For those that have taken their cars to dealerships for repair or maintenance.
What are some of the red flags and shady practices you have come across?
What repairs did they recommend that were unwarranted?
What repairs did they get wrong? What repairs actually caused more problems?
I’ve worked in dealerships for 30 years, most dodgy work relates to parts being replaced that don’t need to be or procedures not carried out correctly.
For example: Brake pads replaced that are only 50% worn, suspension components like ball joints that have no play in them replaced. Throttle body not cleaned thoroughly etc.
I told my current boss I don’t replace anything that doesn’t need it, that’s how I was trained as an apprentice.
Please don’t blame the mechanics, they are under time constraints & are pressured to upsell by the dealership, profit wins every time!
Maybe not “shady” practice but something I’ve seen and heard of a lot. Each dealership will have a few decent mechanics but a lot of the time they’ll have a couple of guys that aren’t certified and don’t have much training, sometimes there for a type of apprenticeship. Usually they are only allowed to handle tire rotations and fluid changes and stuff like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see how often they can even get that wrong
And everyone knows you don’t need a cabin air filter replaced as often as they suggest
I can’t believe how much they charge for a cabin air filter!!!
The biggest one to stick out for me was taking my BMW X5 on for warranty work.
There was another unrelated problem with the fan blowing constantly because of a bad thermostat. But I asked for a diagnosis while it was in for the warranty work.
The warranty work got done. As for the other problem…
The service advisor claimed that the problem was the fan itself, and it needed to be switched out. I asked for the quote, abs it was totally astronomical.
I asked if she was sure it was the fan, and mentioned the thermostat. She said she was just following the diagnosis flow chart. I said I would think about it, and ran away as fast as I could.
The only thing a dealership got right when I took a vehicle in was warranty work. And it was a very simple fix.
That’s it….
The problem with dealership service departments is this - If their lips are moving, they are lying.
One nuance I’d like to share. I took two separate cars in at separate times at separate dealerships. They both allegedly needed struts.
1) The first one was phrased: “You need new struts.” But I felt no problem and there were no visual problems. No new struts were needed.
2) The second was phrased: “Your struts are leaking.” And I did feel a little wiggle. And it’s true they were leaking. New struts were needed.