Dealers wonder why so many of their customers take their vehicles to independent garages or do the work themselves. I've owned Volvo's since buying my first in 1981. I remember back in the eighties and nineties people would bitch, moan and complain about owning one. When you sat down and talked to them it wasn't really anything to do with the car, they loved their car, it was the dealer who was the problem. Like the day the warranty ran out these dealers would start running cash registers under their customers cars. Well I just got the dreaded I found the problem with why I'll be taking care of my car myself from now on and avoid the dealer at all costs. Unbelievable encounter with a body shop employee. I'm not going to say who the dealer is because I've never had any other issues with them ever. Maybe my attitude is so hostel is being a business owner myself. In this economy you never turn down any work that comes through the door no matter how small or large, money is money, and you've got to keep your employees happy by keeping them busy. My 2010 Prius has a small rust spot in wheel well on the lip of the drivers side quarter panel that I wanted to fix before it came around to the front of the panel. It's 1/2 inch wide by maybe an inch and quarter long surface rust probably started by a stone chip. I pop into the dealers body shop and the guy that looked at it pretty much told me that it wasn't worth their time to fix it. The excuses were jaw dropping such as, we could fix it, but it would start rusting through the next day. If we sand that spot down the rust will probably have expanded another six or more inches under the paint and we'll find it rusted all the way along the lip in the panel. That's not surface rust, it penetrated all the way through the lip. If one is rusting the others are probably already starting to rust. He looked at the other three and they are all fine, no rust. You get the point, but it gets better, in so many words at the end of the conversation he said that I should let it go and when it gets bad enough "WE CAN REPLACE THE WHOLE QUARTER PANEL." ARE YOU F***ING KIDDING ME. I just left and said to myself this guy is a F***ing idiot, and I'm done with them. I then stopped at a really busy independent body shop down the street from work. The owner came out to take a look at the car and said, oh that's an easy fix it's just light surface rust. I'll need the car for the day, so if you can drop it off at 8:00, I'll have it done by 3:00 or 4:00, $60. Would any of you be about to scream, if you had to deal with something like this? This wasn't some young kid at the dealer, this was one of their long term employees that has probably worked there for a few decades. If it wasn't a big money job they didn't want the work.
This is a bodyshop more-or-less under the same roof, part of the dealership? Up here it's more typical for dealerships to maybe have a preferred bodyshop, but nothing more. Not that they can't be difficult though.
it's a mix here. i like the idea of a dealer if it's hybrid endangering body work, otherwise, i'd rather a reputable indy.
$60 dollars. That's about 20 minutes of labor in my area! This must be very minor....first shop just did not want to do it....glad you found an independent shop. Would it take longer to write the repair order and wash the car than the actual repair?
I would see how the repair ages before drawing any conclusions. There is always the chance that the dealer was correct. Time will tell.
