Am I Taking a Honda Hosing?
Hello Mr. Wright,That's a tough question, Bob. There aren't any real agencies out there that test a specific shop or dealership's performance. The Better Business Bureau does log complaints, so it's always worth checking. Listen to friends and associates who drive the same car. Do they have a dealership they love? Are they using a really great independent repair shop? The most important part of your relationship with your mechanic or shop is trust. A good shop will perform a safety check and repair only what's needed, if anything. There are a couple of things you can do in your scenario. Before you pay for new tires, ask to see the damaged tires and explain to you why they can't be patched or plugged rather than replacing the entire tire. Unfortunately we have to rely on the honesty of the service department when drop off our beloved vehicles. If you're not getting a good feeling -- for instance if you have to jump up and down just to be noticed -- I'd have my work done elsewhere. There's nothing worse than having to beg somebody to take your hard earned money. It doesn't make sense. Hopefully there's either a different Honda dealer nearby or an independent shop that specializes in late model Hondas.
I am the owner of a 2008 Honda CRV. Currently I have all of my service done at the dealership where I purchased the vehicle. My question is simple: Is there any way that I can determine the quality of care and attention that is given my vehicle every time I bring it in for service? Is there, for instance any type of evaluative agency of, let's say the Better Business Bureau that actually looks at the service departments of various car dealerships throughout the country?The reason for my skepticism is twofold:
A.) I recently took my CR-V to the dealer service department to have the vehicle "checked over" after an extended 1,000 mi + trip to New England. (this is my usual practice after any long trip.) Well ... over $600, two new tires "due to imbedded screws and staples" and a wheel-balancing later......!!!!!! Now, I will never claim to be a mechanic. I'll leave that to the "dependable" experts. But when I walked into the service department,and asked for my vehicle be checked over just for safety's sake, did a big red "S_ _ _ _ R" appear on my chest? (And I'm not talkin "Superman", here.)B.) Every time I drop my car off for service either I or my wife practically has to wave a red flag to be noticed in order to receive the "proper" attention for our vehicle.
All things being equal, is there any way that I can determine in advance whether a particular car dealerships Maint. department is dependable and honest ?
Thank You For Your Time and Patience, Bob
Comments
I re-read this before I decided to ask my question about it:
If it’s a 2008, just how much service can it have needed? It sounds like he’s had more service than my 2005 Malibu and Cobalt put together.
Unfortunately as a business owner I have seen several repair orders that indicated that specific services were performed, that, even though it may be specified by a mileage requirement in the owners manual, everyone’s driving habits are different. I also interviewed for Service Manager & Service Writer for different dealerships & the one thing that they both stressed was the fact that they have “Service Plans” that all have different prices, & most of them are expensive. I was told that the idea is to sell these plans & upgrades to customers, whether they needed it or not. I couldn’t do that to my customers, so I started my own shop.
I recommend that you talk to your family & friends in the area & see if you can find a good, honest independent shop in your area. You will get far more for your dollar, plus a level of honesty & trust you won’t find anywhere else. A top notch independent will also inspect your vehicle every time they service it & let you know what your vehicles needs are as well as show you why you need them.
Furthermore, if quality is your concern, stay away from quick lubes. If someone takes 10 minutes to do a job that should take about an hour to do it right, they don’t have any time to give you an accurate evaluation of your vehicle. I could go on & on, but I will stop here. Good luck in finding the right shop
Where to have work done is a touchy subject. As a general rule of thumb, dealerships will more often than not tell you that you need to replace things more often. Most service departments actually have a parts salesman (a friend of mine just got promoted to that position at a Ford dealership; that’s his actual job title). As for independent mechanics, they tend to be more conservative when it comes to suggesting what to do to your car. Is this a good thing? It can be. You won’t be spending as much on parts and service. However, you’ll be at risk for letting big problems go unnoticed. Many times, these big problems can get very expensive if left unchecked.
Some of our friends had this experience not to long ago with a 1991 Honda Civic. After their mechanic did a tune-up, he told them that some of the brake lines were looking worn, but they could most likely go for a while before they absoluetly needed to be replaced. Guess what? He was wrong. 2 weeks later, our friends found themselves with no brakes in the middle of rush hour. Sound appealing to you? Didn’t think so…
So I only leave you with those words of wisdom. Anytime you go to a mechanic, be it at a dealership or not, you’ve got big decisions to make and risks to take.
dealerships claim to “know your car the best” - and while this is theoretically true, in reality, only one or two “master mechanics” in the dealership service department know the cars throughout.
most of the time, “service advisors” don’t actually know much about the actual innerworkings of the vehicles, and the “junior” mechanics often recommend unneeded repairs or maintenance, just by looking at the mileage.
the point of taking the car into the dealership is often lost, because they just take a look at the odometer and throw out maintenance that is “supposed” to be needed.
before and after a long roadtrip, i usually ask my mechanic, who i found after years and years of trial-error, and even then, i check on his quotes with a website like ecarservices.com, which gives estimates on parts/labor for common repairs and also gives FREE pro advice - i recommend them. it saved me hundreds of dollars, just the one time i had a ridiculous quote for a ticking sound my Honda had from the dealer, and i was in arizona, far away from my usual mechanic.
You do not have to have your car serviced at your dealership. The Magneson Law passed in the 1970’s permitted you to take your car to any repair facility and all work, including warranty and other repairs and your warranty is protected provided that if it is warranty work you can prove that you did the work required by your ownership manual. However you must be sure you are getting the proper service because all dealerships and repair shops make money by selling you services you may not need. I have been extremely fortunate, somewhat akin to winning the lottery by finding a truly honest and competent Midas that I use for all my cars and my friends cars for all kinds of service.
Find another repair service. BBB can not help!!! Words AUTO REPAIR and HONEST should not be used in same sentence!!!!
if you know your car, you know that they can’t over sell you!!
when I take my truck to the ford dealer for an inpection, I already know what work needs to be done; the dealer will give me a list of needed repairs, I will take that list and let some other shop do the the work if I can’t do it my self or have the tools.
stoty: i once too my car just for an oil change! they try to sell me $300.00 of work, when I only ask for oil and filter change.
I purchased a 2002 Ford Windstar new from a Ford dealer. Regularly took it there for service, until one time they tried to do a transmission service not long after I had had the recommended service done. The Service manager checked and I was right. So after that I go to an independent facility. The first time I was there one of the techs. showed me the cabin filter. It was so dirty that it was almost useless, indicating I was paying for a service and it was not done. I live in London, Ontario, Canada
I’ll try to help out here as I’ve spent most of my life in either the automotive parts and or repair industry.
1. Become informed/educated.
Regardless of item, be it automobile, home, TV, computer, etc.,an informed consumer stands a far better chance of getting honest repairs than someone who just drops the car off and writes a check for repairs they are told they need.
Dealerships : A technician in a dealership works on billable labor hours and follows shop policy and a published flat-rate manual. If the manual indicates that it takes 6-hours to change the heater core in you 2004 Chevrolet, than 6-hours will be what you are billed for. The down side to that is that in order for the tech performing the work to earn their minimum commission, (yes, they do not work on a straight hourly wage) they have to produce approx 100 billable hours per week during a 40-hour work week. Since typically “beating flat-rate” can’t be done on a consistent basis, dealerships introduced the “special packages,” that out a tech in the out of sight, out of mind consumer zone. Under the car. Cooling system, exhaust, transmission, shock,strut, tire and brake specials all designed to get the consumer’s car on the rack for a closer inspection. If you ask for the special, be sure to bring the coupon that advertised that special, and ALWAYS get a 2nd opinion if the tech indicates that once they got your car on the rack, more problems were found.
I’ve seen tech training classes where they were taught to squirt oil on the shocks or struts, and then inform the customer that those expensive suspension components were leaking hydraulic fluid and would require replacement, and then obviously a 4-wheel wheel alignment must be done to insure the quality of the new components.
Subscribe to your make/model consumer and enthusiast web-sites and blogs. There is a world of information there and normally there is an administrator to keep comments in line and many of then have excellent search engines by topic/component.
Purchase a repair manual. Even if you don’t tackle the repairs yourself, you’ll learn and become at least familiar with the systems and repairs of your car.
There’s much more, but this tips should at least get some of you off in the right direction.