Interesting discussion; we want the dealers to bend over backwards for us, treat us as preferred customers, etc. but when it comes time for service we suddenly become penny pinchers. This, for some, after spending thousands on wheels, tires, body kits and sat nav set ups. I'm all for saving money and this 10K service is an easy DIY, BUT - if we want the dealers to stay in business and make a few bucks (not to mention have service techs who actually have more than a few hours of training on the car) maybe throwing some work (and $$) to the dealers should be viewed as a long term investment more than a short term expense. Just my .02.
Interesting discussion; we want the dealers to bend over backwards for us, treat us as preferred customers, etc. but when it comes time for service we suddenly become penny pinchers. This, for some, after spending thousands on wheels, tires, body kits and sat nav set ups. I'm all for saving money and this 10K service is an easy DIY, BUT - if we want the dealers to stay in business and make a few bucks (not to mention have service techs who actually have more than a few hours of training on the car) maybe throwing some work (and $$) to the dealers should be viewed as a long term investment more than a short term expense. Just my .02.
I would agree with you, however, I am one of those people who just barely afforded the car, and didn't buy any after-market accessories. Nor did I buy absolutely the top of the line of the cars. My peeve with all this... I purchased the car thinking it would allow me to save money in the long run secondary to all of the commuting I do. I have had this vehicle since the last week of May, and now have nearly 16,000 miles on it. I have to drive hundreds of miles each week, and the cost of gas was one of the factors that drove me to buying this car. The other thing was indeed the cost of maintenance. I am the sole provider for my family and have to stretch every dollar that I make to include the car after I have paid all of the essential bills at home. When I have to pay such a high amount (especially when it was unexpected, AFTER the service was performed) I have to eliminate something else from the rest of the budget.
I would have done much better if I had known in advance that it would be that much, I would have scheduled the oil change for another date when I had the appropriate funds for it and still pay the necessary bills.
Being the daughter of a Master Mechanic, I do appeciate the value of the service department, and support wholeheartedly your view on that. I could have done the oil change myself, but I really was under the impression from the dealer at time of sale that this first oil change was included. (That was my major problem with the whole thing!)
Hi all! It seems like I keep coming up with new things to watch for!!
This time, it is a problem with the shifter.
If your shifter becomes difficult to move from gear to gear (for example, from Drive to Park, or to Reverse) Get your vehicle to the dealer as soon as you possibly can to prevent being stranded somewhere!
I was stranded on I-80 this past weekend, I was 2 hours from my destination, and no towns close by to walk to!
I ended up calling the company, who sent a tow-truck out to pick me up.
It seems that there has been a problem with the shifters. Once the tow truck took my car to the dealer the next morning, they had the problem resolved in minutes. They told me that the shifter should have been lubricated at the factory and wasn't.
On my car, that meant the shifter got stuck into one position and would not shift to another! (When mine was towed, it was stuck in Park, and no amount of brute force was going to move it out of that position!!)
The tow and the repair were covered in the warantee, but the 4 extra hours that night, and the 3 hours of waiting for the dealer's shuttle to pick me up the next day at work were stressful.
I was not too impressed with how the parts department people (who took my desperate calls while I was waiting) responded to me. They covered the phone with their hand and said "It's Mrs. B***** again, what do you want me to tell her this time?" (I was frantic, having been forgotten by a dealership before. I didn't want to spend the night in the lobby of the hospital because the dealer had closed, is the scenario I envisioned.) They finally had one of the office girls come out to pick me up, because the shuttle driver was not answering his calls. (The office girl was very nice, and calmed my nerves tremendously.)
So the essence of the post this time is: Have the little bugs taken care of immediately so you don't have to deal with delays or being stranded.
I contacted my dealer and the oil change is $65 plus the scheduled checkup and air filter change come to $109... I suppose that's not too bad all things considered. I am tempted to get my first oil change at 5000 miles to get all the brake-in junk out of the system... Playing it by ear........ BTW - I pick my car up on MONDAY!!!!
If I go to jiffy-lube with my Expedition for just an oil change, I rarely get out for less than $100. 7qts of Mobil 1 and a filter. Mobil 1 sells for 5-8 bucks a quart plus the filter, checkup and air filter for $109 sounds reasonable to me.
I did change out the oil at 500 miles myself just to get rid of the break-in stuff but that's just me. All my cars have lasted me past the 300,000 mile mark with no major motor problems. You don't want to skimp on maintenence especially with a car under warranty.
Interesting discussion; we want the dealers to bend over backwards for us, treat us as preferred customers, etc. but when it comes time for service we suddenly become penny pinchers. This, for some, after spending thousands on wheels, tires, body kits and sat nav set ups. I'm all for saving money and this 10K service is an easy DIY, BUT - if we want the dealers to stay in business and make a few bucks (not to mention have service techs who actually have more than a few hours of training on the car) maybe throwing some work (and $$) to the dealers should be viewed as a long term investment more than a short term expense. Just my .02.
Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc. dealers all over the country are deeply discounting new cars to move them off of lots, yet each and every one of us paid the full retail price for our cars (and some of us waited more than a year and a half for the privelege). No, profit is not a dirty word. Quite the contrary. I submit that profit is already taken. Even if we do our own work, the parts we have to use are sold to us at retail price. The fluids we buy are at retail price. Highly paid technicians should not be spending their time changing oil and filters, but dealing with more serious and demanding work. Just my .02
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