Auto Repair Information Blog

Incite on why some auto dealers may be willing to sacrifice customer satisfaction in order to secure maximum profit.
I worked for an auto dealer service department that had a tendency for playing hardball with its customers.

Why would they do this? Isn’t the customer always right? Doesn’t the dealership value your business? 

Well this auto dealer had an exclusive area franchise and considered themselves the only game in town. If you decided to try another auto dealership of this brand you had to drive more than an hour to get there.

This cornering of the local market was used by the auto dealership against its customers. The owner of the dealership would get excited when customers would get irate and would usually handle the complaints in person, which is very unusual.

He had a complete service department staff to handle such matters. But he enjoyed the confrontation so much he would push everyone aside and handle the automotive consumer directly.

When the customer would get to the point when they realized who they where dealing with and that conversation was futile, they would threaten a lawsuit. 
Well the owner had a standard response he used on the irate customer when they threatened to sue. He would say, me and my team of lawyers have deep pockets and live for litigation, see you in court.

And that was the end of the conversation. Either you spent the money on litigation or you accepted the dealerships pricing decision. ninety percent of the people would give up at this point but the other 10% would actually go to court over the given issue.

When the owner said he was willing to go to court he meant it. I remember many days when the owner and selected service department staff would dress up and go to court.

The good news is he lost as much as 50% of the time if the case did go to court. When he came back from his losing court cases he was chewing nails and veins were popping out of his head. This man hated to lose.

On one occasion we had a customer take a different route. The customer made a big picket sign and took off from work and picketed the auto dealer service building from open till close.

This picketers wife would take over so he could have lunch and bathroom breaks.
Well after 2 days the owner finally got a court injunction to stop the picketer.
The picketer was removed with great force by local police (kicking and screaming comes to mind).

The funny part of the story was the auto dealer service department employees where all pulling for the picketer. The owner treated his employees worse than his customers.

I could write a whole book just about this one dealership and its owner. The auto dealership was crammed with so much inventory there was no employee parking.

The entire staff (except the owner) had to park a mile away at the city ball field and walk to work in –30 degree wind chills and heavy nor’easter snowstorms. I worked at this dealership for two years because I enjoyed working on the exclusive product line and didn’t want to drive the hour and 15 minutes to the next closest same brand name auto dealer.

So if your wondering why the auto dealer service department is not treating you fairly, you might take a look around the area for another same brand dealership to visit. If there are none, then you might just have your answer.

I have a lot more incite on why the automotive business is stacked against its life blood (the customer).
Mark Gittelman is an ASE Certified Master Technician With more than 23 years experience in the automotive repair business. For more free automotive information and stories visit the Auto-Facts blog. Or if you would like to post a car question visit his auto repair help page.

Learn how to easily fix your own car or truck with step-by-step instructions using online auto repair manuals. Save money and make automotive repairs fast and fun.

Check out  online auto repair manuals when it comes to repairing your own car or truck. You may just avoid a disaster.

Your car or truck is a big investment and it should be treated as such. When it comes to auto repair it can go one of two ways.

You can be successful and fix it right the first time. Or you can make matters worse by creating additional problems. The latter will increase repair costs and down time of the car or truck.

Let me give you a real life example of this. I had a gentleman e-mail me for help with a no start condition. My first advice to him was to get some online auto repair assistance from a quality manual, to properly diagnose the problem.

My favorite online auto service manual has the most incredible no start diagnostic charts in the business, because they come straight from the manufacturer auto service manuals. Easy to follow tree charts with pictures and helpful tips.

The gentleman told me he could not afford the $24.95 and he thought replacing the distributor would fix the problem. A new distributor was $650.00.

He bought and replaced the distributor but this did not repair the problem. It was also not returnable like most electrical parts. Again I said cut your loses and get any kind of auto service manual and diagnose the problem, do not through parts at it.

Well He replaced the coil, cap, rotor, wires and spark plugs. It Still would not start. Now he is a thousand dollars deep in un-needed parts. The guy who could not afford $25. Finally he towed the car to the auto repair shop and they fixed it for about $500.00 by replacing the fuel pump.

As a side note I did try to help him by explaining, in a no start condition you either have no fuel or no spark (or rarely no air). The gentleman explained he was getting plenty of fuel. But he was not.

So $1,850 later he was motoring again. And to let you know step 1 on the diagnostic tree chart was an in-depth procedure with pictures for checking for fuel delivery.

Also the online repair manuals had a technical service bulletin on the fuel pump for this specific vehicle. This is why the online auto repair manual can make things easier. What if you had the same auto repair information that the dealership level mechanic has?

But in a format that provides step-by-step instructions and pictures that a person of any skill level can follow. The virtual online auto repair assistance system was created to bring top-level information to the do it yourself auto repair public.

Find the auto repair information you need fast and simple with the online auto repair manuals handy search function. Just type in the component or area of the vehicle you need help with and the online programs gives you with just what you’re hunting for.

No more going through old-fashioned paper auto repair manuals filled with outdated information. You now have access to the same information professional auto repair techs use. Mechanics may have more hands on experience then you but they are not smarter then you, they just know how to find the required information

Mark Gittelman is an ASE Master Technician With more than 24 years experience in the automotive field. For more free information and stories visit his Automotive Repair Information Area. Or if you would like to post a car question visit the Car questions help page.