Originally Posted by
Cobra4B
Again I'm only talking about customer pay business. If I felt I was getting a fair deal from a dealer I'd much rather take car there. I know their technicians are trained on my specific vehicle and they have all the needed tools to perform the work. I would even be willing to pay a little more for the work. But not 100% more.
In my example in the first post... if I was in a jamb and couldn't do the pump myself I'd pay a dealer $500 to do the work... eventhough I know they're making $150+ on the part and charging me an extra hour for labor. But @ $990 you just have to laugh and walk away.
This thread has many valid points, but the basics are that you are going to pay a premium for service at a dealer. Is it ripping people off? No. The dealer has their business model laid out and knows what it takes to turn a profit, and are catering to their clientele. There are many people that do not care how much they pay for a service, they just want to make sure they are getting it done correctly in their mind. Does this mean taking your car to a dealer means its going to get fixed correctly? No. MANY instances of fuckups occur no matter where the vehicle is taken, and there are horror stories everywhere.
IMO, a good indy shop that has capable techs, the proper tooling, information systems, parts suppliers, and management that knows the market is the best way to go in most cases. However, those shops are VERY few and far between. I have 4 guys in a 12 bay shop that spend about 8hrs a week doing training and updating their information systems to stay on top of things, in addition to spending untold hours of their own time on various tech forums and networking with other techs. If it fits in the door, I fix it. over the last six years I have sent 3 vehicles to the dealer for something that I could not fix, and that was due to the OE not releasing the programming capability to the aftermarket (VW and Audi DO NOT allow security programming to be done other than at the OE dealer level, no matter how many lawsuits they get over it).
However, good indies are not easy to find, and most people get to deal with the chains, which usually treat customers as a number and do not care about the service level.
Bottom line is there are customers for every market niche. Some people want to spend the least amount possible, while others want the best service they can and dont care about price.