More stupid dealers get caught!

[ArcsVibe]

Read this article and tell me what you think?http://www.canada.com/montreal...D88F2Damn dealers

[redlava]

Charge $50 bucks to for something that takes 2 minutes to hook up. Anything they can do to make a buck. As if most of them don't already rape you when you buy the car in the first place. Try and squeeze a little more money out of you. Like the $35 dollar oil changes.

[Stang2Vibe]

I think that what the dealers did in the cases listed in that article was terrible. It should never have happenend and I hope that all those people at least get their money refunded. Work done on a recall is done at the manufacturer's expense, not the customer's. Shouldn't matter if aftermarket items are in the way or not, the part in the recall is faulty and has to be replaced. If that part was not faulty, then there would be no need to monkey around with the aftermarket things that people have installed. That is a bunch of BS.However, on the other items that redlava brings up, I think there is some misconception on what goes on with dealers. First off, there is relatively little markup on the vast majority of new cars. That means that the dealers don't make much profit off of selling just the new cars. With competition and buying incentives that we see right now, the profit margin on new cars is very squeezed. Dealers have a much higher profit margin on used cars. Second, most dealers don't have time to be putzing around with oil changes. When they have a trained technician doing nothing but oil changes all day, they are probably not making much money. The price is higher at the dealer because they are charging you the base labor rate for the technician's time as well as the parts and materials used to perform the work. Dealers also have to pay a disposal fee to have waste oil hauled away. In the end, I don't think that the dealer is hardly making anything at all on a $35 oil change. I have figured that for me to do my own oil change costs me about $17 just in parts and oil and usually takes me about 20 minutes. I guess it would take a dealer tech about 10-15 minutes under ideal circumstances, assuming that they are doing a proper job and looking over the other things that should be done at the service interval while the oil is draining and so forth. The dealer could be making more money by having that tech perform other work on cars in the shop. So as I see it, it's more of an inconvienence for the dealer to offer to do oil changes. I think that they primarily do it for good customer relations and so that their customers will feel that their car is getting the best care possible. If you want a cheaper oil change, check your local newspapers for coupons at local oil & lube shops and garages. That will probably be your best bet for a cheap oil change. Watch out, though, because sometimes these places use low quality filters and low quality (even sometimes recycled) oil. You get what you pay for. I like to do it myself, at least I know for sure what is going into my engine and how good the filter is. I also get to see the old oil coming out and can somewhat tell about the health of my engine by it.I'm not a dealer and I've never worked at one, but I know that there are good ones and bad ones out there, the same as in any line of business. It's not fair to paint them all with a broad brush and accuse all of them of something when probably only a relatively small number of them ruin the name of all of them. The article's author should have called some other dealers who were not named in the lawsuit and asked what their policy is on reconnecting aftermarket parts when recall work is performed. I'd guess that not all dealers partake in this practice. Hopefully, this lawsuit will prompt the legislature to amend the law to deal with this type of situation.

[Mavrik]

Dealerships make ZERO when it comes to oil changes. Its not the profit maker. Its what is found when doing an oil change and then upsold on the oil change that makes the money.As for charging customers to reinstall after market items... I'm in the middle on that one. I can see if the dealership installed the after market parts in the first place, then yes they should pay for the reinstall. Now I am thinking of the current recalls of GM so I don't see how after market parts will effect these ones. I do not know what ones Chryster and Honda have out. However Recalls are performed free to the customer on replacement/repair of all stock parts only. If say on the Sunfire 99090 recall for the moisture/intrusion PCM recall required rewiring a new PCM and the guy's after market items did not work anymore... GM would not pay us the time to reprogram it. We are paid to do what the recall states will be done and thats it. If your income was based on jobs you got paid for, as a tech you'd want to get paid for everything you did. Would you want to try and reprogram something you had no idea how or spend the time trying to wire something back in without pay? I doubt it. GM's rule is that a recall must be peformed regardless of vehicle condition. We can not tell you to remove something, repair something first before we do a recall. But should you have installed something on your car prior to getting a recall done... maybe make sure it won't be effected first. Maybe disconnect those remote starts and all that first. We are by GM "law" required to do the recall no matter whats in the way. Honestly I have never come across this issue at the dealership I work at and have NEVER charged someone to reinstall something. Shame on the other dealerships for trying to make a quick buck at your expense but it appears to be all electrical reinstall charges? Or anyone know if mechanical items removed and reinstalled have been charged for?

[Jahntassa]

I'll agree with Mavrik's stance...Sorta. Aftermarket parts like Intakes, exhaust, and other mechanics, I can understand. You'd need those in the car to simply be able to drive it away... Things like Alarms and remote starts is a different story..Alarms and remote starts, as the article tries to say..are not simple things. As ragingfish can tell you, remote starts are quite time consuming. It also depends on how good the origional installer is.If you go to a dealer to get them to fix something electrical, and you've done something aftermarket. Let them know ahead of time, and be prepared to take it back to the place where you got the equipment installed.