[DeTomaso] NPT, Toyota Dealer Rip Off

[Christopher Kimball]

Talking about bad mechanics, have I got a story for you!

 

Oh, that's right, if you've read this forum for very long you already know it...

 

I was supposed to get my car back from the body shop today, but now they're telling me it may take them just a little longer than expected to put everything back together.

 

Whatever happened to "under-promise, over-deliver?"

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris

#3846 (at least I think that's the number, I haven't seen it in so long I'm beginning to forget)


 
> Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 17:42:21 -0400
> From: boyd411 at gmail.com
> To: chendric at bellsouth.net
> CC: JDeRyke at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPT, Toyota Dealer Rip Off
> 
> 
> I was in the retail automobile business for over 25 years and started
> as a sales person and ending as a General manager.
> The srvice writers ( the guy or gal that writes you up when you come
> into service is on commision and is also guaged on how much the can
> "up sell a customer" That's one of the reasons dealers give free state
> inspections. Any service writer worth their salt can take a state
> inspection and turn it into a few hundred dollars by " selling " High
> margin jobs (like rotating tires ) Any place that has oil change
> specials will always try to "upgrade" the customer to a "better
> filter" better oil"
> In fact if you were a service writer and you did not sucesfully
> upgrade the service tickets would not have a job for long. In fairness
> to dealers most people don't realize how much the overhead is to
> maintain a new car franchise. I will say this in spite of the fact
> that I was in the business I never have had my cars serviced at the
> dealer unless 1. It was warranty work, or 2. It was a complex car that
> a run of the mill shop is not going to be able to work on ( Like my
> Jaguar XK8 ) I had my 911 serviced at an independent but he was a
> porsche specialist who had been trained by porsche and had worked at
> Porsche for many years ( and he charged almost as much as the Porsche
> dealer!)
> 
> Boyd
> 
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 5:07 PM, Jim Hendrickson<chendric at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Jack,
> >
> > I thought the way the mechanics were able to make a good living was by being
> > able to beat the "Flat Rates Manual" times. Do some stealerships still have
> > the mechanics getting commissions on parts?
> >
> > Jim #04091
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
> > Behalf Of JDeRyke at aol.com
> > Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 4:09 PM
> > To: Pantdino at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> > Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPT,  Toyota Dealer Rip Off
> >
> > Most owners know this, but it's not the cost of the coolant; any dealer's
> > labor rate is around $85/hr and it doesn't matter a great deal if the
> > mechanic's emptying the ash tray or re-torquing headbolts during that hour.
> > His
> > guys work to the sacred 'flat-rate' book for all jobs, and much of the time,
> >
> > average mechanics cannot do jobs as quick as the book says, so there's a
> > 'little' extra mark-up on dealer's parts prices to fill in.....
> > Which is why I recommend you all at least become familiar with your
> > machines and what they require, even if you then choose not to get dirty
> > yourself.
> > Being young & poor when I started, I chose to do everything myself (no
> > choice, really). And that attitude hasn't changed over the years. FWIW- J
> > Deryke
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