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View Full Version : When the 'stealership' label is all too real



pl8ster
January 16th, 2017, 03:34 PM
So I have a graphic designer who works for me (?!) and he's a great guy. He bought a 2011 Camry a bit over a year ago, fit his criteria of 'decent daily driver' pretty well. Nice car, leather and stuff, the non-hybrid trim level that included the LED brake lights, about 70k. He's not too knowledgeable about cars at all, makes me feel kind of like an expert. A couple of weeks ago, he started experiencing some weird electrical issues, like the speedometer would randomly go to zero and the windshield wipers would refuse to work. Weird intermittent stuff. He told me he was going to take it to the Toyota dealer where he bought it and have them take a look at it. I mentioned that the garage across the street from our office building could probably take a look at it, but I got the impression he thought his car was maybe too new for an independent garage like that, so I didn't rock the boat.

The dealer charged him $130 for the pleasure of 'diagnosing' the problem and gave him a repair quote. He didn't tell me exactly how much the quote was for, but he looked pretty shaken after he spoke with the dealer and said it was "a lot of money" (my brain went to $1500-2000). I suggested he could take it to the garage across the street from our office and have them take a look for a second opinion. Another co-worker chimed in with a positive review of the place, so an appointment was set for today.

After lunch today, the guy at the garage called him back and told him he'd identified the problem as the ignition relay, would be $185-200 all in with parts and labor. Then he showed me the repair estimate from the dealership...

Forty-six hundred fucking dollars. Plus tax.

Which included a $2700 ABS module (?!) and a host of other electronic bits - but, interestingly, not an ignition relay. The garage had to order the part and will have the repair completed tomorrow, but the guy sounded pretty confident about his diagnosis. Assuming he is in fact correct, how in the blue hell did the dealership get to $4600? And, again, assuming the ignition relay is the culprit, what action (if any) would you take with the dealership? $200 at an independent garage vs. $800 at a dealership for the same repair would be within reasonable expectation IMO, but $200 to $4600 with wildly different diagnoses is in another solar system. I said that if the new ignition relay worked, I might take the receipt from the garage to the dealership, along with their repair quote, and have the service manager try and explain it. Wonder if it would be worth the trouble to try and get the $130 diagnostic fee refunded? Probably would be akin to getting blood from a stone. FWIW, this is part of a chain of dealerships across three states.

dodint
January 16th, 2017, 04:04 PM
Woooow.


He owes you a beer if it sorts out. Good deed by you.

Leon
January 16th, 2017, 05:26 PM
Await the diagnosis with interest, as one of the two shops has totally misdiagnosed the problem big time.

dodint
January 16th, 2017, 05:38 PM
Yeah, that's what I meant by 'if it sorts out.' Hope it does but I wouldn't celebrate yet.

Tom Servo
January 16th, 2017, 10:13 PM
We had a similar thing with the RAV. Vibration coming from the right front - got worse under load (read: accelerating while turning right, nearly silent. Trail-braking on a left-hander, nasty vibration).

Wife took it to the dealership, they said it was that the shocks needed replacing. They wanted almost $2,500 for it. She asked if it was urgent, and they said that it didn't need to be fixed immediately, but it could become dangerous soon.

We got a recommendation for a nearby shop and took it there. Guy almost immediately said it sounded like a wheel bearing. We told him to fix whatever - he did the wheel bearing and also replaced the front brake pads. $500 later and the car was like new again. We asked as we paid if they noticed any issue with the shocks - nobody noticed anything wrong with them.

Rare White Ape
January 16th, 2017, 11:50 PM
Everyone needs to befriend themselves a genius mechanic to do these things for them. I've got one but the bastard moved 800 km away.

Mirage
January 17th, 2017, 06:42 AM
Toyota of Greenville took the shotgun approach whenever my dad took his Tacoma or his wifes Rav4 in, I had to tell him to not let them do anything without asking me first because they were just throwing parts at it too fix a problem and they weren't even fixing it. The Taco had a front end vibration they never fixed and they kept blaming it on the tires even though he went through a set and had discount tire rebalance multiple times.

I think a lot of service advisors are pulling that crap these days, just throw whatever they can think of at it and see what sticks.

He finally got tired of it and traded in for a new F150 and Kia hamster box

Cam
January 17th, 2017, 07:11 AM
It really depends on the dealership. Some are good some are not.

Had a CV joint boot crack. The whole axle, including two CV joints came as all one part, so I couldn't just replace the CV joint that busted. :(

Had a misfire. The dealership simply just replaced all the plugs, wires, etc. It is faster and easier for them to simply replace all of it rather than diagnose the malfunctioning piece. That's probably what I would do if I were doing the work myself. *shrug* But, yeah, charging you $100 "diagnostic fee" just to plug the car into their computer is a bit of a rip-off.

Godson
January 17th, 2017, 07:11 AM
It happens. Mostly when the technician doesn't want to do their job, which is diagnose.

F150s are notorious for the IWE gear and hubs 'locking' up. The system runs on vacuum, and people blame the seals all the time. Mine started to exhibit the same issue, so I did a static vacuum test (which it passed with flying colors), took it all apart, cleaned, and re-lubed everything, and re-assembled. No cost in parts because I had the lube on hand, and the system is working perfectly.

You go to any shop and they will sell you hubs and the IWE gear when in actuality it most likely needs to be cleaned and lubed.

speedpimp
January 17th, 2017, 08:21 AM
FFS.

thesameguy
January 17th, 2017, 08:54 AM
I wonder if Toyota is doing what VW is doing - with VW you plug the diagnostic module into the car, and then the computer talks to Germany and then Germany tells you what to do. You may not deviate for warranty work! While I was getting the keys for the Saab the service manager told a customer "Unfortunately we can't do warranty work on the weekend because Germany is closed." ROFL!

I wouldn't count chickens until they're hatched, but I also summarily don't trust dealerships. Good luck and Godspeed (to your employee)!

21Kid
January 17th, 2017, 12:50 PM
I said that if the new ignition relay worked, I might take the receipt from the garage to the dealership, along with their repair quote, and have the service manager try and explain it. Wonder if it would be worth the trouble to try and get the $130 diagnostic fee refunded?
I most certainly would. After a couple of days to verify the local shop's fix worked.
edit: also $4600 is like 1/2 the value of that car. :smh:

TheBenior
January 17th, 2017, 01:04 PM
I wonder if Toyota is doing what VW is doing - with VW you plug the diagnostic module into the car, and then the computer talks to Germany and then Germany tells you what to do. You may not deviate for warranty work! While I was getting the keys for the Saab the service manager told a customer "Unfortunately we can't do warranty work on the weekend because Germany is closed." ROFL!

I wouldn't count chickens until they're hatched, but I also summarily don't trust dealerships. Good luck and Godspeed (to your employee)!

I had a co-worker who had a 1st gen VW CC that was having problems with the rear window defroster not working. The dealership threw expensive parts at it before eventually figuring out that it was due to a bad ground. Fortunately, it was under warranty at the time.