Dealer service vs doing it yourself

   / Dealer service vs doing it yourself #11  
I perform as much repair and maintenance work on my tractors and other vehicles as I am comfortable with, and I feel the work I do is usually better than what would be done by a dealership. About three years ago we had some work done on the air conditioning on our Olds 98, when we got it back I checked underhood and found numerous loose parts and missing bolts, we paid $65 per hour for labor and they couldn't even bother reinstalling all the hardware they took our nor fasten the wire looms back in place. One of the primary connections was practically lying on the exhaust manifold.

I took the car back to the service department and pointed out all the things wrong and told them if that was the typical work they did we would never return there. They apologized and pulled the car back in and corrected everything while I waited.

Still have not been back there. When you pay those obscene rates for labor and the work is careless, it gives one incentive to do it yourself. I am slower than a dealership is, but nobody ever has to correct what I did.
 
   / Dealer service vs doing it yourself #12  
All this discussion about incompetent mechanics- or worse- is all too right on. Everyone has horror stories about taking a machine in for work, only to find that they were overcharged, it was poorly done if at all, or simply screwed up. I have an engineer friend who gets tense and has an upset stomach whenever he has to take a car or truck in to a dealer for warrantee work. And then, there are the crooks who charge for stuff they don't even do. A good mechanic is someone to love and cherish!
 

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