Stealership Visits - Trials and Tribulations

AZ_08LT_TV

Original poster
Member
Dec 4, 2011
3
Went to my local stealership for another vehicle I own which includes all scheduled maintenance, of course only oil changes and tire rotations. They pulled the air filter on my 2010 nissan altima with only 22k miles on it and told me that it needed to be replaced in order to keep the car running at optimum condition. When they told me this, they had it next to a brand new one. I kindly told them that if the air filter needed to be brand new to keep the car running, then we all have a problem. They did not seem to enjoy my humor :rotfl:
 

STLtrailbSS

Member
Dec 4, 2011
1,617
if your not replacing the air filter everyday your basically ruining the car expect catastrophic failure, what do you think people drive around with the same air filters for months at a time!? absurd
 

The_Roadie

Lifetime VIP Donor
Member
Nov 19, 2011
9,957
Portland, OR
I would love to start a thread called "Lies a Dealer Told Me".

And if the GM Social Media representative snuck in here and started responding to threads with their useless platitudes and cost-ineffective advice, we could just point them to that thread and tell them they had to respond to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THOSE ISSUES before we'd let them out into the rest of the site. The GM dungeon in other words. :rotfl:
 

JRTAHOE

Member
Nov 20, 2011
848
the roadie said:
I would love to start a thread called "Lies a Dealer Told Me".

I like this idea. I heard a few good ones when I first got my truck. Little did they know that I belonged to a enthusiast forum, quickly called them out.

Now whenever I do go, they are all smiles and they don't even try to upsell me. :biggrin:
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
07 TB RIDER said:
I like this idea. I heard a few good ones when I first got my truck. Little did they know that I belonged to a enthusiast forum, quickly called them out.

Now whenever I do go, they are all smiles and they don't even try to upsell me. :biggrin:

What's even better is when YOU have to go back to the stall where they're working on YOUR ride, and YOU have to tell them how to fix it due to your research from an enthusiast forum lol...happened to me twice already in my SS...
 

cody_s

Member
Dec 6, 2011
625
Atlanta, GA
Boricua SS said:
What's even better is when YOU have to go back to the stall where they're working on YOUR ride, and YOU have to tell them how to fix it due to your research from an enthusiast forum lol...happened to me twice already in my SS...

Glad I'm not the only one that's done that :smile: lol. I actually got a lot of compliments on it the last time I went.
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
cody_s said:
Glad I'm not the only one that's done that :smile: lol. I actually got a lot of compliments on it the last time I went.

Oh yea.. I had to show them where relay #46 was under my hood for my low beams not working, and I had to show them how to swap the DDM & PDM to prove my DDM was bad... always a good laugh, plus to see their excitement due to having an SS in their shop thts modded.. always brings a smile to my face..
 

n0kfb

Member
Dec 8, 2011
104
I've learned that the bad reputation car dealers, manufacturers and repair shops have is earned. All most of them want to do is get into your pocket for as much as the possibly can, by whatever devious means, as soon as possible.

If you have a small neighboorhood shop near you, USE IT. Even for routine things like oil changes and tire rotations that might be quicker and cheaper at the quick-lube places. The trust you develop will be worth every penny when it comes time for a major repair.

-- Dan Meyer :coffee:
 

xxfile

Member
Dec 28, 2011
10
Well its sure not gonna continue to run without at least weekly installation of a new cabin air filter lol
 

DucatiSS

Member
Nov 19, 2011
369
Last week my wife called me in a panic and said the truck died as she was going to work. Actually it went into limp mode. She told me that 3 lights came up, reduced power, check engine, and the stabilitrak. I told her I could read the codes when I got home. That wasnt good enough because she need to travel for work the next day.
I had her call AAA and they towed it to the stealership. It got there @ 10am, I called several times for a status on the diagnostics. They charge a base rate of $120 to hook it up, whatever, they are in business too. They thought it was some pinched wires per a TSB, but straightened those out and took it out, the problem remained. No answer the first day.

Second day, I call and it took them until noon to get back to me. Codes P2135, P060E, P0121 all indicate a new Throttle body. I was born at night, but not last night. I had already looked up the cost of a new one. GM list is $278. RockAuto AC Delco = $141, GMpartsdirect = $144 GMpartsdepartment.c o m = $159.. Service girl tells me the total cost is $480 including labor. :hissyfit::rotfl: She told me the part alone is $278, I told her that I knew how much it was list, however I can get it anywhere from a GM parts house for much less. She said that was impossible and then told me how difficult it was to change so that is why the $200 labor charge.

You have got to be freaking kidding me. I had my wife pick it up, limp it home and I didn't even remove the TB, all I did was spray it for a test. The thing ran great for 5 days. I had a friend of a friend that had 2 extras on his shelf and sold me one for much less than any online price. I came in today, 15K miles when he removed it and it looks brand new. I took longer to find the 3 wrenches than it took to change it out.

The truck runs fantastic.

I never met the service girl, so in her defense, if she would have sent me a picture of herself prior to her wanting to screw me, I may have went for it. :wootwoot:
 

Juicy K

Member
Feb 14, 2012
433
Indianapolis, Indiana
Took my mothers TB in to have the NEW LGM programed, when I got there he told me "its a very long and difficult process, you will be here for about 3 hours." He did not really want to talk to me after I mentioned I had the new unit installed to make the job easier on them, and knew they just hook up to it throw a little bit of data at it. Then once the tech was done with the Tech II he said it will take about an hour for the truck to recognize the key fob.... I decided to tell him I know how to program it, he just says "lets see then" I did it. He just shook his head and walked away. The only thing the service advisor told me after that was "It's Done, that'll be $47.50"... Not sure if all stealerships are like this, but I have a feeling it may partially be since were a fairly small town.

Considering they told me it takes 3 hours to program the LGM it tells me they take advantage of WAY TO MANY people. And the tech saying the truck will eventually communicate with the key fob sounds like they want people to come back. So they can charge them another half hour of labor.
 

garciarf

Member
Dec 3, 2011
17
Not a stealership story.

I've been getting my oil changes done at a local place, it's pretty much a one tech and one office person operation (all they do is fluid changes and ignition interlocks) and I really like the place, the cost of getting it done there is like $35-40 for labor and they use AMSOIL. Last year they moved from their downtown shop to a nearby place and they share shop space with a larger auto repair business.

They had my oil changed a couple of weeks ago, and when the tech asked if there was anything in special I wanted him to check, and I said yes, the front diff is leaking but I'm not sure where. After changing the oil, he said it was the output seal (which I already suspected, just wanted confirmation). So he asked if I wanted to get the other business to quote the fix, so I figured why not, I was already there and wasn't in a rush.

The guy from the repair place browsed around in his computer, clicked and typed a few things, and printed an estimate page and highlighted a number. Said 10.1 hours to change a seal (according to ondemand5) and he said that the differential had to be removed. I asked if he was sure if it couldn't get done just by removing the cv shaft, and he checked and said nope, you are correct in saying that the CV shaft is a 2-3 hour job to R&R, but the diff has to come out to change the seal, it is like that in a few vehicles. I told him I was going to look into it then, get the money (he said it was going to be just over $1000) and then call or visit him again.

Got that done between yesterday and today with a friend, a total of 3-3.5 hours and maybe $65 or so in parts, tools, fluids, etc. And a dinner for my friend one of these days, since he helped me a lot and allowed me to use his garage. I do have to return the seal driver to Checker's to get my money back though, so right now I'm out of maybe $120.
 

million-miles

Member
Jan 10, 2012
189
This is why i tell all my friends that they need to get in touch with me before they lay out big money on anything a shop tells them. I have one shop i go too but they know i can do a lot of work myself so they are real straight with me.
 

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