Why do they call them stealerships

That actually isn't that bad...

When you consider they also likely washed your car, (possibly provided a loaner car if you decided not to wait), and I am making an assumption here... but its probably more than just poor some in the tank. There is probably also a bull**** procedure the technician has to do in order tell the tank that it is full again, or get another reading. Plus they had to turn the blutec light off or whatever.... 60 bucks was probably just charging a half hour.

If it makes you feel any better, I bet the technician probably got paid no more than 15 dollars to go find your repair order, then get the keys, then go out and find your car in a sea of other mercedes, drive it in to the shop. Then he had to make sure that that was all that was wrong with your car. Then he had to wait in line at his parts counter for his blue tec juice. Crack open the bottle grab a funnel, hopefully not spill it. Throw the bottle away clean his funnel in an environmentally safe way. Then go through some silly procedure to reset the system or light, HOPEFULLY it resets the first time and sometimes its the 5 time. Then go bring the car to the car wash and leave it there. Return to the office to get the next repair order. Meanwhile the car wash guy does his thing, wipes it down, reparks it etc...

Then the customer shows up, complains about the wash job, says their sunglasses were stolen (they weren't) and that dent was there before is now blamed on the dealership. Then the poor service writer has to beg for mercy try to make you happy, still get you to pay your bill and then continue to beg for a perfect score on his survey, because on a 1-10 scale only 10 is a 100% and 9 is a 50%, the survey is so long that often customers start out playing the game of giving perfect scores but then by the end the customer doesn't give a crap anymore and think... you know what... a 9 won't kill him (which in fact it will) If his average for the month is less than 97% he will get fired.

So... 60 bucks isn't bad.


I totally got banged by my Land Rover dealer on a damn oil service. Wife brought the truck in. she calls me and asks... almost 700 for an oil change seems like a lot. I said did you pay it... YUP on my way home... Called the service manager went over the bill. They did a 40k service on an 18k mile truck.... Politely told the service manager that the employee practically robbed my wife and the employee should be disciplined and all of his clients records should be looked over for the same highway robbery. Informed the dealer that I was giving him the opportunity to make it right. He can either make it right, or I can do the dumb ass thing of posting on yelp, google reviews, BBB, dealer rater etc... about how horrible the store was and that they would be sure that I would destroy the CSI survey. In the end the manager apologized and made it right.

Dealers can screw you... but often times its the lower level guys that get it wrong. If you voice your objection to management in a polite and constructive manor, often times your issues do get resolved appropriately

 

BMW dealer here quoted me $600 to change the plastic coolant reservoir. I said no- found another dealer who sold the factory tank for $60 and it took ten minutes to change it.
I mentioned this to the service advisor when she later pressed me about fixing it and her response was "Oh"

 

Maybe I've just had bad luck but over the years, but I've never taken a car to a dealership for service on a particular issue without picking it up to find additional items now broken and in need of return to the shop. I swore off of dealership servicing long ago.

When I got my 599 last year, I immediately went looking for an independent shop that works on Ferrari. I quickly found that late model F-Cars require the SD3 for proper diagnosis on certain items and that not many independent shops have this equipment. I had pretty much resigned myself to use the dealers for servicing my car until one incident set me on the path to finding a local independent that had the proper equipment and experience to work on 599s.

That incident was a quote from a Ferrari dealership, to replace the running light bulb on the passenger side headlight. Mind you, this is the long strip light on the side of the headlight assembly. I was promptly informed that there is no replacement for that bulb and that the entire headlight assembly must be replaced at $3,800 + labor!!

A little checking here on F-Chat revealed that those little bulbs burn out on a regular basis and that they can be purchased on Ebay for about $4 each ... and easily replaced by the least handy individual in about 10 minutes! I've replaced two of them now after a year, one on each side, all at a cost of $8 and my own labor, not the $7,600 + labor the dealership would have charged!!!

Thankfully, I found Norwood Auto Italia in North Dallas as a result of a bit more research here on F-Chat.

 

We have a winner. 100000% markup.

 

If your car is out of warranty, seek out an independent shop that specializes in your brand. You'll be way ahead in $ and satisfaction. Under warranty, stay with the dealer in case something goes wrong. That way they can't deny your claim because you took it someplace other than an authorized dealer.

 

Got screwed by Northside Lexus. My wife complained that the LS 460L needs new front tires, again.

So here's the scam:

LS460L needed brand new front tires at 10k miles. They charged me for 4 wheel alignment ($200) two new Michelin tires ($1200) and balance and rotation ($100).

They asked for the same thing at 20k miles. I said no. Took the Lexus to my race shop. New front tires were showing cord on the inside. Rear tires were like new.

Race shop put front two Michelins on ($650). Alignment ($75). 4wheel adjustment isn't possible on the car. Only the front toe is adjustable. Race shop found out about the TSB for special part ($250) to bring front camber back to spec. Oh yeah, tires come with 50,000 mile warranty AND a $70 gift card.

Absolutely LIVID, I went to see the service manager. Being a rather large individual with a somewhat violent background, I'm quite comfortable confronting others with issues. I got my special parts for free.

While waiting in the customer lounge, I could overhear the employees in the service center calling back customers. In the 20 minutes I was there I heard them say it 3 different times; "you need two new front tires, a 4 wheel alignment, and rotation."

So they charge you for alignment they never do.
They charge you for balance and rotation they never do.
They charge you full retail for tires they get for free (from the warranty).
AND they keep the $70 gift card, too!

I bought my wife a 2014 Porsche Panamera 4S Executive.

 

Friend went in to trade a Boxster on a new Mercedes. They took the car for a test drive and said: the car needs a new clutch. Friend presented a copy of the receipt showing a new clutch was put in at the Porsche dealer 3 months ago.

Ended up trading it in on a new Infiniti.

And everyone in the Ferrari and Porsche clubs have heard the story.

Be careful out there.

 

Why do they call them "stealerships...?"

I had a rattle (well known issue) in the front end of a 2012 GMC Acadia Denali. Dealer quoted $1100.00 to R/R failed struts and stabilizer link bars.

Parts were $250 for struts and $80 for link bars at autozone

1 hr of online research
2 hrs in the garage
Only used the $80 link bars
Problem fixed

I get that not everyone wants to/can turn a wrench but I've got no clue why anyone would bring any make to Dealer for anything outside of fully covered warranty.

 

In fact a lot is indeed made "complicated" on purpose by way of engineering design. E.g. years ago my wife had an Audi A2. The manual said for any bulb exchange (nothing special, just "normal" bulbs): "go to service station" Why?

For a front light bulb you first need to remove the engine hood. Then you need to remove the whole headlight unit, wherein the screws used are a very special Allen variant. Then you can replace the bulb and everything goes vice versa.

This is the good one. Because in the front lights you can use normal bulbs obtainable everywhere. Not so in the rear unit. Apparently usual bayonet bulbs, but alas, the two protrusions not at 180° angle, but 120°. Since this always happens on weekends , I carefully filed away one protrusion on a new bulb and fitted the bulb. Does the job just as well.

Or the current SLK of my wife. Car was brought to the dealer for service and "TÜV" (technical control). TÜV allegedly failed due to a worn suspension bushing. These were exchanged for 800,--. I told my wife to request the old ones. Surprise, the old bushings looked grubby, but were technically completely fine (actually very good condition, optically and under load). The grubby look was the result of design. The rubber was not only between the steel bushes, but a thin layer pulled over (technically non-functional) regions as well. These rubber regions naturally peeled of with time, of course without negatively imparting the actual technical function. But the looks: "oh my God, this is not far from completely disintegrating" . This is the last time they saw my wife. She surely will not buy a new car there, when the time comes. But doesnt matter, presumably, since there are enough people without the knowledge to uncover fraud. And things like this are nothing else than fraud.

 

Bought a Tesla for my wife with the full service concierge package. Anything goes wrong or even causes a concern, and they send a service rep to our house or roadside to pick up and service the car, return it serviced and clean, with a loaner in between. No charge for any regular service or warranty issues. Best of all, they can diagnose certain issues from remote and have logs of everything that happens with the car. For example, when my wife first drove the car, she inadvertently knocked the gearshift stalk out of gear and the car coasted to a stop. She called service, they logged into the car, and told her exactly what she had done within minutes. Magical. Best automobile manufacturer and service we have ever experienced.

 

Years ago I was quoted 1-2 hours to install a serpentine belt at a Stealership.

Took it to an Indie who did it in about 1 minute, and asked me if $10 would suffice. I gave him $20

 

agreed.

I just hope he can continue that level of service when they are selling millions of cars... For the BMWs Audis Mercedes of the world.... They could probably handle 33k clients pretty well.

I do see your point though Ferrari and Rolls etc... don't have that level of service and they build less cars.

He is absolutely changing the industry and its absolutely for the better. I really hope they can keep it up! It would be a great American triumph for sure.

Sadly, I wish he did it with an amazing gasoline engine... But thats another story and another thread all together!

 

Thats diesel exhaust fluid, thank the government for that. Don't run out of the stuff, if you do the vehicle shuts down to 5mph. It is a real pain in the A** to put in but it still sounds like they were taking full advantage.

 

I'd never heard of this stuff, so I looked it up. Apparently it's 67.5% deionized water and 32.5%... um... piss? Am I reading this wrong? Is this some kind of elaborate joke?

Diesel exhaust fluid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

No, it's chemistry.

 

My daytime running light on the driver side burned out and the dealership quoted me 4 hours labour plus parts to the tune of $800 to fix it. I haven't taken it in yet but when I asked why it's so expensive to replace a lightbulb they told me they need to remove a lot of stuff to get to it.

 

Land Rover tried to pull similar crap on me once. I took my old Freelander (LR2) in for a minor check up because my brother roughed it up a bit trying to go off road. They called me a few hours later and told me there were a couple of parts slightly damaged on the underside of the car and they recommended replacing them. I asked how much it would cost and the guy said he didn't expect it to be too much so I told him to go ahead.

When I went back the next day and got the final bill the parts cost alone was around $2000. I flipped out because that clearly wasn't a small amount for a couple of small parts like the guy said over the phone. I demanded to see the full parts list and went through everything one by one. There was one very expensive part that stood out from the rest and upon asking I was told that this was part of the "hill descent" module of the truck and had to be replaced because it was severely damaged. I asked if he was sure that it was replaced and he said he was 100% sure and even went out back and brought out the damaged part to show me what they had replaced.

Imagine his surprise when I reminded him that Hill Descent was not offered on my model year truck but was only made available a couple of years later after the facelift. Needless to say that I didn't pay anything that day and that I got 3-4 apology calls from various people including the service department manager, showroom manager and country brand manager for Land Rover.

 

+1

 

I also use Norwood and have been really happy with them. For performance cars, I prefer to have a shop that is filled with car enthusiasts that have actually worked on and driven the cars for decades. They know more than the average car guy.

 

The only times in the last 25 years that I have used dealers are for new car warranty work. I even came in with the diagnosis. The other times were for recall work.

Other than those, my garage services all makes and all years of my vehicles, and a few of my neighbor vehicles.

 

That is an idea they try very hard to perpetuate. It is important to some but it is not universal by any means. Typically the more knowledgeable a buyer, the less it matters.

 

Depends on the dealership. My local mercedes dealer has redefined the term useless several times over. Not only expesive but incopmpetant work more than once, but yeah they have a tiled floor and a cappuchino machine so the wives feel comfortable. These clowns can even blance tires.
Frankly I would nto buy a 3rd mercedesd ever after the experiences.

By contrast my chevy dealer is fnatastic, they do everythign properly and fast, no hassles and cost wise it feels almost for free.

Now if I am buyign tires or other bits go tot a tire shop.

Over at Ferrari land I have found Shelton and Wide world to be pretty much a incompetant and bad as mercedes. Maybe they can plug in and chage parts on new cars, but I wouldnt even count on it.

By contrast Millers in Ct has taken care of my BBi for the past few years after about a decade at Indies. Its all a function of who works on your car. At Millers there is one guy who does old stuff, and he does it porpely, the car comes back running as it should, clkean and any unforseens attnded to. At indies there were always reasons and excuses, delays and the need to return, not to netion haslsles of gettign there. In this case the dealer costs double but when you factor in done right the first time its probably only a 50% premium, add in lack of agravation and its a plus.

Course if I were doign major work, like suspesion rebuilds eo etcthen I woudl just send the car to newman in Canada, doing suff right takes time and an outlook.

 

BMW tops off the tank for no cost as part of the normal services, at least while under warranty.

When done with warranty - Wal-mart sells the stuff for about 5 bucks a gallon.

Sid


P.S - don't run it dry or near dry. I've read where MB vehicles will shut-down and require a tow if the diesel stuff gets too low.

 

actually, doesn't seem that steep.
their cost is likely $60 (as opposed to your cost of $80)

so the remaining $80 covers:
labor (more than you'd think) and various costs assoc with labor (payroll taxes, workers comp). It's not just simply open bottle and pour.
utilities
insurance
rent
misc costs (surprisingly there still are other costs)
leaving likely $20-30 for profit. Not outrageous by most measures.