Went to the stealership this morning for my complimentary oil change. (Hey, free is free!)

They do their perfunctory "multi-point inspection." When I'm getting my car back and signing it out, they tell me they recommend replacing the thermostat, and upper and lower radiator hoses, for...






the low, low, bargain quote of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. But, that includes parts *and* labor!

I legit feel bad for little old grannies and such that are getting fleeced by these schmucks. Five hunnit, my ENTIRE ass.

ahhhh stealerships, always good for a laugh.

needs to be a law that lets you get in 5 free punches whenever you catch a dealership trying to screw you.

It would be stealing if they stole money from you. Dealership parts and labour costs are well publicized, and some people choose to pay that price (you'll find just as many people if not substantially more screwed by an independent mechanic as you will by a dealership). At least with a dealership, if they do something wrong you can complain to someone higher up (General Manager in most cases). What do you do if an independent mechanic fucks up? If a dealership is telling you to fix something that doesn't need to be fixed, you have avenues to complain. Not true with independent shops (besides taking it to the news, and usually the news won't care enough to run a story).

Sure, if you have an independent mechanic who is good and trustworthy, take your money there if you want. But any independent shop worth it will buy their parts from the dealership (if they use knock offs and 'one size fits all' parts, you get what you pay for). So really, at an independent shop you're just paying for cheaper labour.

Don't pay it if you don't want to. It's a choice some choose to make. You need to balance what you think is more important, paying (at times, not always) substantially more and you know you probably won't be fucked in the ass (and if you do, you can rectify the problem), or cheaper with the risk of not being able to do anything if they screw you. Service is the largest revenue stream for dealerships, more so then new-car sales, it's not just "suckers" who take their car to dealerships. It's a rational choice arrived at by weighing personal preferences such as risk, time, and cost

Shop near me said my fan belt was worn out & They could change it for $300
Needless to say i jumped on that deal!

Thermostat + hoses for five hunnit? That's a BIG nty from me.

If I were gonna throw five hundred bucks at hoses and a thermostat, I ASSURE you it wouldn't be for a '00 Honda Civic.

It must be lonely up there.

Independent shops only buy parts from dealerships that they cant get elsewhere. There is a reason NAPA has those delivery trucks with the big hat on them.

As for quality of work the dealerships have just as many schmucks working for them as jiffy lube. I know some dealership trained "master" techs that i wouldn't let change my oil.

This post was edited by FMX_89 on Dec 10 2014 10:08pm

Not saying you should pay it but there's reasons people pay it. Hoses can get pretty expensive too. If I had to replace my radiator hoses, it would be getting close to $400 bucks for parts. Don't know why a 15 year old Honda Civic would have that expensive a hoses, but new cars would.

If that were true, parts departments in dealerships wouldn't make any money (you don't make any money selling parts to your own dealership), yet a good parts department will easily have the highest profit margins at a dealership. A large dealership will also have a large delivery truck that is operating pretty much all day with deliveries. One of my friends runs a pretty small dealership and they have a large van that is delivering parts just about every day. A large dealership may have 2 or 3 large trucks delivering parts. A independent shop focusing on luxury German automobiles isn't going to go to NAPA to buy their parts, they'll use a high-end knockoff (in Canada an example would be Autocamping for Euro cars) or dealership parts.

Independent shops usually give people the option of what they want (aftermarket, knockoff, or OEM). If a independent shop refuses to use OEM or dealership parts, there's probably something wrong with them (usually they don't pay their bills so dealerships refuse to sell to them and have all the local dealerships blacklist them).

Obviously a dealership can have something awful working for them, but it's a lot less likely. Dealerships are bigger operations, more concerned with profit and image then other places. A bad mechanic will get drummed out of a dealership a lot faster then any where else (at independent shops, many times the bad mechanic is the owner). A well run dealership isn't going to keep a bad mechanic, as it looks bad on their image and it affects how much money they make.

'Zactly.

The thermostat is something I can do myself (thanks, YouTube!! ) I know for a fact that the "expensive" thermostat for my year / make / model is about 15 bucks. (The bargain one is about 12 or 13 bucks.)