Best and Worst Dealership Stories

[rpn453]

Mike,
I haven't had much experience with the service department. I've only had my Mazda3 in for a recall relating to some airbag component. It was just a 15 minute check for possible cracks in a sensor housing. The only other problem I've had was squealy brakes, which I heard there may be a TSB for but they claimed it was normal and I didn't argue (the VIN range I saw didn't match mine); so I figured it was easier to put some $5 anti-squeal compound on the back of the pads myself. So, I can't really say too much about their service department.

 

[brianl703]

(This car is under warranty, by the way).

Bad dealer: Radley Chevrolet in Fredericksburg, VA tried to sell my mom a brake job and a throttle body cleaning. She took it in for a noise coming from the driver's side strut mount. They blamed the noise on the brake pads being worn.

Based on the drips of lubricant I saw on the rubber pieces of the front suspension, their half-wit mechanic sprayed everything and when that didn't fix the problem, either he or the service advisor decided to blame it on the brakes.

I asked on http://www.flatratetech.com and someone gave me a TSB title, I looked it up at the library, printed it out, and took the car to the...

Good dealer: Jim McKay Chevrolet in Fairfax, VA. The service advisor took the TSB from me, actually stapled it to the repair order, and they fixed not just the side that I heard making noise but BOTH sides (they said the other side was also starting to make noise) in less than 2 hours. I got there at 7:30am on a Friday and I was out of there before 9:30am.

I'm still trying to figure out why the idiot at Radley didn't look up the TSB. My guess is that you have to be literate to do that. The car was purchased at Jim McKay, but from what I hear, Radley doesn't treat people who buy cars from them any better.

The TSB, by the way, just stated to replace the spring seats but they also replaced the strut mounts too.

 

[racer12306]

i bought my neon from a dealer group (advantage autoland) that consists of three dealerships. they are all owned by the same person/family. they have a dodge dealer, chrysler dealer and ford dealer.

Dodge Dealer
i had been having the car pull a little. i had a little more than 12000 miles on my neon (suspension warrenty is 12000 miles). i said that it had a little more than 12000 miles on it but the service manager put it in the computer as 119xx so that they could look at it under warrenty. they looked at it and couldnt find anything wrong. i let that go, figuring that i was being too picky about it. the car was 1000lbs lighter than my last car and i was still getting used to it. i was there for about a half an hour or so.

Chrysler Dealer
i had noticed i had an axle seal leak on my manual transmission, the car had 13000 miles on it. i was about to put amsoil in the trans and i wanted the leak fixed so i wouldnt waste about $40. i called the dealer on a sat (the dodge and chrysler dealer service dept rotated sats open), it was the chrysler dealers turn to be open that sat. i told them the situation and they said bring it in first thing mon morn. i did that. they said it is a simple fix and the car would be ready tues afternoon. i called tues afternoon, car isnt done, they had to special order an axle seal. they said it would be done wed and they would call me when it was done. never got a call on wed so i called the dealer at about 4p and they didnt get the car done. said it would be done thurs and they would call me. they called me at about noon on thurs saying the car was done. got it later on that day. they had the car for 4 days to replace an axle seal. if i knew it was going to take that long i would have done it myself. or if i couldnt do it i would have got the seal and taken it to my mechanic. then i wouldnt be 4 days without my vehicle and having to drive my dads truck.

its crazy that the two were so different.

i originally bought the car from advantage dodge and the sales department was excellant. i had to have cruise control put on by the dealer, the sales rep sent the car to the shop to have it installed before i gave them a deposit for the car. i was told the car was going to be ready on sat 2/14/04 and it was ready to go shortly after i got there, i got there a little early.

the only reason i have done business with advantage chrysler is because in my pre BITOG days it was an easy way for me to get amsoil atf. i would have bought the fluid from them when i changed the fluid in my trans but i bought a qt to have on hand after i changed the fluid in my trans and then i bought a couple more qts to switch my power steering fluid to a synthetic fluid.

 

[Audity]

I've had good experiences and bad, just as with any category of business.

But here's a bad one...

Quite a number of years ago (the statute of limitations has long expired...) I was working in the parts department of a luxury brand dealer. Service there was expensive. One of the mechanics was found to have CARTONS of brand new oil filters stashed under his bench.

It turned out that he very seldom, or never, tem actually changed the filter when he was given an oil change to do. Suspicion was strong that he didn't change the oil either. He was a highly qualified, factory-trained tech.

On the bright side, he was escorted out of the building and was never seen there again.

BTW, I see this as just one of the evils of the flat-rate system which seems to be used every where.

[ January 18, 2006, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Audity ]

 

[Mustang_Cougar]

One time, my brother and I went to look at pretty sweet truck (Mazda?) and the salesman just sort of gave us the keys and said "enjoy." I really don't remember leaving anything with him (driver's license, passport, small child, etc.), but we look pretty trustworthy and stuff. Anyway, the guy we were shopping for wasn't too impressed with it (it had window cranks, big no-go) and we actually brought it back in similar condition.

Considering the area (crime and demographics), that was pretty ballsey of the salesman. Must have been a slow month...

 

[Dark Jedi]

racer if they had to order the part nothing they could do about that. its your fault for not asking well can I just get the car back and you will call back every day to see if the part came in. when it does I will bring the car in. in that story I cant find fault with the dealership just with you not understanding that parts gets back ordered all the time.

 

[Sid]

My girlfriends Nissan Dealership. Everytime she was in there one guy in particular would TRY and take advantage because she was a woman. One time to a point where she was almost in tears. I was ******! So everytime she would walk in their she would call me in front of the servicemen and explain the entire story to me and would speak out loud everything I told her in front of the servicemen. The servicemen would sometimes go as far as to change their stories since they knew I was knowledgeable in at least car basics. Needless to say they would get the job done afterwards otherwise I'd do in their fuming and would try my hardest with corporate to get people in trouble.

I've also had good ones with a particular FORD dealership. The parts guy at this certain one is awesome. Nice guy and always hooks me up with either free parts or discounts for some reason. One things for sure though I always go to him for any dealer parts.

quote:

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One time, my brother and I went to look at pretty sweet truck (Mazda?) and the salesman just sort of gave us the keys and said "enjoy."

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LOL. At a GM dealership one of the salesman was giving me and my bud the runaround and a nasty attitude because we looked younger and later on apologized claiming he was having a tough day. Tough **** I say. I asked to look at 3 cars. Unfortunately he somehow couldn't find the keys for 2 of them so he gives me the keys to the most expensive and fastest car available from the 3. Me and my bud took it for a 20 minute joy ride from ****. Given the mods it had done I'm sure the previous owner beat the **** out of it too. It was fun. We returned the car and left pretty happy.

[ January 21, 2006, 02:45 AM: Message edited by: Sid ]

 

[LTJ]

i went into toyota service to bring my 95 mr2 in for warranty repair. after heavy rains, the fan belts started to squeak but the noise never went away. I brought it into the dealer and addressed the problem. 3 techs who supposedly checked out the car couldnt hear or pinpoint the problem i was having although the squealing could be heard from blocks down the road. that got me ticked off so I flipped out at the service manager and he finally gave me this stupid excuse that the 3 techs were looking at another mr2 right next to mine which happend to be yellow with the engine off. My car on the other hand was left running since I brought it in and squealing so badly. I dont know but dealer techs these days seem like they dont know what the heck they are doing