Stealership Oil Change...

related: i take pictures of EVERYTHING before bringing to dealer. only reason i go now is recalls and tsbs.
eliminates fear of "it was scratched when you brought it in"
also take a pic of odometer when taking interior pics.

 

Last time I went to the stealership (to purchase two gallons of coolant) I saw all of those people in the waiting area for service and thought to myself "those poor suckers have no idea how badly they are going to be fleeced and cheated".

 

too true. akin to lotteries being an idiot tax. some aware and play anyway but most completely unaware.

 

Emailing back and forth about video proof of tires getting rotated? God I wish I had that much free time

The solution is quite simple really. Avoid any place that offers to do anything for free

 

it's called retirement.
in fairness though, all that episode took was one phone call and i received the email/video an hour later.
overall i would say i have had good experiences with my overpriced and inflexible dealer. when challenged (a few times), they have done the right thing every time. there was only one a$$ there, that got let go in the pandemic and did not come back though many others did.
so, generalizations are too general but stereotypes usually exist for a reason. YMMV.

 

Yes, it seems the creeps are trained in how to BS the customer instead of listening to the issues and having a real solution. If you have some experience and question them most of the time they have no clue whatsoever. I have even been lied to by the west coast service manager directly. He was called on it and didn't fare so well by the state's attorney general's office. It amazes me how they play word games and try to twist everything around with their silliness. I stay away from the losers as much as possible, just too frustrating when most everything that comes out of their mouth is total crap. The turnover in these positions is incredible, from one shop to another.

 

I wouldn't go near the Toyota dealer. On the flipside the Subaru dealer is excellent - the only problem there is it's hard to get in - they have a great reputation and show you the parts that they replaced. I don't have to deal with any of that because I go to a shop where I know the folks personally.

 

I've always preferred to do my own work, but have farmed out jobs on rare occasions. I like to use local independent shops that have great reps and my experience tells me that I can trust them. Even so, I've always thought that dealerships (especially Toyota) would be perfectly reliable given their access to parts, special tools, and well trained technicians, though at much more cost than an independent shop. This thread certainly appears to negate my long-held opinion; however perhaps it's only the basic work that is shoddy due to the use of lower paid mechanic wannabees. Still, any competent service manager should take steps to assure that all jobs, even the basic ones, are done to spec. Right? How hard is that?

 

Agree, one of the weakest links is the service managers.

 

They always lose my damn center caps.

 

I heard with most BMWs you don't have to change the oil? Just add a quart every 1000 miles and the oil is continuously burned off in the combustion process?

 

i had a 2002 in the 70's that did that. you didn't have to really change the oil but had to set the points every 5K. still it was a fun car.

 

My Macan with the 2.0L VAG corporate turbo engine burns about half a quart every 8,000 to 10,000 miles.

It’s never an issue unless you don’t top it off when you do the oil change.

 

^What does that have to do with BMWs?

 

Every turbo German car I’ve had drank some oil.