My MDX is currently awaiting parts for an oil consumption issue that Acura and their dealers tried to hide/avoid for several years. It took me SIX trips to two different Acura dealers to get them to put my car on the list for repairs. I was put on the list back in August ffs.

The ONLY reason I am even messing with the dealer is because I want this car to last me another 100k miles and I want to get the piston rings fixed. Plus it's due for a timing belt anyway and all I will have to pay for is parts.

But after this, used vehicles only and fuck the dealerships. They are the lowest of the low. Rest assured I will be asking for my old timing belt and everything else they replace in the 100k mile service because I don't trust those assholes as far as I can throw them. I want the old water pump, belt, spark plugs, everything!

These stories remind me why, despite costing a few dollars more, I do my own oil changes...I can control the brand of filter I use, I know the weight and type of oil and I dont try to sell myself extra, often unneeded services to pad the bottom line

I received an email today requesting I rate my visit. I was polite but blunt. It will be interesting to see if they respond to my “One star review.”

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Originally posted by BB61:
I received an email today requesting I rate my visit. I was polite but blunt. It will be interesting to see if they respond to my “One star review.”

Do a Google review too.

My coworker took his Lexus in last week for an oil change and they failed to put oil in it and he drove it off until it started knocking, then drove it back.

Yes, it DESTROYED the engine. Crank, bearings, rod bearings, cams, rockers, oil pump.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
...my “One star review.”

Nice!

Since nothing else gets their attention.

Took my 03 Tundra in one day for an oil change. Drove off, chitty, chitty, bang bang. Made it back to the lot. Zero oil. After several conversations with corp Toyota and "servicing" dealer. They found me a new truck, kept my destroyed one. Got a new truck and a much lower payment.

Back in the days when I could afford a Porsche, I took mine in to the dealer for an oil change.

After getting the car back, I stopped at a store to pick something up. Walking back to the car, I fortunately dropped my keys. When I bent down to pick them up I saw a puddle of oil under the car.

The oil change guy had put the drain plug in finger tight, then got distracted by something shiny, or a squirrel, or maybe a shiny squirrel, and forgot to tighten it.

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Originally posted by NK402:

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

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Originally posted by NK402:
I took my 2006 4 Runner to a well known Tidewater Toyota dealer for a brake job a few years ago. Within two weeks, the rotors, discs and calipers were covered in rust. When I took it back, they admitted they had used parts from Car Quest, not the Toyota factory parts I had expected. When I insisted they repeat the service using Toyota parts, the service babe said she wasn't sure Car Quest would take the parts back, I suggested that wasn't my problem. They became more co-operative, when I suggested using non-Toyota parts might constitute a safety issue.

There should have been a disclosure to you that non OEM parts were used. Usually aftermarket parts warranty only covers the part and not the labor. Sometimes the installing dealer would cover that labor, sometimes not. Regardless, they should have disclosed all of that information to you at the time you signed authorizing the work. Also some dealerships will use a code instead of the aftermarket part number further muddying the issue of tracing it to see who supplied it.

I'm going on a limb here but how did the dealership invoice those parts? I would hope that they would not have misrepresented those as OEM Toyota by using the OEM number on the invoice. If they did that could and should get real ugly for them real quick.

At minimum the service writer should have made you aware of the aftermarket parts substitution before the job was commenced or during if for some reason they could not source OEM items. Bad practices here.

It was about 5 years ago but as I recall, they were represented to be Toyota parts on the invoice.

Toyota as any auto manufacturer takes a very dim view of misrepresenting a non OEM replacement as one of theirs. GM dealers have a disclosure letter stating that non factory parts were used were used in those instances. Normally an OEM manufacturer part is covered with a replacement part warranty for a specific time or mileage, in addition many times the labor to remove and replace that part is also covered when it originally was installed at the dealer's shop. Aftermarket "parts store" replacements usually while are covered under a parts replacement program do not cover removal and replacement, that is the purchaser's responsibility. Sometimes a shop will cover the replacing labor as a goodwill expense, sometimes they make the customer pay for that.

So warranties, certification under FMVSS and CARB and plain everyday product liability all come into play here. And automakers legal departments usually take a dim view of being involved in legal actions not of their making. A one time incident would involve some unpleasant time for all concerned in that dealership but a pattern of those cases could cause them to lose their franchise. Rare but it does happen.

I would assume most if not all of the state consumer protection or bureau of automotive service standards would have taken a very dim view of that incident.

Regardless, that would have been my last trip to that dealership, calling like it is, fraud.

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Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
My coworker took his Lexus in last week for an oil change and they failed to put oil in it and he drove it off until it started knocking, then drove it back.

Yes, it DESTROYED the engine. Crank, bearings, rod bearings, cams, rockers, oil pump.

After working at several car dealerships and service stations thru the years, I ALWAYS pop the hood on my vehicle and check the oil after having an oil change.

There are too many idiots working at oil change outlets.

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I’ve said it a million times. Commission, commission, commission.

Better do all your own work, then, because virtually every repair shop and dealer pays on some sort of commission. Even hourly or salaried people need to produce or they get the boot, something true of any business. I hate the system, but until somebody comes up with some changes that make sense - not just sitting around bitching - I'll stick with it.

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Originally posted by egregore:

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I’ve said it a million times. Commission, commission, commission.

Better do all your own work, then, because virtually every repair shop and dealer pays on some sort of commission. Even hourly or salaried people need to produce or they get the boot, something true of any business. I hate the system, but until somebody comes up with some changes that make sense - not just sitting around bitching - I'll stick with it.

I do. And there’s no denying commission sales breeds dishonesty. Service writers and service managers should be paid hourly, but thats never gonna happen. There’s too much money to be stolen.

Don't trust the one in Summerville, SC.

I had my oil changed and tires rotated at my Nissan dealer today . $56 out the door . ALL things considered , a bargain to me .

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Originally posted by selogic:
I had my oil changed and tires rotated at my Nissan dealer today . $56 out the door . ALL things considered , a bargain to me .

That’s a decent price, if they actually performed the work. I’ve busted a local Toyota dealer not doing the work they were paid to do. They changed the oil, but not the oil filter.

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Originally posted by PowerSurge:

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Originally posted by selogic:
I had my oil changed and tires rotated at my Nissan dealer today . $56 out the door . ALL things considered , a bargain to me .

That’s a decent price, if they actually performed the work. I’ve busted a local Toyota dealer not doing the work they were paid to do. They changed the oil, but not the oil filter.

I watched the whole thing thru the big glass window . You can see the whole shop .

The local one here just about ruined my rear differential when I got all the fluids changed everywhere.

Apparently the giant factory sticker on the rear diff saying "LIMITED SLIP FLUID ONLY" wasn't enough of a warning to say, use that type of diff fluid? A few months later I finally figured out what the noise was when driving it, changed it myself, and the noise went away no problem.