YACT: WTF did the dealer do with my car?

[jmcoreymv]

I brought my old car in ('89 Accord) to the dealership because it was having a 30k mile maintenance done and a new timing belt (just precautionary). It also had an overheating problem. Long story short they ended up doing the maintenance, new timing belt, as well as replacing the radiator, the water heater, a brake caliper, both front brake pads, virtually all the hoses etc.

Anyways, I pick it up and it appears to run fine. I go out to the garage the next morning and see the left rear speaker popped out of the read deck, its missing all 3 nuts holding it in. The one on the right is fine. I opened the passenger side door and something was clinking around in there, and one of the screws in the door was missing. Then I checked the change box just to see if anything was missing. They stole virtually all the quarters out of it (probably about 15.00 worth).

Besides all that, I see that my car is leaking this rusty orange stuff (rusty radiator fluid), and we take it back to the dealer and they check it out. Said the seal for the drain plug on the new radiator was bad so they are going to replace the new radiator.

Right now its in the shop and Im supposed to pick it up tomorrow...

 

[imported_Mike]

Never leave anything in your car when you take it in.

 

[NutBucket]

WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

 

[Ketteringo]

Originally posted by: CheapArse
Never leave anything in your car when you take it in.

They even tell you this.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Never take your car to a dealership for repairs or maintenance unless it is under warranty. Just because they are a dealer does not mean they have good mechanics or do good work. Find a local repair shop that is reliable, get it done right the first time and pay less.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

 

[Anubis]

what 89 accord with 30K miles?

do you ever drive it

i take my car to the dealer for everything, they never take anything

 

[jmcoreymv]

Originally posted by: Anubis
what 89 accord with 30K miles?

do you ever drive it

No its got 112k miles. But it has the 30k mile maintenance done.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: Ketteringo

Originally posted by: CheapArse
Never leave anything in your car when you take it in.

They even tell you this.

yep, this is to get out of any liability.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Glad I don't have these issues

 

[imported_Mike]

This dealer is obviously very shady...I hope you took everything out before you took it back in to fix the seal.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Yea I took the remaining few quarters out....

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

I'd write a letter to Honda Corporate, seriously.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

I'd write a letter to Honda Corporate, seriously.

I'd consider it, but Im not sure what it would accomplish.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

I'd write a letter to Honda Corporate, seriously.

I'd consider it, but Im not sure what it would accomplish.

It might not accomplish anything but at least they'll know. I assume you've spoken to the service manager already?

 

[jmcoreymv]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

I'd write a letter to Honda Corporate, seriously.

I'd consider it, but Im not sure what it would accomplish.

It might not accomplish anything but at least they'll know. I assume you've spoken to the service manager already?

Yes we talked to him. He didn't really say anything about it other than he will replace the missing screws/nuts.

 

[JDub02]

actually, writing a letter to corporate can be very productive. my parents had a tranny replaced in their honda by doing just that.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Unless they plan on giving me a new car...I don't think I need anything else replaced...

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Never take your car to a dealership for repairs or maintenance unless it is under warranty. Just because they are a dealer does not mean they have good mechanics or do good work. Find a local repair shop that is reliable, get it done right the first time and pay less.

Completely ass-backwards of the way things usually are, though. You are much more likely to find a good, factory-trained mechanic at the dealership. For every good mechanic, there are 50 out there who couldn't fix a sandwich.

Most every town has several competent shops that are good and cost less, but these are few and far between. Usually, the reason they don't charge as much as the dealership is because they do a lot of guessing.

I've seen literally hundreds and hundreds of customers who, after spending an assload of money tuning a car up, cleaning injectors, changing filters, etc, etc, (all the easy stuff), they THEN bring it to the dealership and they fix the actual problem that was there in the first place.
Most dealerships around here don't bring in, say, a driveability problem and start telling the customer that they need to get all the tune-up stuff done first, before they can truly diagnose their actual problem.
Again, I've personally seen this hundreds, if not thousands of times.
Sure, the plugs, wires, injector flush, fuel filter, air filter, pcv valve, etc, etc. that the independent shop did cost a bit less than the dealership......
But then they still had the problem, took it to the dealer, the dealer diagnosed and fixed it correctly the first time, and could have done the same thing BEFORE the customer spent all that money on the tune-up crap he didn't need.
Sure, the dealership would have likely recommended some of those repairs as routine maintenance that was needed, but it would have been presented as "this sensor is what will fix your problem, and the tech also noticed that your car could really use a .........".
Yes, there are dumbasses at dealerships too, but the majority of the time, your odds are better at the dealership.

 

[KokomoGST]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: NutBucket
WTF. I can see quarters being stolen but the other stuff sounds awful shady. What dealer is this?

Weseloh Honda down in San Juan Capistrano, CA. I was thinking about buying a new car from them, but after this theres no way...

I'd write a letter to Honda Corporate, seriously.

Yup... first try to resolve the situation with the dealer management directly... be polite but firm. Being an @$$ usually doesn't get you results. If they don't deal with it, up the ladder you go to Honda Corporate.

Personally, you can make a very good living NOT screwing over every customer that walks in the door. I don't think people that come to our dealership have too many qualms about leaving crap in their cars. I wouldn't say that EVERY dealership is good... far from it, but finding a good dealership or a good independent shop is a chore. People think that dealer technicians are the best... well, not quite... they are usually best with only one kind of car. The best independent shops deal with everything and anything... if they're good... they need to be really smart with all situations. There are specialist independents too, they tend to be pretty good if they aren't crooked.

And from personal experience, I KNOW there are a lot of "monkey-trained" techs at dealership that couldn't properly fix a driveability complaint without relying on a scantool and replacing everything. Any dork can do that... honestly, whether it's a dealer or shop, smart techs are hard to come by. And all of them, if they are legitimate and good, will constantly recommend regular preventative maintenance of lots of components. If you listen and the techs are good, you'll get your car to really last.