What does "take it to the dealer" mean for you?

[Rockbadchild]

if I would buy Kioti which I don't know how interested I would be, it's a 20 minute haul but any other brand its a 4h haul so it's not much of a option to simply ''take it to the dealer''...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

$110/hour labor

 

[grsthegreat]

I make $135.00/ hr for generator service work…..sometimes it is not enough

 

[JRH02]

Last year my f350 was stone cold dead due to computer failure. Had a towtruck hauler pull it out and take it to repair facility. My auto insurance company paid me back 100% of tow fee.

I didn't say - we have full coverage. It was covered. But still, $550 tow. I didn't see a bill. Good insurance is just that plus repairs. I didn't pay a dollar. Just call and done.

But the dealer put 1500 miles on the rig. And delayed possession. They gave me a free oil change.

 

[JRH02]

I didn't say - we have full coverage. It was covered. But still, $550 tow. I didn't see a bill. Good insurance is just that plus repairs. I didn't pay a dollar. Just call and done.

But the dealer put 1500 miles on the rig. And delayed possession. They gave me a free oil change.

Ford and the dealer always want input. So I gave it to them. Who sees this stuff? Nobody.

 

[Wagtail]

I haven't had to, yet.

I do know that my Dealership can send a mechanic & ute to me.

 

[hayden]

For me, "take it to the dealer" means trying to figure out the problem, likely post on here for ideas, finally, call them and ask them what it could be; and double, triple, checking everything. Warranty is still in place, but things like damage, fuel, ect; your going to load up, haul 50 minutes, get a hefty bill, and then have to go get it, and it could be a fair bit of time, its not like they are twiddling their thumbs waiting on your repair. So, this idea that a warranty means everything is just taken care of is false.

With that, im glad I do have a warranty for now, but I dont put a ton of faith in it.

I think this is a really good point. For me, the warranty is only useful for catastrophic failures. For anything else, using the warranty has to be weighed against the cost of transport, loss of use of the tractor, risk of the dealer breaking something else, or not actually fixing the problem and having to go through the whole process again. Also discovery that the problem is caused by external damage and is not warrantable.

That said, I am considering getting the warranty extension that includes transportation and/or house calls. I haven't priced it yet, but still have 8-9 months on the original warranty to decide whether to extend it.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I figure the cost of warranty work is wrapped up in the sales price, they expect something will break, but don't know what ... For me I'm headed by there on my way to work, so it's not out of the way for me ... And I'll be back in a few weeks ...

But I do all my regular service work myself and my convenience ...

 

[hayden]

Just dropped my truck off at the dealer this morning. Fuel pressure low indicator, likely a bad sensor. I know what the part is, where it is, and even how to swap it out. But the hours and contortions required debug and then replace the part just aren't in the cards for me right now, hours of available daylight are just too short for me the next week or two. Sometimes it's easier to just take one thing off your plate and off your mind, as much as I prefer doing all my own maintenance.

Another really good point. I really lean towards this now PROVIDED I have someone who I'm confident in to do the work, and who charges a reasonable fee. I'm willing/happy to pay for work well done, and to take something off my plate.

What I don't want is to pay the money for a repair, spend the time doing a drop off and pickup, then find the problem isn't fixed, or they broke something else. In that scenario I end up both spending the money, and spending more time between pickup/dropoff and fixing whatever they broke. That's adding insult to injury.

I have found good plumbers, good electricians, good builders, and good car repair people, and I gladly pay them to do work. I have also found the same where you pay them money to make your life more difficult. We had a couple of cars a while back where the dealer was the source of all the problems we had with those cars, not the cars themselves.

 

[WinterDeere]

Another really good point. I really lean towards this now PROVIDED I have someone who I'm confident in to do the work, and who charges a reasonable fee. I'm willing/happy to pay for work well done, and to take something off my plate.

For the record, I don't have very high confidence in this dealer getting the job done right. Like any shop, they probably have a few really bright and consciencous guys, surrounded by twice as many hacks and slobs. Which character will pull the ticket on your job is a bit of roulette, in most cases.

But I just don't have time to do it myself this week, so I'll take my chances! It's a simple sensor replacement, only complicated by the fact that Dodge changed the connector used on that sensor, so the tech has to cut the harness and splice in a new connector. Hopefully they can handle a few butt splices, but we will see!

The main reason I dropped it off at the dealer was that I had only suspected it was a bad sensor. If I'd torn things apart to the point of confirming that was the issue, and found it was something else, I'd have possibly locked myself into a much bigger job than I have time to tackle right now. So, $520 got it done, and probably saved me most of a Saturday, which I didn't really have to spare, anyway.

If the tech hoses up the splices, I can probably redo that in an hour, now that he's decoded which wire goes where... or more like 5 minutes for the wiring + 55 minutes of tearing apart and re-assembling all of the plastic and duct work on top of the engine, under which they buried that fuel rail sensor.