Dealership made me laugh today

[Bunhyung]

You guys are so 20th century...

my dealer told me about this advanced gas that race cars use inside their tires called nitrogen.

For 50 dollars a tire they disposed of the air and filled with 100% Nitrogen!

The Advisor said it will increase Horsepowers by about 5-10% as well as increase my fuel mileage and it changes less over time and temperature changes.

Highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it. Car feels almost like a Civic Type R now!

My Si feels 78% CTR. But seriously the dealership should give a discount on the Nitrogen inflation seeing as how they're only adding %22 more Nitrogen to the air.

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[saiko21]

My Si feels 78% CTR. But seriously the dealership should give a discount on the Nitrogen inflation seeing as how they're only adding %22 more Nitrogen to the air.

Nitrogen is free at costco

 

[fk8dc5s]

I started changing oil myself because of everything going on. Went the extra step and changed out my transmission fluid while I was at it. Also bought a K&N cabin filter after finding leaves and crud in mine. Feels better doing your own maintenance anyway. Next up - brake bleeding and figuring out if I want to attempt replacing my own brakes eventually.

have done my DC5 (pads/rotors)and my 19 FK8 (pads, and front rotors (went with 2020 CTR 2 piece)) and it was my first for both. its not bad and satisfying when you know you did yourself. with our modern cars however the rear caliper piston should not just be pushed back in by force or you risk damaging the electron parking brake. you can use a decent scan tool to fully retract or do it manually like I did. an extra step but easy.

 

[Masked]

no its not,

he is just doing his job,

the advisors recommend services based on mileage/duration and vehicle service history

no need to get your back up and all defensive about it

Doing his job? Doing his job of trying to scam people yes.

How would you feel if I told you it was critical that your engine air filter be replaced if you changed it by yourself the day before you went to the dealership? Would you not feel like you are about to get scammed?

The issue here is that they are trying to upsell a bunch of crap without even looking at the things they are trying to sell you in the first place.

''Oh so based on your mileage, you need to replace your brakes, would you like for us to change them? It will be 300$'' What if they are brand new and you changed them yourselves the day before also? Do you not see my point here? They offer you a bunch of crap without looking at it and by doing that they try to scam people who know nothing about their car.

 

[amirza786]

Nitrogen is free at costco

That's true, but have you ever tried to get your tires filled, fixed, rotated or installed at Costco? At least the Costco's here in the Bay Area you have to make an online appointment which is usually at least a week wait if you are lucky! Than you drop off your car and get it at the end of the day. I usually buy my tires from Costco (or tirerack) and take them to my mechanic to install ($15 each, $20 to repair)

 

[amirza786]

Doing his job? Doing his job of trying to scam people yes.

How would you feel if I told you it was critical that your engine air filter be replaced if you changed it by yourself the day before you went to the dealership? Would you not feel like you are about to get scammed?

The issue here is that they are trying to upsell a bunch of crap without even looking at the things they are trying to sell you in the first place.

''Oh so based on your mileage, you need to replace your brakes, would you like for us to change them? It will be 300$'' What if they are brand new and you changed them yourselves the day before also? Do you not see my point here? They offer you a bunch of crap without looking at it and by doing that they try to scam people who know nothing about their car.

One of the reasons they are trying to upsell unnecessary services is modern cars don't need much attention like in the past. Valves no longer need routine adjustments, tune-up's now consist of changing the spark plugs every 100K to 120K, automatic transmissions have lifetime fluid (I would still change it every 100K). No more points, condensers, no adjustments. They are now all made by the ECU, if a sensor goes bad, you just change it. I used to work with a guy who was a former Toyota service manager (this was around 1999) and he told me the mechanics mostly did stuff like fluid and filter changes, brakes and major work was usually either warranty stuff or older cars past 100K that needed stuff like water pumps and other components peripheral to the engine. So they began inventing services like injector cleaning, "minor and major" services to keep some revenue coming in. This is what I say: if it ain't in the service manual and it ain't broke, you don't need to do it

 

[turbociv910]

Doing his job? Doing his job of trying to scam people yes.

Offering you a service is not a scam. Scamming someone is selling a service and never completing it. I doubt a dealership is selling services without actually completing them. Jiffy lubes, yes, honda dealer ships, most likely not.

Dont blame them because some people are ignorant when it comes to maintenance, consider yourself privileged you are aware of whats going on.

 

[amirza786]

Offering you a service is not a scam. Scamming someone is selling a service and never completing it. I doubt a dealership is selling services without actually completing them. Jiffy lubes, yes, honda dealer ships, most likely not.

Dont blame them because some people are ignorant when it comes to maintenance, consider yourself privileged you are aware of whats going on.

Well that's the rub, isn't it? Most people are not aware and that is where they take advantage. For example my wife took our 2004 Sienna for an oil change years ago (we had free oil changes) to the Toyota dealer and the service manager told her it needed a valve adjustment. Now I know these engines do not need valve adjustments unless you do the timing belt or open up the head, so I got on the phone with him and told him no thank you. He later came back to my wife and said they found an oil leak from the valve cover gasket and when I got on the phone with him he told me they could change the gasket and do the valve adjustment for no additional labor charges (the "valve adjustment" would cost $1400). I told him I would hold off for now and I took it to my mechanic who completely looked it over and could not find a single oil leak, anywhere. When I told him about the valve adjustment, he laughed.

They take advantage of people, especially older people and women who don't know anything about engines or valve adjustments or what an oil filter is vs an air filter. That is plain fraud in my book. I never took the van to that dealership again. I do want to add that not all dealerships are like this. It all depends on the owner. If he or she is crook, it trickles down like Reaganomics

 

[Masked]

Offering you a service is not a scam. Scamming someone is selling a service and never completing it. I doubt a dealership is selling services without actually completing them. Jiffy lubes, yes, honda dealer ships, most likely not.

Dont blame them because some people are ignorant when it comes to maintenance, consider yourself privileged you are aware of whats going on.

So offering me to change my air filter when I don't even have the OEM air intake on the car is not a scam to you? What you don't understand is that the mechanic told the advisor that it was critical that the engine air filter must be replaced, then he came to me and told me the same thing. Pretty sure if I did tell him yes, please change it, they would have charged it on the bill without even touching anything. This is a scam to me. I can show you the receipt from my oil change and prove to you that the mechanic took a look at the air filter and decided it needed to be changed. That's a big LOL.

How the hell can you offer the customer to change the engine air filter without looking at it or under the hood??? This is completely idiotic and people that don't know anything about cars fall for it all the time.

As @amirza786 said, they try to take advantage of people and it's a fraud!

 

[turbociv910]

How the hell can you offer the customer to change the engine air filter without looking at it or under the hood??? This is completely idiotic and people that don't know anything about cars fall for it all the time.

Why didnt you say yes then blast them to your local news for ripping you off?

 

[Masked]

Why didnt you say yes then blast them to your local news for ripping you off?

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not.

Anyway, I said all I had to say and won't set foot in a dealership again.

 

[amirza786]

Why didnt you say yes then blast them to your local news for ripping you off?

I'll give you the simple answer: 99 percent of us don't have the time for that. We give them a bad yelp review (or post in a forum like this one), never take our cars there again and move on

 

[sillyrabbit]

Vehicle is currently being serviced for the AC recall. Dealership phoned me and alerted me that the front brakes have rust on them which could cause uneven braking wear. Said they'd clean off the rust for $60.

I told them i'd get back to them. Quickly Googled this issue and learned that all brakes rust and it's not an issue at all.

Phoned them back and told them no thanks. Pretty disappointed that they would even try this on me.

 

[ian408]

So offering me to change my air filter when I don't even have the OEM air intake on the car is not a scam to you? What you don't understand is that the mechanic told the advisor that it was critical that the engine air filter must be replaced, then he came to me and told me the same thing. Pretty sure if I did tell him yes, please change it, they would have charged it on the bill without even touching anything. This is a scam to me. I can show you the receipt from my oil change and prove to you that the mechanic took a look at the air filter and decided it needed to be changed. That's a big LOL.

How the hell can you offer the customer to change the engine air filter without looking at it or under the hood??? This is completely idiotic and people that don't know anything about cars fall for it all the time.

As @amirza786 said, they try to take advantage of people and it's a fraud!

When your service writer enters things like mileage or other MPI items, the DMS makes recommendations for up-sells. Like filters, tire rotation, and so on. It's just an automatic recommendation for some things.

Sure, it seems like a scam because you know you have a K&N but the mechanic probably hasn't even looked and won't unless you say yes. Mechanics work on flat rate which means if they open the air box, that's X minutes of free work if you say "no".

If you live in California, the Bureau of Automotive Repair often brings cars into shops for "service". They know what's wrong and if you cheat them, it's bad news for you. They do the same to smog shops. If you have an issue with any repair work, you can always call the BAR and complain.

 

[saiko21]

That's true, but have you ever tried to get your tires filled, fixed, rotated or installed at Costco? At least the Costco's here in the Bay Area you have to make an online appointment which is usually at least a week wait if you are lucky! Than you drop off your car and get it at the end of the day. I usually buy my tires from Costco (or tirerack) and take them to my mechanic to install ($15 each, $20 to repair)

I regret my decision of installing the tires at Costco. I am glad that I returned it today and went to america's tires to get brand new set with road hazard warranty

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