Dealership Service Centres - Are They Worth Paying The Extra For?
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An interesting piece was published in The Courier Mail last week regarding a survey conducted by Choice Magazine. The results of the survey state that nine out of ten car dealer’s service centres missed a planted fault in a car they were servicing. Believe it or not, even the so called ‘experts’ can get it wrong! I know you would have never thought it possible.
Ford, Holden, Subaru and Toyota service dealers in Sydney were told by a driver she was about to travel interstate and wanted a minor service and safety check done on her car before she left.
Only three out of twenty-eight service centres used in the survey picked up four deliberately planted faults including a blown reverse light, low brake fluid, right rear tyre pressure twenty percent below the manufacturer’s recommended standard and a spare tyre with pressure reduced to ten psi.
Almost half of the service centres failed to notice the blown reverse light bulb, one in ten didn’t fill up the brake fluid and about eight in ten didn’t increase the pressure in the spare tyre.
Ford-branded service centres performed the worst and Toyota centres performed the best with all centres topping up the brake fluid and right rear tyre pressure.
The Choice report states that almost all of the service centres were independently owned with the parent company rarely having direct control over them.
However they’re supposed to meet certain obligations to the parent company, including some form of agreement to adhere to a code of standards, the report reads.
Not surprisingly, the report recommends that consumers should take recommendations rather than the word of a dealership badge when shopping around for car service.
Now I don’t know about you, but if my wife was about to take a long trip I would want to know that her car was in good shape and that she had the best chance of getting to her destination without any dramas. And where would you go to get the best possible service for your vehicle? Logic would say that taking your vehicle to the manufacturer’s dealership would be a wise choice, right?
Sure the mechanic doing the service is only human and things can get over-looked, but with only three out of twenty-eight service centres picking up on the faults I can’t see human error as a factor in this. Okay so the blown reverse light is hardly a life-threatening issue but the low brake fluid, reduced pressure in the right rear tyre and a spare tyre down to ten psi is something that has the potential to cause major problems.
You would think that with the hourly rate that these places are charging the level of service would be second to none. Eighty dollars an hour plus is commonplace with dealership service centres and what do you get for your money? Probably a first year apprentice on minimum money thinking about what he is going to do to his girlfriend tonight instead of concentrating on servicing your car.
Whatever you do people, please don’t think that just because you are doing the ‘right’ thing and taking your car to the dealership for servicing and paying a premium price that you are getting ‘premium’ service. As this study goes to show this simply may not be the case. Recommendations are by far the best way to find a competent, reasonably priced mechanic.
Craig
