Why does it take 3 hours to get an alignment and oil change?

[RollingsFarms]

Hate taking my truck to the dealership but with these "free maintenance" services it's almost money wasted if you don't. It took these morons over 3 hours to do an oil change and a tire rotation and alignment. THREE HOURS. It didn't take that long to build the **** truck on the assembly line I bet. Most dealers won't even give you a car/truck to drive anymore, they all have this stupid shuttle thing where they will take you anywhere you want to go. If it weren't for these free oil changed and such the dealership would never see me. I think these people sit around and think of ways to piss us off.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

It gives you plenty of time to browse the lot! Hehe. In actuality I think they over book the mechanics and a little hiccup throws things off. What time of day did you go in? First thing or late afternoon?

 

[RollingsFarms]

It gives you plenty of time to browse the lot! Hehe. In actuality I think they over book the mechanics and a little hiccup throws things off. What time of day did you go in? First thing or late afternoon?

I've been the first one there (along with 10 other people that were told to be there first thing in the morning) and I've gone right after lunch when the bay had hardly any cars in it and it still takes forever. My truck was taken to the back right as I got there and just sat on the lift for a good 2 hours(I walked past the shop cause I'm nosey like that). Other garages don't seem to get behind like that. And I noticed that not a single car there for service was a newer car and a lot of them weren't even GM vehicles!

 

[George2615]

Apparently their mechanics are paid by the hour rather than by the job flat rate.

 

[Fossil Farm]

Being "free" with vehicle purchase, you just keep getting bumped by a paying vehicle that comes in at that dealership. I doubt that the most skilled mechanics are doing the "free" maintenance checks either. Be sure all the lug nuts are on before driving off the lot. Trying to get you to just pay for the service if they drag out the service long enough.

 

[nybirdman]

You just have a poorly run dealership;we have two new GM vehicles with free two year service.Ours are done in short order.

 

[Will_C]

I thought an hour was ridiculous for the free service on my Toyotas! When you factor in the 30 minute drive each way, it drives me crazy to think that a service that I could do on my garage in 30-45 Mounties takes up 2+ hours of time.

Will

 

[RollingsFarms]

You just have a poorly run dealership;we have two new GM vehicles with free two year service.Ours are done in short order.

It's not just this GM dealership, the other one is just as slow. You literally waste your entire day on this stuff.

 

[ModMech]

Three hours!

I changed oil, inner and outer tire rod ends and aligned our '04 Grand Marquis last Saturday in two, on the driveway without a lift! BTW, I "charge" $100/hr plus parts and you could not have had that done at a dealer for under $600 and half of a day of waiting, no way.

There are a TON of excellent dealers out there and even more terrific techs, but it is by no means universal, many simply don't care.

Remember, if the repair shop is charging you 3 hours to do a job and the car is done in two, people are going to be REALLY MAD! It is a delicate balance between efficiency and overcharging by using a flat rate type system. Hourly techs are not bad, you are more likely to not have a problem after the repair because no one is rushing. There are more "quality" hourly techs than those that work flat rate, but there is no way to know in advance if the person working on your vehicle cares about quality or dollars in their pocket, except by prior experience.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Most if not all mechanic shops will charge by the book for hours required to do a repair. They may take longer to do the job but should only charge what the book rate is. Dealerships get paid for warranty work based on the book rate for optimum conditions and rarely can do the work in the allotted time frame so they loose money of warranty work even if they get reimbursed by the corporation.

By the way, there is no such thing as a free lunch, or free maintenance, on a new car. The cost is rolled into the purchase price.