Dealer told me my car needed a new serpentine belt for $750. Took it for a second opinion to a friend's mechanic and turns out my car doesn't even have a serpentine belt! I still can't believe the dealership tried to rip me off like that.
Post by themysteriouswife on May 2, 2016 13:55:44 GMT -5
My dad is a local mechanic. He has dealerships send people to him when the cost is too high at the dealer. My brother was the lead mechanic at my dad's competition until last year. All of our work is done at local businesses unless it's warranty or recalls.
Edit: if it's nothing major I take my cars to TN for my dad or brother to repair. I get to see my family and have my car repairs at a fraction of the cost
I am lucky because my great uncle has been a mechanic for 40+ years. He does all the work on my cars and will only charge me for the cost of the parts.
I trust mechanics over the dealership as well. Just like in any business there will be bad ones, but you can combat it by chose information BBB ones. The complaints are listed on the BBB website and are usually related to people not understanding how billing for services works.
I avoid dealerships as much as possible because when I have brought in my car for recalls they give me unrealistic wait times. The last time my 1 hour wait time was 14 hours. Every time I asked about it, I was told five more minutes. Of course not all dealerships are like that but it certainly made me unhappy.
Warranty work is pretty much the only thing I'll take my car to the dealership for. We definitely prefer a mechanic, although DH actually does most of our basic car maintenance (oil changes, tire rotations, brake pads) himself and saves the trips to the mechanic we use for more detailed work.
I once took my car to Sears to get an oil change. They basically reparked my car and didn't do any work on it. The reason why I know is one month later my dad took a peek under the hood and found the oil was old and dark. The oil filter that he installed a year earlier still had the date written on the side. He always takes a Sharpie and writes a date on them to help keep track of when he last changed the filter. The guys over at Sears didn't do anything to my car, so from then on I've been hesitant to take my car to somewhere else besides the dealership.
My H is a mechanic at a dealership, and also has his own shop. The only difference between a dealership and a small shop is the cost. It really doesn't make sense to see a dealership unless you are getting warranty work done.
I trust dealerships about as far as I can throw them......especially after a dealership told me when I took my car in for a recall repair that my brakes were dangerously bad and about to fail. They graciously offered to do a brake job for $1000 ASAP.
Only problem was that I had just gotten my car back from my independent mechanic for its regular PM amnd my brakes were ok. I took it back to my mechanic and the owner took my tires off and showed me that I had about 70% of my brake pads remaining. What a freaking scam!
I only go to the dealer when it is under warranty.....and even then, only for certain things.
Post by sapphireblue on May 2, 2016 19:16:02 GMT -5
I have been using my dealership because my car was under warranty, but now it isn't. I was planning to find a local guy where I just moved, I've always had the idea that dealerships are a ripoff, but I actually hadn't heard any stories like the ones in this thread!
A lot of these stories are so appalling! Especially that Sears one, Alyssa !
My husband works for a dealership so he's my mechanic now. But before that I would only ever take it to a local shop. I don't trust dealerships (and really my H has told me of guys totally ripping people off.)
Post by callmehales on May 2, 2016 20:35:57 GMT -5
When I took my car to the dealership for a recall repair, it took like 6 hours AND they forgot to put a part back on.
So a few weeks later when we discovered it, we had to spend $100 or so for a new intake snorkel or something. So yeah, that whole "dealership mechanics are trained" is a load of crock to me.
Generally speaking I think dealership shops are for suckers. There are always exceptions but generally local shops,with good word of mouth will do just as good a job (or better) for less.
Car dealerships are in the business to sell cars. I go to a local mechanic that I trust. The only time I have been to the dealership was to have a visor replaced and for the airbag recall. They called me after fixing the airbags and told me that there was a list of issues with my car. I informed them that they were not my mechanic and that all they needed to do was fix the airbag recall issue. They didn't like me very much.
Yep. I trust our local guy wayyy more than a dealership. I'm really bummed that he can't replace my fuel pump this week. He would need special equipment to remove the fuel tank and works out of his home garage. He's sent us to the Honda dealership, and I am dreading the trip over there today.
I prefer local mechanics over dealer. They are cheaper and have a reputation to uphold or they will would not stay in business. Find a local guy that has been in business for a long time and try them out.
DH basically caught our local dealership in an out and out lie. A couple years ago our AC wasn't working. It was after he had been in an accident in our van. The dealership looked at it and said there were 2 hoses that were cut and to fix everything would cost $1600. Dh said "no" and took it elsewhere. The other place was like "we have no idea what they are talking about. There aren't any cut lines" and they did a basic recharge of the AC unit and it's worked perfectly since then.
Just yesterday, we took the van in for an oil change. When they wouldn't even honor a coupon that their website says they'll honor, DH was again like "Nope" and we took the van elsehwere.