Dealing with Mr. Monkeywrench--need advice

[kenmac]

Thank you, but although I have such a tool, it did not register one of the 135 DTC's listed in my manual...meaning the car had to go to a repair facility.

Just interested. What scan tool do you have ? The 1 I have (innova) has some of the codes in the manual.The ones that are not in the manua,l I go to their website for the code.I haven't had a code that they didn't have listed on their site.

[Jimbrown]

My experience is just the oposite of what I see here. If I took mine back to the dealer I have no doubt they would fix it at no charge or minimum for perhaps fluids that might have to be replaced.

They replaced two complete rearends on an Avalance that I had after it was out of warranty.

Both the GM and Ford dealers are quite understanding and go out of their way to fix things right.

The Dodge/jeep dealer is not quite as good.

But I never go in ranting and screaming or making threats. I just ask in a reasonable manner for things to fixed in a reasonable amount of time.

I guess it helps that have been buying from the same two dealers for 30 years.

[Diamondpilot]

As said it all comes down to the dealer.

Chris

[sparc]

Basically what I am wondering is just how I am going to know it's not the parts they just replaced UNLESS I am standing right there watching the mechanic work, which is not permitted. So easy for them to tell me "well it's not what we just fixed" when it actually is. GRRR....I hate modern cars, all the stuff crammed into the smallest possible space and you need a $10 grand machine to diagnose any problem. Which is why I love my tractor !!

take some photos now before you take it in and have the date and time stamp turned on so you have proof of when the photo was taken. Most cell phones get their date and time setting from the network so they should be accurate to the minute, use a cellphone camera.

[timswi]

I was a service advisor and a service manager in a few car dealerships and am now a customer and I can honestly say that every dealer I've dealt with around here has gone out of their way to make it right..Give them a chance...Aside from common perception, the chain outfits are far more likely to try to rip you off and back out of a repair than a dealer ever would be...i used to keep parts for the chains only...Stuff we NEVER had to replace unless the car was in a massive wreck..The chains bought those items daily.

As others have said, give them a chance.

[sld]

I have several dealers around me. On the very rare occasion I have them do anything I go to the one several miles outside of town. They aren't picky in the shop and I stand next to my vehicle at all times, usually talking to the mechanic while he works.

I refuse to let a dealer take my vehicle out of sight for any work.

[podagrower]

I'll back deerhunter on this. My wife had the plugs and wires replaced on her Z28, (about $800 because they are inside the motor) and 5,000 miles later, there is a misfire. The plugs and wires were done by the dealership, but we took it to our regular mechanic for the misfire. He traced it down to a bad wire, and said one of the recent connections was done incorrectly...at this point, the car is undrivable, we call the dealership, who sent their service manager to the independent shop, looked at the problem, said "yep, we messed up", and paid our mechanic to fix it. I was floored.

[deerehunter/operator]

Thanks, and that is similar to how we run our shop. If we mess up, we make it right. We have always ran it this way and for that reason our service department is jam packed even when the other shops are slow. We keep our customers by being honest and fair. We dont have customers that are scared to bring their vehicles to us because we are a dealership. They bring them to us because word of mouth has informed them that we dont rip people off and we do good work. Every independent shop and even the local Chrysler dealer in town have us do work for them that they sometimes cant figure out. Trying to tell a guy with a 2004 Saturn that we didnt mess up if we really did wouldnt really be worth the bad publicity in the long run. We would just make it right if it was our mistake. I think his 95% statistic might be slightly skewed because Im pretty sure we arent the only shop that works this way.

[Bird]

I don't think my situation is all that unusual, but I have Fords and all the service except tires, in the last 10 years, has been done by the two Ford dealers in the area. The first dealer uses sales tactics that I don't like and may try to sell you things you don't need. But the work they did was always good. The second dealer, and the one I use all the time now, does it all right. The dealership has been here for more than 50 years, no pressure sales tactics in either the vehicle sales or service department, so I don't worry about my vehicles being out of my sight there. I understand that mechanics, just as any human, can make mistakes, but I'm confident that if they do, they'll correct it.

[JDgreen227]

Tell you guys just why I am so skeptical of repair shop ripoffs, one example: My cousin's daughter had a GM car that always ran hot, she took it to a shop and they told her the water pump was bad and the radiator needed replacing...big bucks. I took a look at it and determined the problem was simply air in the cooling system and all that was needed was to keep bleeding air from the system and replacing the air with coolant. Both water pump and radiator went several more years before she sold the car. And here is a "what if" example...

My 2004 Lesabre was just out of warranty and my wife told me the heater fan was making a terrible noise, she called dealership and they told her the heater fan needed replacing. Well, I took a plastic cover off the firewall area and found this HUGE dry oak leaf stuck in the heater fan blower wheel...how it got there in one piece I have no idea. Removing the leaf cured the issue. Now, had we taken the car to a shop I bet 9 out of 10 places would have removed the leaf and then billed us for replacing the heater fan. There are simply too many ways shops can screw over the customers and get away with it to make me trust them.