See my Post
#3 above. Did you not get a Maintenance Manual in your owners manual packet? If not, then they owe you one. For the 451 it lists every item to be checked at each service.
Len
2014 EV Coupe 16,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 7,000 miles
Yes, I have all the manuals, it's just that the information is not in there. It has service pages with check marks but it doesn't have a chart of what is actually being done during Service A and Service B.
And to further the story, I just returned from the dealership with the car. There is a some real weird nervous energy in their service department. When I finally sat down with the service rep I asked him what needs to be done with Service A. His reply, which I should have guessed by now, "check the fluids and an oil change", I kindly remarked that it was an electric car. He seemed baffled after that. An actual mechanic was walking by and my service rep asked him and he had sort of a stunned look on his face. The best he could do is state that they will look at the battery. What the hell does that mean, "look at the battery"? I too, being stunned that nobody in the service department knows what will be serviced just slowly nodded. Okay. I will wait for the itemized sheet after service. Also, at this point, nobody could tell me how much this service was going to cost. I was told when I called ahead that it would be $160 but nobody would confirm that today.
Interestingly the shop has a camera so I could watch them work on the car from the lounge, didn't notice this until halfway through the service and the entire time I was watching the car just sat in the bay with techs and mechanics walking on by. The camera switches to two different angles so I wasn't able to have my eye on it the entire time.
My service rep tells me that my car is done and I can get the paperwork at the cashier. This woman was completely frazzled, I asked her what they did to the car and she said, "I'm just the cashier" which she punctuated with a rehearsed smile. She sent my back to my service rep and he in turn sent me back to the cashier. Finally the paperwork arrived so I scanned the document. First line reads, check and change the fluids, and of course, "OIL CHANGE". Now come on, what the hell did they do??? I point this out to the cashier and she just tells me, "I'm just the cashier" ending with that strange smile. I finally chase down my service rep and he goes to some room where there is a service writer... that's my guess as he spoke with a gentleman who was printing service tickets. It takes him two more times and he finally prints out a page with the actual service, which is incredibly vague and reads something like, checked fluids and brakes.
I'm told the car will go through the wash and will be returned to me. In the meantime I apologize to the cashier if I made her upset, I was a bit frustrated and yelled a bit and she seemed to relax some after that. While the car is being washed I find my salesman, Dan and have a short discussion with him in regards to this experience. He tells me that electric cars make up about 1% (memory check, it was a small percentage) of their business so confusion in the service department isn't unusual. Dan brings up the Smart manual from the web and it's the same that I have at home. Just a page with check boxes but not actual service details of what and when.
It wasn't expensive for a dealership service, only $70. And I'm guessing they did something as the accelerator pedal was quite stiff afterwards. They also washed my car, which it needed, so at least something tangible came out from the experience.
