Never, EVER go to the dealer for work

What about for routine maintenance?

Mr. Lugs took in his car to the dealer for 60,000 mile maintenance. Got it back, and all of a sudden the air conditioner isn't working. It's a fluke that we would need the air in November, but we had a 65 degree day over the weekend.

I'm highly suspicious.

 

The service guys at the dealerships -- the ones who guess at what's wrong and tell you how much it will cost, the ones who want you to leave your car all day in order to change a fuse -- they all have studio-quality 8x10 mug shots at their work stations, just like actors.
I asked one of the guys if he was an actor and just doing this on the side. He said yes, how did I know? I said, "Well, you were able to keep a straight face and a serious look when you said it was going to cost me 300 bucks to change a light bulb. That's some of the best acting I've ever seen."
That was a little facetious (but only a little). I did take my 2000 Ford Explorer in a couple of years ago because the electric door locks stopped working. While there, I also mentioned that the rear window wiper didn't work (it never worked, but it hardly ever rains here) and there was a light bulb out that illuminates the speedometer in the dash board.
Motor for the door locks, $300-plus, motor for the rear wiper $300-plus, labor alone for the dashboard light, $300-plus. Total tab was about $1,300.
I said, I need the door locks to work, screw the rest.

 

Haven't had a chance to read the thread but I agree with the title sentiment that things can't be so bad that you should consider asking your drug dealer for work. That's just a one way ticket to jail.

 

Ha. Thought, after the fact, that someone would go that route. Cigar to Chris.

Footnote on my sit: The hardest part was trying to figure out how to get inside the driver side door. As opposed to Ragu's car, the Lesabre has two screws visible, and one only holds on a plate - the rest are hidden under plastic and fabric. But the panel for the switches for windows, power seat and mirror control is held into the door armrest with plastic clips that you can't see. Depress those clips, and the whole damned control panel lifts out.

Once you get that far, the wires are all together in a harness, which disconnects as one from the window switches. It's all Lego-like snap-togethers!

Figuring all that out was the trick.

Now, for the dealer to quote me $100 for labor seems even more ridiculous, even at $100/hr. If you know where the release clips and everything is going into the procedure - as I
assume they would - it's a 10-minute job.

 

The dealers and service stations up here are rolling in cash this time of year. If you don't have a heated garage or some awesome work gloves, something as simple as changing a battery is a pain in the ass.

I once changed my head lamps at -20F. Not owning any thin, warm gloves, I made do with gardening gloves. The ensuing defrosting of my fingers was quite painful. I was going to change my oil that day but said screw that and went to Jiffy Lube.

Now I've got some expensive work gloves, and that $35 has probably saved me $500 in labor costs in the past two years.

 

The Toyota dealer and I'm sure other car dealers rake in the money for the "scheduled maintenance".
Took my car in for it's 45,000 mile "scheduled maintenance"
Turns out the dealer gave me a choice. Just get an oil change for $30 or the full maintenance package - which consists of an oil change, tire rotation, checking all the belts, fluid levels, brakes, and tire tread for $130. I took just an oil change.

 

A lot of dealers now have two levels of scheduled maintenance -- the actual, factory-specified scheduled maintenance and the "recommended" scheduled maintenance, which is a bunch of extra stuff you don't need that's full of profit for them.

We have a new-to-us car that was owned by my aunt and uncle previously. My uncle is a by-the-book guy -- bought the car new and had everything done at the local dealer. He even bought individual quarts of oil at the dealer when he needed one to keep in the trunk for topping things off. Anyway, I got all of his records with the car and don't have the heart to tell him how bent over he was by his local dealer. The most egregious example was a routine service the dealer had the gall to charge $1,500 for (bascially spark plugs, filters, etc.). My mechanic told me he'd have trouble sleeping at night if he charged $500 for the same service. The moral of the story -- find a trusted independent mechanic.

 

You know, come to think of it, I've had an issue with this particular dealer (Florence Buick, Florence, Ky.) before. In talking to my Dad tonight, he reminded asked me if these were the same a-holes I had a problem with before. It was.

Completely forgot about this.

It was about nine years ago. Had engine work done there, and they told me I needed new spark plugs and cables. Sure, I said. Go ahead. Less than a year later, I kept hearing knocking and their work was under warranty so I took it back. They said I needed a tuneup, which wasn't included in the warranty... but, "while we're at it, it looks like you need new spark plugs and cables."

Uh, no.

 

Well, to be fair, there are some dealerships you can trust. Just as there are independent shops that'll charge you triple.

I've told the story on here before about the day I was at a quick lube shop and saw them running a huge scam. Every person in the waiting room was approached and told the oil and filters had been changed, but they needed to buy a new radiator cap. Seems the oil change place "tested" the radiator cap and discovered the pop-off valve didn't open at the proper pressure. Luckily, they had a new radiator cap for only $20 (that you could buy for $2.50 two blocks away at an auto parts store).

 

I have found with a lot of things in life - cars, TVs, stereos, vacuum cleaners - that if you aren't afraid of breaking something, you can often save yourself a ton of money by fixing it yourself instead of taking it in to be fixed or buying a new one.

Some stuff you'll never be able to do yourself without training - you're not going to change a head gasket yourself - but there's so much stuff that you can do if you can pull apart a few pieces (remember how they go back together) and just look at them logically to figure out how to fix it.

I learned that lesson early on. I was 18 and took my car for an oil change (really only because we were in the middle of a week-long, minus-degree cold snap and didn't want to do it myself). I walk in to pay for my $28 oil change and they say it will cost $83. I said, "WHAT???" They said I needed a new air filter which cost $32 and it took a half hour to change it which cost $30 in labor, plus tax. I said, I didn't tell you that you could do that and the woman said, "Well, I mean, I guess we could take it out." I made her do it.

I went to Autozone, paid $7 for THE EXACT SAME air filter and LITERALLY changed it out in less than a minute even though I had never been under the hood of my car to that point. There was a cover that read "air filter." I unclipped it (didn't even need a screwdriver!!!), pulled out the old filter, dropped in the new one and clipped the cover back on.

I'm convinced that 90 percent of mechanics and lawyers are crooks because people just assume they can't do a lot of the stuff that both groups do, even though they could with just a little bit of effort.

 

A lot car stuff - oil changes and filter repalcements - you can do yourself.
However, never under estimate the value of a good, honest mechanic.

 

Hell, even Jiffy Lube will check all that other stuff for you as part of the $30 oil change. They might charge an extra $30 for the tire rotation.

On the tire rotation, it is cheaper to buy new tires sooner than it is to spend $30 every 10,000 miles to rotate them anyway.