Do you take your Taco to dealer for maintenance?

It isn't that dealers are out to screw people over and tear up their vehicles. You can't deny the up selling is pressed hard at many dealerships though. There is a possibility that you work at a very honest dealership, and that is great. I have personally witnessed dealerships not take responsibility for mistakes they made and to leave customers completely hosed, not just with myself but others as well.

So unless a person can find an honest dealer where the service manager and techs are great people willing to do whatever it takes to make things right no matter what, it just isn't a benefit to pay the premium of taking it to the dealer. But this is only my opinion based on my experience.

 

Good post Aussiek2000. A good dealer will take care of their customers knowing that repeat sales always comes from good service.

 

Yup. The brake fluid spiel was one of the most common ones I heard at the dealership. Deffinately BS.

 

I highly disagree. Its pretty irrefutable evidence if they dealership is doing the work on my truck. They can argue with me all they want, but the fact is I signed a sheet of paper (contract) for taking care of my vehicle. Your comment is more of a 'shade tree' mechanics philosophy, not a several million dollar company backed by none other than Toyota themselves.

 

I applaud your comment. If you and your dealership didn't do that you wouldn't be in business for long. No doubt there is messed up choices people and dealerships do from time to time, but to lump them all into a stereotype does nothing but perpetuate the stereotype!

 

Brake fluid should be changed every few years. But the price many places charge is rediculous

 

have you ever wondered if the mechanics that are at these shops get experience across a whole array of repairs?
I know for the US the IBEW works simple, if you pull wire you pull wire, if you bend pipe you bend pipe. You do not do every aspect of electrical.

I wonder if with these techs that get their mechanics license at a dealer ever learn to do everything.
The final license is not practical its written like with all trades.
So who knows if some of these techs even know what they are doing. And dealers hide behind lawyers so much they do not care if they fuck up because they aren't going to pay.

Independent shops ACTUALLy need to know how to do everything, and don't hide behind lawyers, they hide behind great work usually.
Just speculating here but I really wonder if all these techs are trained to do everything.
I've talked to some and at times I think they aren't

 

We all do everything at dealer I work at. Only exception being internal auto trans repair and Diesel engine work.

 

Canadian might be different, I have a lot of friends in the auto industry
many have said that the labor times are not generous at all other than for brakes.
For some its actually difficult to finish in the right amount of time.

Could you provide inside knowledge?

And you clearly are a great mechanic then.
Thing is you know its true that there are good and bad. I know from my line of work there are good electricians and bad ones.
Only reason I avoid dealers is you don't specifically know who you're getting. they usually have 20 different techs. some might be good some are bad. At least with my guy I know his two other techs and they're really good guys. Hell I go to the track with one of them so I've gotten to know them well and I trust their work.


Plus some of the service reps at dealers are so fuckin idiotic, I've almost gotten into fights with them they're so full of shit. They act like techs but know absolutely nothing. You put a wrench in their hand and say do an oil change and they'll end up disconnecting the brakes

 

I'm yet to find anyone that does trans work and everything else lol.
Any shop I've ever gone to always sends out to a transmission specialist.

 

One of our techs does trans, diesels, hybrids, and everything else if he has time

Labor times are hit and miss, especially warranty. I work 7:30-4:30 mon-Fri and turn 50-80 hours per week. Just depends how busy we are.

 

I am not a tech, but I have no doubt that the techs at dealerships get great training from the company. And the service manuals are great references. Common maintenance problems, sure I could rest easy knowing it was done right. But I am not convinced that a majority of techs know the ins and outs of every single car/truck configuration that comes through that bay. Less common failures are what I consider a risk. Take the differential for example. And I ask this honestly. How many techs in the bay know how to completely disassemble and reassemble the differential properly? How many times a day do each (or this single) one of them do this realistically? Unless the dealership outsources a job like this to a specialty shop, it is a risk.

Look at any other industry with techs. I am familiar with aerospace so I'll use that as an example, if I walk down a production line I don't see the guy popping rivets in suddenly go over and start forming sheet metal. It is more beneficial for the customer and quality to have someone who works day in and day out on an item (ex. differentials) work on that item.

I feel the same about independent do all mechanics. They know how to do a lot, but I still won't take everything to them.

 

As a whole, we only see about 5 differential failures per year. And those are just bearing failures, not ring and pinion

 

But let's think about what you are comparing.....if the person working on an aircraft doesn't do what they are supposed to do and it falls out of the sky, not only does the possibility of everybody on the plane die, but so do a number of people on the ground. Those numbers of course being variable with each possible condition.

I have no illusions the 20 year old changing my oil has no idea what the compression is for each of my pistons OR what the firing order is. But I know he can unscrew a plug, let some oil drain out and then fill it back up.

The cost vs. risk for car repair is in a completely different category than aircraft construction or maintenance. And to hold a dealership or any business for that matter to a standard as such is not fair in the slightest.

 

Hell no! I do all the maintenance myself.

 

I'm 24. Started at the dealer at 21. I now out rank and turn more hours with more certs than 40+ year old techs.

I get calls frequently from other shops that can't fix a car.

You shouldn't generalize due to age

 

Hondah, I'm not talking about an oil change. Every post I've made has been in regards to less common repairs. I even specifically said in the post you quoted that "Common maintenance problems, sure I could rest easy knowing it was done right."

 

I didn't mean to start a war here. Lol.

 

From internal engine work to interiors to diffs, to suspension, etc. Flat rate doesn't pay to sit around and wait on your speciality to come in

 

to be fair I know my mechanic probably could do a lot of jobs he doesnt do.
He's told me he wont do tranny or differential, not that they are hard to him just very time consuming and he has other work he has to get done. and with his shop hes always very busy.