And I thought I had heard some stories of bad dealers

[scot850]

Today I was helping my former Volvo mechanic buddy to fix one of his neighbors cars. It was some kind of large sedan, I think a G37x possibly?

Anyway, his neighbor had had the car at a main Infiniti dealer to have a check over and service. The dealer then presented him with a whole host of issues the car needed immediately as they were dangerous if not repaired. The owner was shocked as whilst not a car guy as such he is not stupid so asked my buddy to fix the car and he went ahead and ordered the parts they listed:

1) Front brakes and pads - Correct call as pads were well worn but not dangerous.
2) LHF brake caliper was seized - My buddy drove the car to my house to borrow the hoist and had no braking issues. When the front brakes were stripped there was nothing wrong with either caliper, both moved freely and just needed regular servicing and lube .
3) Both front tie-rods outers were bad and needed replaced ungently and an alignment. Again car drove fine and on checking nothing wrong with them, or the ball joints.
4) A front swaybar link was bad so to replace as a pair. Nothing wrong with the fronts at all, but one rear was bad and not mentioned.
5) Serpentine belt was cracked and needed replacing immediately as well as the tensioner and idler. - No cracking with the belt or issues with the idler or tensioner. On a time basis the belt is due soon but not urgent. My buddy passed on fitting it as it is a pig to do and has recommended an Asian specialist that can do the work.
6) Engine air-filters (yes 2) - These were grubby and were due to do but a simple job so were done.
7) Cabin filter - Again grubby and due and done.

They also said the rear brakes need done but there is nothing wrong with them with good rotors and pads at 50%. My buddy had already taken a quick look so the parts had not been ordered.

The car owner had bought most of the parts from Rock Auto I believe, but I'd say 60% were not needed. I have heard of people getting stung by dealers (and I have had attempts on my cars) but never to this extent of fictitious work. Not only were many of the jobs unnecessary, but the owner has bought all these parts that are not required. To return to Rock Auto is pointless as the shipping charges they need to return often are higher than the parts cost.

I heard many times on here of Volvo dealers doing this type of thing, but only once had an issue of this with our local dealers not on my car but my son's. They were reamed out for being jerks and it was not repeated!

It always makes my blood boil when I hear of this happening.

Neil.

[abscate]

Th service side is something like 70% of dealer revenue in the biz. They are going to drive that hard , amd my guess is 90% of dealer customer don’t know blinker fluid from Jesus pins, so it’s easy money.

I kind of admire the BmW model where “service I “ makes it sound official, and you essentially pay $400 for fluid checks.

Eeeks

[scot850]

I recall my brother telling me when he worked for Mercedes Benz in Copenhagen in Denmark in the late 70's and 80's that they made up faults for certain cars driven sedately by loving lady owners (mainly SL's). The cars would be brought in running rough and leave running perfectly. The fix? Italian tune up down the highway at high speed. Sometimes they would get pulled over by the police for speeding, but got left off when they explained the reason for the high speed. The police would nod sagely and shake their heads.

The wife you be told of the phantom issue and they were happy they had diagnosed an issue with their car. The husband would call in and ask what the repair was and would be told exactly what the issue was. Nothing more would be said and all moved on happy!

Neil.