Who services your vehicle?

[Johnny Mullet]

That is too bad that the "Splash & Dash" oil change places and other shops give all the garages a bad rep. If anyone here is a career mechanic or knows one, most workers in this field last an average of 3 years at a location before moving on to a better offer. The usual reason besides money is management differences. I know a lot of good techs like myself who have quit a job because of certain practices management uses to "upsell" un-needed items.

I worked at a dealer where every car that comes into the shop must have at least one service recommendation even if you have to recommend mud flaps on a 3,000 mile new car during it's first oil change. This turned off a huge amount of customers and business got slow for some time so they decided to raise the labor rate! I quit one job where a Service Manager upsold a set of struts on an old lady's car I was inspecting. She was a regular and and when the repair order came back for a strut replacement, I found out the manager lied to her and told her I said they were needed for inspection.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

The exception that proves the rule: putting tires on wheels. It just ain't worth the hassle without a tire machine.

I want one of those tire changer dealies from China Freight.

[RH77]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mullet

I quit one job where a Service Manager upsold a set of struts on an old lady's car I was inspecting. She was a regular and and when the repair order came back for a strut replacement, I found out the manager lied to her and told her I said they were needed for inspection.

I have family that used to work for a dealer in NE Ohio and found the same (this was in the 80's). I'm sure nothing has changed.

The average person has no clue how this "Car" thing actually works (and won't spend the time to get a basic understanding). "Just fix it and let me have my car back." Luckily, places like this site have educated me to hopefully spot this sort of thing.

I do have a good story -- I get my tires from a local, family-owned operation. It's a pretty big shop with one location. On a previous car, the tire tech noted a clunking sound on gear engagement from Park. It turns out that most of the motor mounts were broken! This place just does tires and alignment -- with no real "alliances" to any shop for this kind of work. I am very grateful that they spotted this problem (they actually showed us the cracked mounts so it was for real). We got rid of the car pronto -- 1 motor mount can't be good! I go there anytime I need tires or alignment -- and it's across town. I'll recommend the same to anyone.

As far as other work, the dealer has generally been the destination. I need to find a good local place for difficult items that doesn't cost a fortune. I did find an honest exhaust shop that made some patch repairs free of charge. Stuff like that goes a long way...

RH77

[TheDon]

I do most of my own work. If not I have my friend/trusted mechanic work on it. I also help him when I bring it in for service.

[kevlar]

It does seem to stem from too many chains that hire young, inexperienced kids who are just there for the money, and not the car maintenance itself. True, some of them are sharp and catch things with their ears and eyes, but it seems that unless you are truly wrench savvy, or do it because it's YOUR business and your livelyhood, lots gets looked over and/or mis-sold. I too, have found a local "garage" mechanic that's good, and doesn't rape me for work that I can't perform, or don't have the tools for

[DifferentPointofView]

That same customer would be the guy ripping your manager a new asshole at the service desk if you did not do your job correctly.

LOL that made me laugh so hard!

I do everything myself unless it involves re-wiring the Jeep. I know I can do it, but not in one day! I try to learn everything I can, I've changed my transmission fluid filter, installed a block heater, changed my fuel filter, I always change my oil myself, changed my shocks, valve cover gasket, transmission fluid pan gasket, changed the tranny fluid, and I check all the fluids myself, including differential.

I've done all this so far as a sophomore in high school. It's pretty sad when people can't even do it right when they do it as a career!!! That's why I always do it myself. In the time it takes to check your spark plug gaps you could have already drained and changed the oil filter. Changing oil is one of the easiest things to do. Drain the oil into a pan, drain the filter oil into a pan, replace the oil filter, screw the oil pan plug back in place, and fill with oil. Pretty simple. But some say it's too hard and complex.

[Bror Jace]

I do all my own maintenance ... as well as the minor repairs such as brakes. I have a local shop I trust for the larger items such as timing belts, replaced head gaskets, etc ...

Time spent on my car is time well spent.

Times I've gotten "free" oil changes, etc ... from a dealer? I've marked my oil filter with a nail right before it was changed to made sure they did it.

[ebacherville]

I do my own regular maintance and failed part replacements etc.. depending on the fix I may take it in ,only done that 2 times and to a reputable shop.

My wife needed a oil changed once and I was out of town and she took it in to a shop, and the next oil change I had to spear the oil filter with a screw driver to get it off as they wrenched the think on there so fricken hard.. I told her next time let it go over on miles , it will be fine.. never again even for a simple oil change.. That and the places that mount wheels never lube your wheel nuts etc so you get rusted on nuts and broken wheel bolts.. I hate that!!

Now tire shops wont put on different sized tires than the stock tire specs .. they refuse to so I bring in my rims off the car and tell them what size i want on them , if they ask its for a small home made boat trailer I went so far to buy a hand tire mounter and buy tires then bring them home, mount them and then bring them in on the rims for a balance and then bring then mount them on the car.. saves the mounting fee and I can mount any size I want... however its kind of a pain in the butt to DIY.. But I can do it now if i need to.

I always do my own maintance when I can.

[Ryland]

I do a bit of my own work, I don't mount tires and have not had a problem with tires stores not wanting to sell me non stock size tires (165/70 R13 are impossible to buy around here) and I do not do alignments, any other work that is done is mostly dependent on how I feel about doing the work, how much time/money I have and if the work is going to be really hard to do without a lift or cherry picker, I swapped two transmissions my self but paid for an engine swap on my crx hf and a timing belt change on my vx, when I do take my car in to have work done I normally take it to a shop where all the work is done by the owner, he always test drives the car, gives free advice and gives a cash discount.
I tend to check over my car a few times a year, rotate tires, change spark plugs, check brakes, check exhaust mounts, set timing, check compression, change fluids.