Car dealership ripoff: Hidden-camera investigation

[jpro]

So what do you guys think of this? I take my 2007 Accord to the same Honda dealer for an oil change religiously. They send me coupons for an oil change for $15...can't beat it. The last time I went they told me the threads on the oil pan plug were stripped and that I would need a new pan ($600). I told them that if the threads were stripped, that is a human error, not wear and tear because the pan is aluminum and the plug is steel. If the threads are stripped, since they are the only ones who ever touch the plug, it is their fault. The service guy came back 20 minutes later and said it turns out the area around the plug was just caked with gooey old oil. They cleaned it all up and it is as good as new. LOL

 

[Coiled03]

Inb4 Nick.

 

[13COBRA]

Very poor way of doing business. Not the norm.

Also, if someone suggested you spend $XXXX that you hadn't planned on, wouldn't you ask to see what they're talking about? I would.

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[BladeX10]

I've worked at a few dealerships. I cant speak for all dealerships but the ones i worked at have 1 1/2-2 stars on yelp and are known for being greedy ass scumbags that use intimidation and slimy ass tactics to manipulate and cheat customers any chance you get. Just about every guy i worked with absolutely hated it and were mistreated and miserable and underpaid.

One of the happiest days of my life was leaving that toxic ass environment for good. Will never step foot at another dealership for a long ass time.

 

[CobraBob]

basically what I was getting at with my shorthanded post, not all dealerships have bad service practices / underqualified advisors.

I agree with your points. Actually, over the past 15-20 years I've dealt with 9-10 different dealerships and they were all honest and fair. Not one issue. But there are, of course, the exceptions. It does suck when I hear about people taken advantage of. Thing is, in this age of social media, screwing a customer (or customers) quickly makes the "news", and that hurts the dealership's bottom line. Just pretty hard today to hide dirty business.

 

[mr2cam]

So what do you guys think of this? I take my 2007 Accord to the same Honda dealer for an oil change religiously. They send me coupons for an oil change for $15...can't beat it. The last time I went they told me the threads on the oil pan plug were stripped and that I would need a new pan ($600). I told them that if the threads were stripped, that is a human error, not wear and tear because the pan is aluminum and the plug is steel. If the threads are stripped, since they are the only ones who ever touch the plug, it is their fault. The service guy came back 20 minutes later and said it turns out the area around the plug was just caked with gooey old oil. They cleaned it all up and it is as good as new. LOL

We had a lady with a Ford Fusion that had the exact same thing happened, she bought the vehicle from a honda dealership used, never had an oil leak, changed the oil there 3 or 4 times, all of a sudden there is a leak, brought it to my shop to replace the electric power steering rack, noticed the drain plug was stripped out. They told her $600 for a new pan even though they were the only ones that changed the oil on that vehicle, we used a timecert and fixed it for less then $200

 

[tistan]

I had a 300zx for my first car. I took it to a local tire shop for an alignment, they came out with a list of things wrong with it. Shocks was one of the things that it needed. Problem is that I had just replaced the shocks a couple months before I took it in for the alignment. Needless to say I didn't pay for any of the shit they recommended. Over the last 20 years this shop has grown into one of the biggest in our area. Gee I wonder how they did that.

 

[offroadkarter]

I'm lucky that I've been treated fair by the dealer I got my mustang from, my father got his f150 from the same dealer and they've been straight with him as well. I mean it could be that they see we're not going to fall for the spark plugs at 15,000 miles trick, but....

A large ford dealer in central jersey tried pulling the up-sell thing on a friend of mine. He brought his crown vic in for the lighting control module recall (this was about 4 or 5 years ago when the recall first hit), when he picked the car up they noted on the safety inspection it needed new brakes. I personally put new pads/rotors on that car a month before, so that was complete BS.


I'm well aware that customers can be and often are retarded, but at the same time there are shops/dealers out there which take advantage of those kinds of people.

 

[thomas91169]

They went out of their way to come up with a nearly $2k service bill. The only service the car needed was the oil change, nothing else. I have never been to a dealer that went out of their way to rip someone off like this dealer did.

Dealers always try this shit. I take both my cars to the dealer for oil changes and maintenance (not really any place to do it myself unless I want to do it at work), and its pretty typical for them to try to upsell some bs. Ford is typically not as bad about it, as ive told them before im driving the fusion into the ****ing dirt and as long as it has 4 tires and moves under its own power its good to go. Hyundai every ****ing time its "oh, your battery tests low" and "needs this bla bla bla". ****ing comedic. Told me last time I needed to rotate the tires and the tread was low, uhh, its a factory staggered setup so no bitch, and those are month old tires. Its like they just make shit up.

 

[luker669]

It also happens in the motorcycle world, I had a BMW dealer tell me I needed front brake pads when I brought it in for a recall. I literally installed new pads the day before !


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[Blk91stang]

Not a big money item but I had a shop tell me I needed new wiper blades. I asked him to save them since I just changed them out a month prior. He said he tore them more before putting them in the trash and brought me out my old wipers with the whole rubber hanging off. He ended up giving them to me at cost although that was the last time I went back to them.