|>Yes you have better tools, all the parts, but you COST TOO MUCH for |>the average Joe. |>
| |It was VERY interesting when I was service Manager at the Toyota |dealership. You heard of retention rate? Basically it is the |percentage of vehicles sold still coming back for service 3 years |after sale. For a good part of my 10 years as manager, our retention |rate was over 100%, meaning we were servicing more cars than we sold. |You have to give the customer good value to manage that. |We were very successful, but I had some philosophical differences with |the boss. He wasn't satisfied with the profitability - and wanted |changes made I was not willing to make - so I left. |And he was making GOOD money. Absorption rates in excess of 80% |consistently, and sometimes over 100%. |Went downhill after I left. Lost a lot of previously happy customers. |>Average Joe |>Lg
Hi clare,
I can tell you know what you are doing. I've read some of your posts elsewhere in google archives. Lots of people here know what they are doing, and I am here to -learn- what I can, and help when I can.
Today I went to dealer. Almost never do that, but was a "free" air bag recall fix from factory. I am not spending a penny I said. Fine. Before I left, I had bought a 2003 Mercury Sable ;-\ Dealer Service Techs _showed_ me what was wrong with my car. Not just words, but took me out on the floor, handed me a flashlight, and pointed with their screwdrivers at trouble spots. Yep, I said, you are right.
I agree the Service Techs at _this_ dealership are superior to any others I have encountered. These guys are _good_, and I tell them that, and I reward them with A+ report cards when Ford sends me a Customer Satisfaction letter/survey. I also reward them when I come back time after time to purchase new cars from them.
OTOH, you have seen the posts of "mechanics" claiming the need for new engines, without even looking at them. Oh yeah, that clicking noise, need a new engine, thrown rod.
So my idea is find a good Dealer, and stick with them. One hand washes the other. You are a good customer because they give you GOOD SERVICE. That is the way business is supposed to work.
But, I told the Svc Mgr I was going to do routine maintenance on this car, and he said it only requires a tune up at 100,000 miles. But I will change the oil, keep corrosion away, watch for trouble spots, and so on. And I have a 72 month warranty, IIRC, bumper to bumper, $100 deductible. So if I blow an engine, they fix it for $100. Not too shabby.
Now I have spent most of my Life with beaters/junkers. That is how I got into the hobby. Trying to get them to run so I could drive to work and the grocery store. My first *car* cost me $20 cash. I was told by a mechanic: "That thing was not only shot at, it was HIT !"
And so my life long hobby began.
I have a good Dealer now, but really, $548 to replace a radiator ??? come on now. No I couldn't do it myself, but was NOT going to fork over that $$$$ for a bloody leak. Or another $163 for a bent steering knuckle.
So as you see, sometimes they get my business, for the other stuff, I would rather do it myself. I can tell if I have the tools and knowledge to handle the job. If it is above my skills level, or I don't have the proper time and tools, they get the work. If it is something easy, I do the work.
That's it in a nutshell. Now I have a good warranty, and of course since I am paying for the extended warranty, will let Dealer handle problems covered under warranty. But the Tracer was OUT of warranty, and I was damned if I was going to throw good money after bad.
It was a tough decision. What do I do? Buy another car? Or fix up the rust bucket.
Rust bucket was ready for new hoses, wires, all kinds of stuff. But I could have run it forever if I was willing to shell out $$$ every year to keep it on the road. In this case, I decided to toss it. It was a tough call, a close call, and took a lot of hard thinking. It isn't easy to make a decision like this. But having worked on the Tracer for as long as I had, I knew the faults were going to begin coming in waves. Today this, tomorrow something else. It would nickle and dime me to death, and I didn't think it was a good idea.
It was -my- decision. I decided to chuck the Tracer. Shame on me. But it would have cost more to fix it up than Kelley's Blue book said it was worth ! Tough decisions. Real tough. Hard thinking. But I feel like I made the right decision -this- time. 1 car family, this car -has- to work all the time, and work right. Medical problems make this car a necessity, not a luxury.
Not all dealers are bad. but living on a modest income as I do, I can't afford to keep throwing good money after bad.
If it was a 2nd car, a junker, I would have replaced the stuff myself after buying the parts. But this is our one and only car. No time for me to strip radiators and water pumps and have it ready to go in a couple hours when somebody has to go somewhere.
Lg