SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – April 11, 2021 – 3

Written by admin on . Posted in Audi, Car Specials, Chevrolet, Dodge, Electric Vehicles, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, SUV

How is your Dealership’s Service Department? (Part Three)
The Dangers of “Upselling”
Let’s say that someone comes into the dealership for a simple oil change. They immediately become a target for the service department to “upsell” them as much additional work as possible. First of all, the advisor will ask how many miles are on the car. If there is close to, for example, 20,000 miles, they will say, “Well, you’re just about ready for your 20,000-mile service. Here’s what we recommend.” They then whip out a sheet with a laundry list of services that are offered for a package price. But if you look at what is actually done to the car, it is just inspections or fluid checks and fills. When you start getting more miles, the service writer will say, “We’re going to do all services recommended for that mileage, but we’ll also check for other problems.” So you agree to a “full inspection,” which is one of the biggest scams. Later in the day the service writer will call and say, “Everything looks OK but we recommend you have some other work done: transmission fluid, air-conditioning, differential fluid.” By the way, most manufacturers don’t recommend ever changing the diff fluid. So you go in for an oil change and end up dropping $600. Dealerships don’t profit on extensive operations like replacing engine blocks, transmissions or other large components. These require expensive parts, and the mechanics take longer to finish them. So while you pay a lot for these operations, the service department doesn’t make much off them. With the smaller operations, on the other hand, you don’t pay as much, but they’re making a very high percentage of profit. In one case, I looked at the dealer-recommended service and compared it to the owner’s manual — it had almost doubled the service frequency from the manual. That’s true of parts, too. The prices of most parts you buy through a dealership are doubled.
Too Frequent Brake Jobs
In my experience, some service advisors recommend brake jobs that aren’t necessary. Some also recommend turning the rotors on the brakes when it’s not really called for. Turning the rotor involves putting the disc part of the brake (the rotor) on a lathe and cutting a thin layer of metal off to make the surface flat. Garages typically charge $50 to turn each rotor. However, it isn’t always necessary to turn the rotors. Turning makes the rotors thinner, which could eventually lead to warping. My opinion is that unless a rotor is gouged, you should not let a shop automatically turn it. The new brake pads will adapt to the grooves in the rotor within 20 miles of driving. To be fair, some service advisors automatically recommend rotor turning because it solves a potential problem for them — the customer doesn’t come back to complain about brakes that squeak, which is what happens when new pads adapt to the rotors. Still, it’s a good idea to discuss why rotors need to be turned before you pay for such a service. Most brake pads come with a small metal strip buried under the brake pad called the “wear indicator.” When the brake pad wears down to about 15 percent of its thickness, the metal contacts the rotor and causes the brakes to screech when you hit them. That’s when it’s time to change the brake pads. There have been cases in which unscrupulous mechanics have bent these strips so they start squeaking sooner. Another scam is to spray oil on the shock absorber so it looks like there’s a leak in the hydraulic fluid, meaning your shocks should be changed. While only devious mechanics would use such tactics to get extra work, I mention them here so you can be on the lookout.

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