I went to the dealership for an oil change yesterday. They use the right OEM filter, etc, and I've never had a problem with them like I have had with some of the quickie oil change places. Nothing like having to crawl back up underneath the vehicle, work around the skid plates, tighten something, then mop up oil out of the skid plates to make your morning, after the guys at the quickie places do a half ass job. I digress.
So the guy working the front end of the service department starts trying to sell me other things. Shocking, I know. Tires and a 4 wheel alignment, for example. I told him he could give me a quote on both, but I wasn't going to get either of them done today. I was there for an oil change, and nothing more.
As I waited on the oil change, he came back into the waiting room and told me the technician suggested changing out the power steering fluid. He said they normally do that around 40,000 miles. And he told me what it costs. I told him I'd consider doing that next oil change, when I was actually at around 40,000 miles.
Bit after that, he came back and told me my car was ready. He had also worked up the tire quotes, and was pitching them pretty heavily. I told him that I didn't come there for tires today, but realized I needed to get that done soon. I told him I'd take his quotes, do the research vs. NTB and Costco and other places, and with everything factored in, make a decision. It might be them, it might not be, I just needed to decide which tire I wanted and run the numbers.
So today, the manager of the service department calls me. He went over what the guy from yesterday told me, and I told him that I was surprised to find out that their tire prices were actually competitive. But I also told him that Costco still had them beat.
He shocked the heck out of me at that point by offering several things: He undercut Costco's price. And not by a little. The Costco price was less taxes, but he undercut that for the same Michelin tires, as a drive out price. On top of that, he cut the price of the alignment almost in half. And knocked another decent chunk off the power steering fluid swap. He also said they will fill the tires with nitrogen, as Costco does. And the price quoted includes everything, even reprogramming the codes on the TPMS sensors, and the other little things that tire stores usually nickle and dime you with.
i've never had a dealership's service department call me up and seriously underbid their competition. I'll be saving at least a couple hundred bucks here. Dealerships just *don't* do things like that. WTF?!?
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I'm Gonna Kill Santa Claus
3 years ago
2 comments:
That is a trip! We keep all of our cars up, esp. the 4Runner and the Saab.
The Saab service writer has been especially cool with us. He has NEVER tried to up sell us. Saab has always been very thorough, topping up fluid levels that were (we know) low at no cost and crawling through the car to make sure that everything is right before he lets that car go home. He has given us lots of good advice as far as where to go and what to get (outside Saab) to do things such as cleaning and waterproofing the convertible top. Saab has tried to sell us nothing. $80 oil changes are clean, tight and flawless. Never a leak. These occur at 6K mile increments, as recommended.
It is rare that a dealership does the sorts of things that you are talking about!
There is a world of difference between the Ford dealers I used to use before Ford fucked me on a spark plug blowing off the head and telling me, oh so sorry, after warranty and the Nissan dealer I now use for my Titan.
These guys have been great-too bad for Ford, first time in 40 years I don't have at least 1 Ford in my driveway.
MM
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