My local dealership does not seem to be as bad as many described on these forums, but the service writers do constantly try to "upsell" stuff. As others have posted, the only repair work I have the dealer do is when vehicles are under warranty.
What I do like about the dealership is that the service writers are straight forward about cost, and there are (usually) no surprises when you pick up your vehicle. Yes they are expensive, but they stick to what they say it will cost. Also, for a simple oil change, they are very affordable - of course, they try to upsell other stuff as much as possible (the cheap oil change is to get you in the door) but if you just say no, you can get the oil changed rather cheaply.
Afterwards, we have a fantastic independent shop in town that can do almost anything to a vehicle.
