Manifolds Expensive as F***!!!?!?!

[91GranSport]

You're not the only one around here who's worked at a dealership. I worked at a GM dealership so I know where they cut corners. I've worked for two dealerships here in Vancouver. I've worked at Carter Chev Olds in North Vancouver as well as Dennison Pontiac Buick in Richmond. Different dealerships do different work, and not all dealerships rip you off just like not all dealerships do what you pay them to do.

Perhaps at your dealership 99.9% of the time you get the job done right. The one thing I can say is that 100% of the time you get the proper parts put on your vehicle, simply because they're all OEM. Too bad that doesn't mean you'll pick your vehicle up and it's done the way it should have been.

 

I agree with you though, Canadian Tire does rip people off because I know of two people that work there as Service Advisors.

 

BTW: You're not the only technician here.

 

I hate it when people shit on dealerships. I work at a dealership as a technician. You want to get screwed go to canadian tire. At a dealership, 99.9 % of the time you get the proper job done right with a warranty on both parts and labor.

 

sure, the parts are expensive, they put food on a lot of peoples tables. You can always haggle a bit on the price of parts, there's usually about 20% give in those.

 

I have a leaky manifold as well, the brand new part from GM is Aprox 350 CDN + 15% tax, I've priced manifolds used and I've never seen one for 30 bucks.

[91GranSport]

Shit. My ISP is fucking up again. Damn.

[91GranSport]

I've worked at a garage where they charged only $50.00 an hour for labour, which is cheap here in Vancouver. The place looked like a dump, like a family of white trash mechanics lived in there. They did do quality work though, the guys knew their shit. They just didn't know how to keep a clean shop.

 

On the other hand, I worked at two different GM dealerships that charged $100.00/hour for labour, but their dealership was immaculate to say the least. They had a Cadillac Escalade as a shuttle vehicle, they had personal offices with phones/faxes/computers for customers who were waiting for their vehicles to be finished, and all kinds of ther amenities. That's where your $100.00/hour goes to.

 

I was fixing to say before you wrote that it cost you $100 to fix it that if you lived close I would give you a set for free. That cement crap they used if its what im thinking wont last long before it will be leaking again.

As far as paying a $100 bucks a hour labor thats a rip off we only charge $35 a hour labor at our garage.

[91GranSport]

I worked for a GM dealership where I continued my apprenticeship. That's why I know for a fact how some GM dealerships work. I worked for two different GM dealerships which were both independently owned and operated, and not much changed. Here is an example of what they did to one customer:

 

Vehicle: 1996 Sunfire GT coupe

Problem: Minor dent on the driver-side front fender.

Service Advisor Recommendation: Remove driver-side front wheel and tire, remove splash shield, inspect wheel well area for any internal damage, repair dent, refinish entire fender, reinstall splash shield, reinstall wheel and tire.

Cost: $320.48 + environmental levies.

 

All of this to repair a small fucking dent? Give me a fucking break, I did fixed the dent in less than half an hour and had it prepped and ready to paint in 45 minutes. If the paint booth wasn't so busy that day, I would have had the whole thing done from start to finish in less than 3 hours including the time it takes to bake the car in the paint booth.

 

We charged the customer to remove the splash shield, wheel and tire, inspect all the shit underneathe all for a simple fucking dent. Did I do all that shit? No, I fixed the dent and left it at that. Why? Because that's all the customer needed, she didn't need anymore than that. Small dents like the one on her fender would never cause any internal damage to the unibody structure. Yet we charged her for it. Now that, is a rip off.

 

Our door rate is 70 bucks canadian an hour. that's only about 47 or so bucks USD.

 

Does everyone here feel this way about dealerships? Where do you think all the information comes from in the first place? Maybe I should stop trying to help people here, "We" just rip you all off anyways. I'm sure there are more GM people here who would agree.

[91GranSport]

All garages and bodyshops rush their technicians to get the job done immediately, that's just part of the job.

 

You are right though, GM and most other automotive repair shops and bodyshops charge people according to the Mitchell Manual or other guidelines, regardless of what it would really take to complete a job. This is both good an bad, because if you're working flat-rate and you can finish a job real quick then you can make a shitload of cash. However, there are a lot of things that aren't covered in those guidelines that also take up extra time which can cost you in the long run.

 

Im assuming that you are a Tech for GM. Dealer ships have always had a bad name for charging too much in their garages whats worse is they under pay their techs so most not all dont care whether the jobs done right its all about doing it the easiest way possible to get it done. The reason I know this is that I have a buddy that has worked for our local chevrolet dealer for some years now and he tells me how his bosses do him and the rest of the Techs on a daily bases. They rush Techs to get this that and the other done and even if they do get a job done a hour earlier then what the books call for they still charge the customers for the full time.

[91GranSport]

Don't get me wrong, I've worked at a total of about 8 different bodyshops since I started my apprenticeship several years ago and I've worked for some shitty places and I've worked at some decent places. But both GM dealerships I've worked for were ripping off their customers. I had no personal problem with my employers, they were good people to work for, but they did rip off customers.

 

I've worked for private bodyshops that treated their customers fairly and charged them fair amounts. It all depends where you go.

 

But one thing I must mention is that having an exhaust manifold replaced for $1,000 is an absolute rip-off. Whether it's a GM dealership or not.

 

Obviously all dealerships are not the same, Where I work the emphasis is on training and doing the job right. I have never felt rushed, Our service manager will put a customer in a rental rather than rushing and fooking up a job.

 

I can remember some years ago when I did my first engine job on one of those Quad 4's took me a full week, but that car and that customer still comes back because the engine was properly rebuilt and he was treated fairly.

 

I just hate it when people say all dealerships suck. Because they don't. I've worked in a few non dealership garages and they were like a living hell compared to my job now. Can't say I agree with the low wages either, I make almost 20 bucks an hour, depending on my efficiency every given week it can be as high as 24, That's not too bad imho....

[timg]

You don't even want to know what I think about GM dealerships. . . I've talked with some techs and asked them questions and almost every single one has known less about it that I have. After I talked with one dealer, I got a service rep to say that they didn't have anyone there good enough to fix/diagnose my problem.

 

One time my car went in and I told them exactly what was wrong with it and what parts needed to be replaced. It took them a full day just to tell me that I was right and it would cost $270 for a turn signal switch and $460 for a fuel pump. I ended up doing the fuel pump myself and saving $350. I didn't feel like messing with the turn signal switch just to save $100.

 

My very first bad experience was my Freshman year of college. It was the middle of winter and I had no tools or garage. I took my car in to get brakes put on. Everything goes smoothly, but then a few months later two of my wheel studs break off while I'm doing 75 mph! They'd overtorqued them and the studs broke from the added stress. That blows my mind- I know they love impact guns (I do too), but there's no reason not to use a torque stick or something similar. Because my car was a few hundred miles away, I had another dealer replace the studs and the wheel. The first dealer payed for it all after some haggling, but the second put in the wrong length studs!

 

All in all, that experience combined with a general lack of troubleshooting ability has definitely turned me off from dealers. I do know some very good mechanics, but out here none work at the dealers because they don't pay enough. Around here they tend to hire wrench monkeys, not real mechanics. Case in point, my dad's Bravada has been in about 10 times now for the AWD system and fan clutch. For the first 5 times caused by the AWD system, they replaced the same part only to have it fail again. They never even considered that something else might be wrong and the part breaking was the symptom, not the cause. Every single time, their fix involves replacing a part that 'might' be involved rather than doing any true troubleshooting.

 

Tim

[SmokesGTP]

Yeah I have mixed feelings about dealerships but at my local Pontiac dealership they have one Tech who always works on my car because he has the most experience with LQ1's, he even worked on the car before I owned it. He seems to do excellent work doing my starter, alternator, and a few other tough jobs. I don't know about you guys but everyone around here charges between 65-80$ USD an hour for labor. Sometimes they mess up too such as with my alternator, they charged me for a 3.1 because they didn't know and I played dumb like I didn't know anything about the car and they fixed it 6 hours labor later and split the difference with me between the cost of a 3.4 and a 3.1 alt. I thought that was good customer service.

[topless94style]

Yea most places around here charge $80 US. I know the place i go have changed their labor rates or atleast for somereason have certain labor rates for diff jobs.