Have dealership service depts gone downhill lately, or...

[rexlion]

...or is it just the dealers here in Tulsa that are so lousy? I hope things are better elsewhere!

I always took my Toyota to the dealerships for regular maintenance, but after it had about 125,000 miles on it, suddenly the dealers would report leak after leak after leak of various components. After shelling out a couple grand, I finally got fed up when one of the service managers informed me I had yet another leak and needed a new timing chain cover gasket to the tune of $2600 (or was it $2800, I forget). I took it to an independent shop and their mechanic found that 3 of the cover bolts were loose! He tightened them, washed the area, test drove it and confirmed there was no more leak. No charge for that repair, since I was having some other stuff done at the same time.

Now today I was visiting with my buddy; he and his wife have 3 Ford diesel pickups (F350,F450) for their hotshot business, and says he is completely fed up with every Ford dealer in the metro! In the latest encounter with dealer service, the check engine light was on and some sort of oil leak was evident. The diagnosis: need a differential seal and some DEF system part he'd never heard of, total cost (IIRC) would be $9,000 and there was a week-long wait for parts. They needed the truck sooner (a 2nd one was in the shop awaiting a fuel pump but 90,000 pumps are backordered nationwide, plus needing a new engine due to a cracked cylinder wall). So they took it to an independent diesel shop out of town (in Muskogee), a small but busy place. There, instead of $9,000, the mechanic showed him the cause of the leak: the differential fill plug was hanging on by just one thread! And the check engine light was due to low turbo coolant; the factory had failed to install some brackets that are supposed to hold some fluid lines away from a part of the radiator, causing rubbing and a hole which let coolant escape. Total repair cost was $680 and the truck was quickly back on the road. So now he's pulled the one with the bad engine out from the dealer and it is awaiting a 'second opinion' in Muskogee as well. This would be their second engine replacement in the past 2 years for 2016 model year trucks (but they do run a ton of miles).

It seems like (in our opinion) these dealer service departments in our metro area seem to be plagued with a combination of problems including incompetence, a mentality of "let's throw expensive parts at it and see what happens," and service advisors working on commission who have an incentive to sell fixes for nonexistent problems. I was wondering if others are seeing similar problems in other cities?

[Grit_dog]

rexlion wrote:

JTrac wrote:
I hope it wasn't Bill Knight Ford, which is where mine came from.

Give the man a kewpie doll!

He'd also previously bought a used one with a flatbed from Knight that turned out to be a mistake; for some reason nobody could figure out, that Powerjoke seriously lacked power. Had to trade it.

Grit Dog, I didn't mean it was the same truck getting a 2nd replacement engine, I meant it is the 2nd engine they were faced with buying in a 2 year period. They got rid of the, um, I think it was a '13 or '14 that got the other replacement engine.

They've had some rotten luck.

Ahh, that makes sense, and yes that's some seriously bad luck. That's very unfortunate and quite rare I'd say......even for Powdersmokes!

[dks]

Finding a good mechanic is one of the best things to do. I don’t mind paying a bit more for good service, but, I like someone I can trust. The trick is knowing if you actually get good service. I’m sure there are competent dealer mechanics, but, because the overhead at a dealer is higher than your typical independent shop there is an incentive to find more “recommended” parts or service. I go to my independent since over the years he has done things for me that I believe a dealer wouldn’t have. Right or wrong, that’s what I think.

[colliehauler]

I'm extremely lucky that I have a independent mechanic that's very good and I can trust. I've been using him for 20+years. His prices are not any cheaper and he usually has a 2 week backlog. I can't say anything derogatory about the local dealers shops because I don't use them. The big dealers seem to have a high rate of employee turnover.

I use another mechanic for the simple stuff. His labor is incredibly cheap, but I get the job done.

[FishOnOne]

My cousin has been a diesel truck mechanic since '93. He once said the turn around rate on the mechanic's that come to the shop has been getting worse. These young guys just don't want to work and then they complain they don't make any money.

[rexlion]

JTrac wrote:
I hope it wasn't Bill Knight Ford, which is where mine came from.

Give the man a kewpie doll!

He'd also previously bought a used one with a flatbed from Knight that turned out to be a mistake; for some reason nobody could figure out, that Powerjoke seriously lacked power. Had to trade it.

Grit Dog, I didn't mean it was the same truck getting a 2nd replacement engine, I meant it is the 2nd engine they were faced with buying in a 2 year period. They got rid of the, um, I think it was a '13 or '14 that got the other replacement engine.

They've had some rotten luck.

[blownstang01]

Good and bad businesses everywhere. I've seen many dealers with incompetent workers along with many independent shops as well. I schedule and approve all the work on our companies fleet of 15 trucks, I've "fired" plenty of independent shops as well as walked away from some dealerships. As I think of it, many business we deal with take advantage once they get comfortable with you. One thing to remember is dealerships are basically forced to pay for specialized tools, training, and use factory parts.....all at a cost, not to mention franchise fees. Of course I'm referring to honest dealers, not ones trying to up sell everything. If it's not a specialized repair, I'd use an independent where feasible.

[Grit_dog]

I love stories like “2nd engine replacement in a 2016 truck and am taking it to the indoendent shop”. While I know no more than what was posted, things like that don’t pass the sniff test unless accompanied by “out of warranty because it was deleted, 100kmi per year” or some plausible explanation.
Not defending dealers, most are total dinks. I don’t go there, saves that headache.
Only if I had a warranty repair would I step foot in a dealer and at that it would have to be significant in some way.
But thanks to my wife for being on the ball and saving one dealer from buying us a new front bumper , as the @sshat kid walked towards it with a drill to put 2 holes in the bumper!
(She didn’t ask for them to be mounted to the car, just stopped to pick up the tags.)

[ScottG]

Dealership mechanics get paid by the job. So if they can cut a corner and save time, they often will.

[rightlaneonly]

I use the local Ford dealer for the Sport Trac and the Subaru dealer for the car when they need service. Do they try to up sell? Well the Ford dealer does. They told me hood lift assist cylinders were weak (they were) and they could replace them for only $400.00! I found them on Amazon for twenty bucks and changed them myself in less than 5 minutes. Do I still use them, yes I do. Its easy to say no to an up sell.

[JTrac]

I hope it wasn't Bill Knight Ford, which is where mine came from.

[riven1950]

It varies.
My local dealer is pretty reasonable on oil changes. They also had the best price on installing Bilstein shocks and Michelin LT tires. ( I supplied the shocks ). They advertise weekly in our little paper that they will not be beat on tires.
My truck just went out of warranty and I am done with them. We recently had a spat over a battery that they replaced once under warranty. It went out again and they said it didn't have a warranty because it was replaced under warranty. HUH? I even showed them the FMC policy on it and they still refused. But they would sell me a battery and charge me only 45.00 to put it in LOL. I went to advance got 20% off and free installation.

I won't be back unless I don't have a choice and told them so.

[dodge_guy]

Yes dealers are expensive, but you have factory trained techs working on your car! I can`t tell you how many cars I`ve worked on where an independent spent countless hours working on it trying to figure out a problem and I`ve figured it out in less than an hour!

Every shop has its good and bad techs along with reasons to go or not go!

[Tvov]

Oh, as to the quality of work at my local dealership's service department - they do seem to be pretty good. Even my independent shop says that - the dealer is expensive, they do decent work.

[Tvov]

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.

[midnightsadie]

tons of money are made in the service garage,