of the other consumables (brakes, tires, etc.) I do myself.

[recycled sixtie]

I just make a point of never going to a dealership anymore unless a warranty claim. The Mazda dealer that sold me my Miata called me a few days later to book an appointment for my next service. I said I just took delivery and it does not need anything. I said I will call if I need an appointment. Loud sigh in the background. Then they phone me a few days later with the same request and I said they have already phoned me.

I will continue to take my cars to local indy shops. I took my wife's 2002 Camry(40 k miles) as the battery was not up to par. Happened to be the alternator needed replacing. The battery was 60 months old(84 month expected life of Toyota battery) and the indy owner replaced the alternator with a rebuilt which has a lifetime warranty. Total price of $400 can or about $300 us for parts and labor .Alternator was $300 can and the rest labor, tax.

On the bottom of the bill there is comment: Jesus answered: "I am the way, the truth and the life....." I trusty my indy owner implicitly. I don't want to pay for the big new fancy buildings of the dealerships. Gotta feel sorry for the women that go in alone to the stealerships....

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by rwest

Yes, I hate bringing a car in for anything- sitting on 3 recalls on my Toyota Yaris just because I "dread" having to listen to all the stuff that needs to be done on my car.

Thankfully I'm mechanically inclined as well as very distrustful! I can only imagine the amount of money some people spend on repairs because they're guilable.

I took my Corolla in for a warranty ecu replacement. While they had it they decided to do an inspection without my authorization. Told me the tensioner on the serp belt was cracked and near failure. I called BS on them and left. Got the car back and they had failed to close the air intake box, lost on screw for that plastic engine cover, and no signs of any cracks on the tensioner!!!

[GH85Carrera]

My MIL is named Bertha. Not a young person's name. That is the name on the title of the car.

I took her car into the Mercedes dealership for a warranty service. They called me after the had the car for a while. They said the front brakes are shot, the struts need to be replaced, the rear end is leaking and several thousand bucks of repairs are really needed to keep the car safe. I told them to finish ONLY the authorized service and none of the things they called about.

I got it home and the brakes still had 80% of the pad, the struts were fine and the car was in perfect shape. She drove it another 50,000 miles on those same brakes. She drives like a little old lady going to church, which is about the perfect description for her.

I was really stunned they dealership tried that. I called the service manager and let him know I was unhappy with his BS. He said they fired that service writer that day. I hope they really did.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Which is why there is no good reason on Earth to take a 10 year old car to the dealership. I have fixed cars myself that were still under warranty because I don't trust them to be honest or do competent work.

[Tervuren]

Indy shops can be just as guilty, I wouldn't lump all dealers together.

Personal changes as well, I used to take my 944 to the dealer, but its a different set of people there, especially corporate side, and they tend to create more trouble than they cause.

An indy shop I used to take my 944 changed owners/managers, never again will go under that ownership. I was trouble free before.

I am somewhat suspicious after taking my 944 to a shop, to find the bolt that holds the clutch fork pivot in place loose. Since I didn't inspect beforehand, I can't say for sure, but that is tightened down with a separate nut to help lock it in place and should not be loose letting the clutch fork pivot rod fall out!

You shouldn't really separate dealer shops from indies. TBH, you should always stand in the bay door and watch if you want good results.

[Oh Haha]

Our Honda dealer is pretty good. They are part of dealers that one family owns and sell every brand except for the exotics.

We had to take the Odyssey in a couple of years ago for the TPMS system needing to be reprogrammed after installing new sensors. I searched the Internet but found no way to DIY this job.
They tried to sell me the 100,000 service for $1000.

I did the belt, w/p,and tensioner for $275 in parts. Sure, it took me 3 days but it's done.

My Mom has a 2013 Chrysler 200 on a lease I tell her to just take it in for service. They treat her very well. Trust me, if they didn't I would hear about it.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My MIL is named Bertha. Not a young person's name. That is the name on the title of the car.

I took her car into the Mercedes dealership for a warranty service. They called me after the had the car for a while. They said the front brakes are shot, the struts need to be replaced, the rear end is leaking and several thousand bucks of repairs are really needed to keep the car safe. I told them to finish ONLY the authorized service and none of the things they called about.

I got it home and the brakes still had 80% of the pad, the struts were fine and the car was in perfect shape. She drove it another 50,000 miles on those same brakes. She drives like a little old lady going to church, which is about the perfect description for her.

I was really stunned they dealership tried that. I called the service manager and let him know I was unhappy with his BS. He said they fired that service writer that day. I hope they really did.

Unfortunately, this is just the business model for luxury car dealerships these days. If they were completely honest and only advised people to do repairs that were actually necessary, they'd go out of business tomorrow with their new $10 million buildings and cappuccino lounges, etc.

I remember being in the service department of Beverly Hills MB back in the '90s when my GF had a new leased S-class. The "advisor" came to the customer lounge and told her that she needed new brake pads and rotors for some outrageous price. I asked if I could see the brakes, of course they had the car on a lift with the wheels off since they were simply getting her approval to do the work?

Well, the guy was clearly appalled that I wanted to see the brakes, clearly this was not SOP at BHMB and of course I was questioning, (or at least verifying), their integrity. He had no choice but to walk me back to the car where at eye level I could see that the rotors were perfect and the pads had 75+% left.

I asked them why they were trying to rip-off an unassuming woman customer, etc. They were squirming like a worm on a fish hook and really had no answer. It was disgusting. This was before the Internet, (at least for me), so there was no way to put them on blast for it, I just started watching their recommendations like a hawk. If I hadn't been there, she would have OK'd the work and they would have done a walletectomy on her for $2k or something.

I know people with new Mercedes or Range Rovers who are so rich that they Just. Don't. Care. Getting ripped-off for a few grand every time they bring their car in is just some luxury tax for being a big shot and driving the expensive POS. For the rest of us, it's an ass-raping.

[Otter74]

I have had very little dealer service department experience since I've largely done my own maintenance since about the mid 90s. I have a Sentra SE-R that I got new that has been outstandingly reliable, but when it was about three years old the transmission started making bearing noises. It was under warranty so I took it in to the dealer that I got the car from. Over most of a year the car made about four separate visits, and they would first replace one set of bearings, no change, then another, no change, then another, until they finally did what would have been prudent to do the first time (if Nissan was smart enough, which they apparently weren't) and replaced the transmission. The bad part was that every time I left it with them, they would screw something else up. E.g. brake backing plate is digging a gouge in the rotor so now I have to take it back and ***** at them to get them to fix that, and ***** more to get them to give me a rental car, etc. That's when I wondered why I wasn't doing my own maintenance, and started doing it. I might f**k something up, but at least I can't blame anyone else for it.

[911SauCy]

So you're saying that the $450 estimate to clean the carbon out of my Altima's clogged throttle body was possibly not a real thing?

My personal experience with dealerships is that the more pedestrian and "reliable" the make, Toyota, Honda, Nissan the bigger scumbags they are. Don't get me wrong, my FIL paid $4200 for a set of tires on his Panamera recently, but these other places seem to be much worse considering the average customer demographic.

A buddy of mine recently sent his wife's Pilot in for an oil change, and received a $3900 estimate of "immediately required repairs". When he called I asked the same Qs the OP did, then told him to be mean and never return

[Rick Lee]

Why does anyone ever go to a stealer for a non-warranty or recall repair?

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by speeder

Unfortunately, this is just the business model for luxury car dealerships these days. If they were completely honest and only advised people to do repairs that were actually necessary, they'd go out of business tomorrow with their new $10 million buildings and cappuccino lounges, etc.

This pretty much sums it up. This is the business model for most all dealerships nowadays...not just the luxury brands. The service departments are what keeps dealerships afloat. They really don't make all that much selling new cars.

[Mark Henry]

Sounds like the local VW dealership.

My buddy is the local VW indy and he has taken at least 75+% of their service business.
He charges less per hour, figures out all the sneaks to beat the book rate and has a source that gets him the new factory special tools just as fast as the dealer. He has a large market sewn up.
His customers love him and although he gets a lot dirtier, I bet he makes close to many MD's on this board.
He does a timing belt in 2.5 hours, I think that includes the water pump. Book is twice that.

He love's VW's, but he doesn't drive one.

[GH85Carrera]

Some dealerships are intelligent enough to not try to screw a good customer. My wife drives an 2008 Infinity, G35X. She bought it new at the local dealer. She takes it back to them for the oil changes because they do the oil change and wash the car in 30 or 40 minutes and and it is not much more than the cost of the filter and oil would cost me. Since 2008 she has had to replace two batteries one set of tires and the windshield wipers. They have never tried the total BS service bit on her. She would tell em to take a hike anyway.

The do the complete inspection on every visit and they said the brakes are down to 55% and everything else is fine. She loves the car and so do I since I don't have to work on it.

[Arizona_928]

My local vw service writer is a total tool. Talking timing belts, and how the gti has a thicker cam belt vs the tdi. Just a total tool. Can't even tell me the correct recommended mileage change interval. ****er even gave me a quote without even looking it up. "Yeahhhh it's going be like 1300 plus tax and disposal"

[intakexhaust]

Thread has good timing.

Senior widowed neighbor had an accident, totaling her Toyota. She goes to a Cheby dealer (large establishment and longtime involved with community affairs, PR b.s.) and buys a year old whatever generic model.

Admit the lady is not visually observant or aware of some things but the salesman tells her the car is perfect and in excellent condition. It was the evening and she decides on the car, a family member then follows her home but notices crunch marks and paint damage in the rear bumper. Further inspection showed many deep scratches on the trunk lid. Anyways, the dealer later acknowledged and did the necessary repairs. Quite apparent though the sleazy salesman knew of it and just wanted to jam the lady in the car and let it roll.