Top 10 Ways You're Overcharged for Service
03-13-2010, 10:24 AM
#11
JK Super Freak
I guess i am fortunate, my dealer treats me very fairly and the service dept does what I ask them to do. My oil changes are no more expensive than aftermarket shops. For the most part their parts are not over priced and they have never tried to sell me something i don't want.
For all you folks who just complain about your dealer experience, try going to a small town dealer, they can't afford to screw you like in the city where they could'nt care less.
For all you folks who just complain about your dealer experience, try going to a small town dealer, they can't afford to screw you like in the city where they could'nt care less.
03-13-2010, 10:46 AM
#12
JK Freak
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Suffolk, VA
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These service writers get paid on commission! Once I learned that I knew I was getting fucked! My wife has a Chevy Traverse and it came with free oil and rotation..first time in he offered a service upgrade which I confused with manufacturers service...big mistakes! I ended up paying for a service that when reading the fine print was totally worthless! Then my friend tells me she is commissioned as a service writer! Plus we have bumper to bumper on that car to 100k miles...what the hell do I care if it breaks!?
03-13-2010, 12:48 PM
#14
JK Enthusiast
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: EVINGTON, VA
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Stepson went to get his car inspected and his third brake light was out and they charged him 10 bucks to put one in. LMAO 
Told him that I guess you will learn how to do some stuff to you car now HUH. Like check and replace a bulb. He said that he thought he needed it to get his inspection. Told him that he does but they can give you a reject sticker with what is wrong with it and you fix the prob. come back and they give you a inspection sticker no extra costs. HE said 
.
Told him that I guess you will learn how to do some stuff to you car now HUH. Like check and replace a bulb. He said that he thought he needed it to get his inspection. Told him that he does but they can give you a reject sticker with what is wrong with it and you fix the prob. come back and they give you a inspection sticker no extra costs. HE said .
03-17-2010, 07:59 PM
#15
JK Super Freak
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SCV, Ca
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Had the dealer tell me I had 2mm left on my rear brake pads. They wanted $300.00 to replace the pads, so I went to Pep Boys, got some pads and went home to change the pads. When I took off the wheel, I saw over 50% of my pad was still there. that was about 30 thousand miles ago. I do not trust the dealer for anything.
03-17-2010, 10:07 PM
#16
JK Junkie
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: San Diego
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The other day I was at the dealership taking care of the transmission recall. A few days earlier i noticed that that one of plug in (cigarette lighter) was not working. Asked them to take a look at it and they actually pulled me aside. They said fuzes were not covered after 12K miles and it cost me $50 to have it done. A trip to autozone and $1.80 on a fuze and I am good to go. I was actually surprised they didn't check and then change me.
03-17-2010, 10:19 PM
#17
JK Junkie
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Tooele (two-willa), Utah
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I loved it when the tech approached me and my wife during an oil change to show me my air filter with a leaf stuck to it... he said it needed to be replaced.
I wanted to blow the leaf off the filter and tell to put it back in, but my wife said, "Just fix it." The filter was a little dirty... but I didn't think it needed to be replaced just yet... but she's in charge, so it got replaced, I think it was like $22 bucks.
You might think I'm whipped... but it's actually my plan to show her that a K&N drop in would be a better investment because it doesn't ever have to be replaced, only cleaned off and reoiled like every 100,000 miles or so. Pays for itself after the second paper filter.
The dealership wants to do the 30,000 mile lube everything service... but at $500 bucks I told them to stuff it. More people would probably do it if they didn't charge so much... maybe they're hoping for more rich people that don't know any better?
I wanted to blow the leaf off the filter and tell to put it back in, but my wife said, "Just fix it." The filter was a little dirty... but I didn't think it needed to be replaced just yet... but she's in charge, so it got replaced, I think it was like $22 bucks.
You might think I'm whipped... but it's actually my plan to show her that a K&N drop in would be a better investment because it doesn't ever have to be replaced, only cleaned off and reoiled like every 100,000 miles or so. Pays for itself after the second paper filter.
The dealership wants to do the 30,000 mile lube everything service... but at $500 bucks I told them to stuff it. More people would probably do it if they didn't charge so much... maybe they're hoping for more rich people that don't know any better?
04-04-2010, 05:45 PM
#19
JK Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Irvine, CA
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Have to respectfully disagree with you. The OC area is full of tons of cheating mechanics that I have caught "lying" many times. In the old days I used to work on cars all the time, but just don't have the time now and outsource it. In the last two years I have caught five different mechanics trying to scam me and have called them on it.
Lol, so many of those are such bs and never happen. This isn't the 1980's anymore. I could go into detail on how many of those things never happen in my shop if you guys would care. Thats more of side shop, "Just Brakes" "Pep Boys" "Midas" bs....
And do not ever buy parts somewhere else and have someone put them on. Why? Because they will give you NO WARRANTY on the part. So if your pep boys starter is $100 cheaper and they put it in, it takes a crap in a month...you're out labor again...
Every car gets a quickie inspection, why? For problems. If there is a common problem on a car, a tech can fix it fast (done it a bunch of times), they usually have the part, and it's easy money. Because thats the business we are in, the making money business. Just as you go to work to do....I'm sure of it...
-BMW Dealership Tech
And do not ever buy parts somewhere else and have someone put them on. Why? Because they will give you NO WARRANTY on the part. So if your pep boys starter is $100 cheaper and they put it in, it takes a crap in a month...you're out labor again...
Every car gets a quickie inspection, why? For problems. If there is a common problem on a car, a tech can fix it fast (done it a bunch of times), they usually have the part, and it's easy money. Because thats the business we are in, the making money business. Just as you go to work to do....I'm sure of it...
-BMW Dealership Tech
Last edited by gregkuiper; 04-07-2010 at 01:35 PM.
06-29-2010, 10:47 AM
#20
JK Freak
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Charlotte, NC
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There are good mechanic shops out there. I'v always met good mechanics at church or through family members reccomendation.
A fine example of a good shop is Geman Imports in Concord, NC. My brother owned an Audi for awhile (until he sold it... it was always breaking down) and we took it there for most of the work we needed. Me and my brother were wanting to learn about cars so we could do stuff ourselves and they actually let us back into the shop to shadow them as they did work on his Audi and other vehicles.
A fine example of a good shop is Geman Imports in Concord, NC. My brother owned an Audi for awhile (until he sold it... it was always breaking down) and we took it there for most of the work we needed. Me and my brother were wanting to learn about cars so we could do stuff ourselves and they actually let us back into the shop to shadow them as they did work on his Audi and other vehicles.