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.
3 Users Responded in " Dealership Service Centres – Are They Worth Paying The Extra For? "
hi this is not like the old days when you took your car to be properly serviced it was checked over properly now days this huge money making racket with is going on with modern cars there is hardly nothing to grease and all they have to do is oil changes and filter changes with dont take long do and they still charge like wounded bulls with is wrong what they are doing and to check the rest of the car dose not take that mutch longer there this a lot companys will not let you in there work shops to see what they are doing your cars and thats how they hide how mutch they can charge you and you have no say in the matter and they do not even do there jobs propply to dealership specs and they charge you for that as well and use that excuse as there chargeing rip off in what they are doing to your cars.
In my country, Japanese cars service centers typically follow a stringent check list for every car that comes in for a servicing. However the cost of servicing my toyota camry comes with a hefty price tag. Because the auto dealers warranty is void if the car is not serviced by them, we have no choice but to pay the price…When the warranty runs out, i will be sending it to my regular mechanic who services my second car.
The comment above with the ‘ dealer only servicing to keep a new car warranty ‘ is false information.
Anybody can service a new car, and it won’t affect new car warranty. As long as it was serviced as per manufacturer’s specifications, using the correct parts and fluids, you won’t have a problem.
Dealer’s don’t make new car warranties, vehicle manufacturers do.
The dealer’s job is to interpret the warranty.
It doesn’t suprise me that a dealer would carry out such poor work. The majority of employees working in a dealership lack morale, and the pay is normally poor to average.
Getting higher up the ladder in a dealership is next to impossible, unless of course you are willing to be stuck working there for 10 years plus.
It’s sad seeing these theives charging 100 dollars and more per hour of usually poor service, and then paying a qualified mechanic a crummy 16 dollars per hour. How can anybody blame them for not caring?
The majority of good/intelligent mechanics leave a dealership to work in a small privately owned shop, leave the trade completely, or start up their own business. Whatever they chose, they are all guaranteed to have made a much better move in life!
If possible, save your money, and avoid a stealership if you can!
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