Do other people get the runaround from dealers that do recall service on vehicles? The attitude seems to be the service departments act like you are not a customer but they are. These people I have found are not capable of doing the work, they just write up the tickets. Are we the reason the vehicles are recalled? They act like they are doing you a favor by repairing a product sold to you that is defective.

When I made my last trip to the dealer for a recall, it required a download to the cars computer to complete.
After an hour wait (told it would be 15 minutes) I was told that they could not complete the recall work, because they kept getting kicked off line. When I asked if the problem was at the dealership or at Chevy. no one could say where the problem was. Took 3 visits to get the download. No apology for my wasted time.
You can get a good buy on most new vehicles fairly easily, if you know your stuff. Its not so easy to find someone who can repair or maintain it. Or has customer service skills while trying.

Worse - I am now on my second BMW recall, where it's been out since last year, they still can't get parts to complete. A blower motor wiring issue that apparently can start a fire. When the car is parked......

First was part of the airbag issues and took nearly 2 years to get a replacement. Of course the ones that come through as used cars miraculously get them right away so they can resell.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Worse - I am now on my second BMW recall, where it's been out since last year, they still can't get parts to complete. A blower motor wiring issue that apparently can start a fire. When the car is parked......

First was part of the airbag issues and took nearly 2 years to get a replacement. Of course the ones that come through as used cars miraculously get them right away so they can resell.

I was part of the airbag recall as well on my 2008 335. The airbags were made by Takata (spelling?) and took forever because apparently Takata made air bags for a lot of different car manufacturers.

I have had two distinctly different recall experiences with my cars;

Honda - Dealer acts like they are doing you a favor and while doing recall conduct their nifty multi point inspection then present you with an insane estimate for things the car absolutely (verified) doe not need.

Kia - Took the Sorrento in for an oil change and they discovered a recall had come out that we were not notified of. Not only did they do the recall on the spot but comped the oil change because they felt that it took longer than it should have.

I think when they do work that is under warranty they only get paid X number of dollars for the job.
If they do repair work that they charge for, they get the hourly rate and a little book tells them how many hours to charge, if they go faster, they get more per hour.

quote:

Originally posted by Aquabird:
I think when they do work that is under warranty they only get paid X number of dollars for the job.
If they do repair work that they charge for, they get the hourly rate and a little book tells them how many hours to charge, if they go faster, they get more per hour.

Warranty work for sure pays them less and I am not sure if recall work is even less than that or not so I get they are not jumping with excitement when they see you roll in however, as a dealer, they agree and understand that work comes with the territory

Warranty and recall work is big money now at dealerships, so much so that getting in to get a non warranty job done can be difficult to schedule, part of the reason you can be sitting at a dealer waiting.

Today companies exist that provide services to get people in for warranty claims/recalls, it has increased the number of people getting the work done it's big money. My neighbor sold these services, dealers love them, they can make a ton of profit for the dealership with the extra money from warranty work.

ANd what better way to get people in strolling through the dealer looking at new cars while waiting. (yes I know everyone here hates car dealers and would never look at another new car from the dealer they are getting service at, and it should be outlawed or banned or something LOL)

Years ago they shunned it, no longer and warranty work doesn't pay less anymore according to my neighbor, it does pay only the hours allotted for the job, so there is no overage if it takes the tech 4 hours to complete a 1 hour book job. That would be a tech problem.

Its easy money and it's a big check deposited monthly into the dealers bank account, like rebates, advertising spiffs, holdback etc.

This is where dealers are making their money, because of the internet pricing given out, making money on the sale is harder, you can give a car away (invoice) and still make bank.

The other is that there is a shortage of good trained techs coming into the auto repair business, one of the biggest labor problems they have is finding good quality techs to fill the slots. The old too many kids in college nobody in trade school problem.

A good tech that works smart can pull in 6 figure income, dealers are simply having trouble getting enough employees to cover both the warranty and drive in service, as a whole.

Disclaimer:
You individual dealer experiences may vary, not all dealers have 6 figure opportunities, some dealers are just shitty, other dealers work hard to get your business, some sales guys are snakes, it may rain when you drive your new car home on the first day, nobody slept in a holiday inn express composing this reply.

Maybe I've been lucky. My experience with my 2011 Hyundai Sonata Limited pretty much mirrors what I had experienced with my 1999 Subaru Forester although the number of nitnoid recalls by Hyundai (e.g. replace shifter knob, etc.) far exceeds what was generated by Subaru.

The dealer is courteous and performs the recall maintenance quickly and without fuss. No stupid estimates for other work either. Hell my last time I also scheduled an oil change. Turns out one of the recalls required an oil change as part of the "fix." So I wasn't charged a cent.

Never have had any recall activity on my 2003 Honda S2000 so no comment.

It depends on the dealer.

Remember the dealer isn't the maker, so they also view this as having to fix a problem they didn't create. (Not an excuse, but . . . ) I also don't know how well paid they are to do recall work, but it wouldn't surprise me if the reimbursement rate isn't as high as their usual rate for service work. That would go a long way to explaining why you are the red-headed stepchild on recall work.

My brother finally got the notice for his BMW air bag recall for his 2006 last week. The day after he traded it in.

Subaru couldn't handle my software update. They said they were having issues and to reschedule. I went home, downloaded the files from the internet and did the update in ten minutes. I guess the dealership couldn't find usb flash drives that worked.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
My brother finally got the notice for his BMW air bag recall for his 2006 last week. The day after he traded it in.

Subaru couldn't handle my software update. They said they were having issues and to reschedule. I went home, downloaded the files from the internet and did the update in ten minutes. I guess the dealership couldn't find usb flash drives that worked.

Our daughter had a Subaru that has high oil consumption. Dealer told her 1.5 quarts every 3,600 miles is normal.

She took it in for an oil consumption test, twice and they overfilled it, twice.

She called them on it. They just shrugged their shoulders.

She no longer owns a Subaru.

I had 5 recalls on my Tacoma. The last time I took it in they told me the frame was rusted (it wasn't) and they would order the parts to replace it, free. Then they told me my catalytic converter needed to be replaced at 850 bucks minimum. I took the truck to Carmax, who offered me blue book value, and could find no rust. When I told the appraiser about the cat, he laughed and said at 45k miles they had to be joking. At any rate, I'll never return to that particular dealer, and I didn't need two vehicles after retiring anyway, so I took the Carmax offer.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
I had 5 recalls on my Tacoma. The last time I took it in they told me the frame was rusted (it wasn't) and they would order the parts to replace it, free. Then they told me my catalytic converter needed to be replaced at 850 bucks minimum. I took the truck to Carmax, who offered me blue book value, and could find no rust. When I told the appraiser about the cat, he laughed and said at 45k miles they had to be joking. At any rate, I'll never return to that particular dealer, and I didn't need two vehicles after retiring anyway, so I took the Carmax offer.

Your catalytic converter(s) have an 80,000 mile federally mandated warranty: https://www.epa.gov/transporta...e-transportation-and

Lexus recalled the dashboard on our car because they were cracking way too soon from sun damage. Kindof glad they were willing to do a recall on something that isn't a danger to drivers/riders; BUT - it took them a year after we registered to call us and say they had the parts ready for install. AND while doing the replacement, they somehow unhooked the switch that opens/closes the rear hatch...

I’ve had 2 recalls on my Lexus and each time the local dealership to me has been great. The last recall was for a transmission, which was awesome because I got a new transmission at 95k miles... The other was for some headlight wiring that would blow bulbs.. My only complaint was they didn’t call the headlight wiring thing a recall they called it a service bulletin or something and although I had already replaced my bulbs twice in 2 years prior to the service bulletin they wouldn’t fix the wiring without having proof that it blew a bulb or a blown bulb, which obviously I didn’t have because who keeps a blown bulb? So I had to wait a 3rd time for them to blow before I could get the repairs done and instead of being proactive and just getting it done when it was convenient of course i didn’t see the blown bulb until night time so I was driving around with 1 headlight again.

But overall Lexus has been good to me so I can’t complain a lot

Recall work does not pay regularly shop hourly $, it pays less. The manufacturer they work for basically fucks them on labor when it comes to warranty work. So oil changes and general maintenance pays better than recall work.