15k service - beware of your fees

[5point7]

I stopped taking my car to this particular local 5 star and started using a dodge dealer closer to me. My buddy has an 05 Jeep GC with the Hemi and takes it to the old shop I stopped using (Chrysler/Jeep) - they bought 2 cars there in the last 3 years too!!

Here's a list of the charges for his 15k service:

$39.95 for a brake inspection and "normal maintenance"
$0 for tire rotation (separate line item from balance/rotation)
$49.95 for tire balance and rotation
$89.00 Align front end
$78 for fuel injection "inspection" parts and labor.

Nice...another great show of 5 star service from a local 5 star dealer...

How do they expect to keep your business like this?

[II kings 9:20]

Those bastards, I'll bet they don't even drain the brake fluid.

[jjs]

What the hell could they need to inspect injectors for at 15K miles?

[marlinspike]

Hehe welcome to the world of the german inspection program. You think that is bad? Check out what BMW calls inspection II (MB has a similar inspection, I forget the name). Inspecting (not replacing) the serpentine belt is considered 1 hour of labor!!! It takes 3 seconds to check belts in reality. The full inspection II (which if you only had them do the necessary things would take about 3 hours) costs $1500 at the local dealer. You have to do it every 21k miles or so.

[jlohrenz]

Before we got rid of our Lexus, the 60K service had a tag of close to $1800. WOW.

[LWOOD]

My take on the whole "service inspection" thing is they look at the brakes. If they're still there, it's good enough.

[Lik2race]

That's another reason I bought the "Maximum" warranty and
Extended Service Agreement-7/70 Full Coverage,ALL Scheduled Service -
NO COST to me.Paid $2k at purchase.

[Jasper]

Originally Posted by 5point7

I stopped taking my car to this particular local 5 star and started using a dodge dealer closer to me. Here's a list of the charges for his 15k service... How do they expect to keep your business like this?

DCX has GOT to put some effort into "fixing" the dealer service network. They've fixed the product - obviously, since we're all here - but the 5-Star program is a complete JOKE. I know that every dealer is an independent business, but there should be SOME pressure that DCX can exert to improve service - ALL car dealers are independent business, why do Chrysler dealers SUCK so badly?

Seems like all you see are horror stories - taking a 300C to a DCX dealer reminds me of that old ER episode (or was it St. Elsewhere?) where a guy goes in for tests, and they end up killing him through all the mistakes and screwups!

I'm afraid to have one of the shops in the LA area TOUCH my car anymore, since they can't seem to get the right oil into the Hemi, let alone anything "complex" like repeated flushing of the tranny!

[II kings 9:20]

BMW has full maintenance for 4/50 included in the price. I had $0 in costs. Keep in mind that amounted to one oil change every 15K, that's it. Since it was "free" I have no idea what else they may have done in the way of "inspections", I think precious little. Being it was leased and I had no intention of ponying up $30K to buy it out, I was cool with a 15K interval, pitty the poor sap that buys it used.

[marlinspike]

Yeah, that's true, the free service is pretty nice, but the service intervals were a lot shorter in 98 (only about 7000 miles) and they came with one less year of free maintenance than warranty (so I think that put it at 3 years, not sure though).