Kamran

I didn't see a thread for Greater Seattle (including the Eastside) dealer/service review. So I thought I'd be good idea to start one. It'd help if it becomes a sticky for others to easily see.

I just took delivery of my GS and Chuck Olson on Aurora is the receiving dealer. Their service manger seems to want to do what it takes to earn my business. But I don't really know much about their tech staff or mechanical capability.

It'd be great to hear the community feedback on dealer service experience, especially from those who require more frequent service, maintenance, and repairs for tracking their Vette's, who have a favorite dealer who supports any resulting issues under warranty.

fraziers LT4

I'm out of warranty on my 08 (except for recalls). Although I took my regular GM vehicle into Chuck's service department for a problem involving some odd DIC messages appearing upon startup. I was informed there would be a $250 "diagnostic fee." I said thanks and went on down to Acme Auto Electric where the entire matter was simply fixed sans fee and a lot less than $250.

four0nefive

Congrats on getting the GS. Looking forward to seeing one day or another at the track!

Beltfedbob

Stay away from Chuck Olson if at all possible. I was a dealer GM mechanic years ago and was hired away from another dealer by them. They fucked over customers so bad I had to quit after 30 days. I do all my own maintenance except for exhaust and alignments. Try Speedway in Monroe as they appear to not want to **** you as bad...but you will still get it pushed in and broke off at all dealers.
BTW, FYI, Chuck got spanked for putting microphones in sales offices to secretly listen to customers (mom and pop in the day) talking over deals to see what they "could get away with" back in the day.

Kamran

This is not exactly encouraging! 200 views and not a single positive word about local dealers!? Anyone...? Guys don't scare me like this!

mikeCsix

Have the dealer do the dealer-related maintenance, for everything else go to a specialty shop. As you would expect, it really boils down to the tech working on your car. There are good and bad everywhere. That is probably why the lack of comments.

After the job is done, expect everything closely.

I had a DeWitts installed in my '12 GS plus a trans flush/filter change. The work was fine, but upon closer inspection I noticed one of the oil cooler lines wasn't completely clipped to the radiator fitting. Its the attention to detail that drives you crazy at times.

Overall, I think everyone has had good and bad experiences at all of them.

JETninja

Only time I ever took my now deceased Z06 to a dealer was the Chevy dealer in Issaquah right off I-90. I had purchased TPMS sensors and had them installed at Discount tire, went to the dealer and got a tech to help setup the computer to understand the sensors. It took us a good 30+ minutes but we eventually got it all working and he didn't charge me a singe cent. I was very impressed with him. When I wrote about in here he even posted in my thread. This was way back in 2012 or 13....forget which.

AaronZ51

For years I had a good working relationship with Chuck Olsen Chevrolet. I bought several cars from them and had a good relationship with the service side. They had one dedicated Corvette specialist and took good care of me.

I moved to Kent and haven't had them do any work on my car in 5 years now so I can't speak to how they are currently.

I took my car to Auburn Chevrolet for a warranty repair and after 3 separate trips, I finally took my car to Corvettes of Auburn and paid out of my pocket! The dealership was very unimpressive in their level of service and attention to detail (switches on the dash inoperative because the mechanic hadn't clipped the wires back on, filler cap button inoperative, etc.).

MACE_Hardware

I'm satisfied so far with Speedway.

One thing I like is I've had them do two fixes that "I heard about on the Corvette forum" and they didn't treat me like I was an ignorant civilian. Instead they found the GM bulletins and did the fixes.

2015 Z51 manual trans.

tonykit

Hi, we just moved to near Tacoma and I need to get the airbag and pretensioner recall fixed on my 2015. Does anyone have a recommendation for dealer to perform recall? Gilchrist, Titus-Will, Jet, Puyallup all seem to have a lot of negative reviews with some of those reviews having pictures of damage found after service. There also seems to be a lot of reviews where the cars get stuck in service for days or weeks. It really kind of sucks to have a safety recall like this and not being able to trust any of the local dealers to not make it worse.

Any ideas?
Thanks

mikeCsix

My car has been in storage all darn summer but had to dig it out for an oil change. I took it to Speedway and they managed to do the headlight recall during the oil change. Quick and efficient and recommended.

Speedway is one of the Corvette Marque Club of Seattle's sponsors.

HDLARRY

I've dealt with Jet Chevrolet Service department in Federal Way a few times. One experience they went out of there way to help me and charged me nothing. A couple other times were routine service procedures on a C6 and C7 Z06. I can not complain about there work up to this point. Once my car is out of warranty I might lean toward Corvettes of Auburn depending on what needs done.

As said earlier, when it comes to maintenance and repairs, it really boils down to the technician that actually does the work and his training.

ExRedRacer

Are there techs there that know Corvettes?

I go down to Sunset in Sumner and drive right past Jet to get there. If you know of a Vette specialist at Jet, I'd be interested to know.

koranke

Not sure how reliable or accurate this is, but I found a web site for dealer and service department reviews that includes ratings. Better than nothing.

http://www.dealerrater.com/directory...ter/Chevrolet/

SivaSuryaKshatriya

My car is having strange issues, you can read about them here:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-2008-z06.html

I took my car to Lee Chevrolet to try to get the issues fixed. They read the codes and determined since there were low voltage codes, they should charge the battery. So they trickle charged it over night and charged me $160 for that. They told me I wouldn't see the codes when I drove back home, but within 5 minutes all the codes popped up. When I called them to complain as to why they didn't bother testing the car after they claimed to have fixed it, they got very defensive and rude.

Kamran

So far, my experience with Lee Johnson and Bellevue Chevy has been more than horrific. I can't even believe these guys have an ounce of intelligence, or they think owners are morons? One of the Lee Johnson advisors, Kyle claimed that Corvette wheels are only designed to meet legal speed limits of 60mph! Ok, I'll play along.... so what happens to my wheels and the rest of my corvette when I drive where speed limits are 70mph! Fall apart I guess! The responses they give to get out of warranty service is flat out idiotic. I went back to give them a second chance, only to get into a big argument with the advisor and later the service manager. I had complained that my wheel was out of round back six months ago, when they refused to put it on a balancing machine to inspect the roundness due to uneven tirewear, and asked that I come back after I have perfect new tires. Fast forward, six months later I have perfect new tires; same as OEM (which quickly questioned if different)! After giving up argueeing with advisor and talking with manager, I reminded him that I had reported the issue six months ago, he was quick to claim how does he know that Bellevue Discount Tire didn't damage the wheel! Really???? The audacity to go to this extent to give nonsensical reasoning to get out of responsibility is unreal and flat out comical!

Both Bellevue and Lee Johnson feel it's appropriate to diagnose issues by seat of the pants test drive instead of actually testing the faulty parts! Being honest and open to tell them car is tracked, only gives them more reason to be confrontational (not defensive!!!).

I called Chaplin and talked with service manager explaining my experience, and asking if he has issues covering warranty claims. He didn't quite understand why the other dealers were so standoffish. But since it all seemed so very strange to him, he asked me to gather all the invoices and service reports from the above two dealers so he can review for himself, before offering to help with the warranty. And I don't blame him, because it all seems so unreal!!!

It's very sad that GM works so hard to build such magnificent car for the price point, but completely neglect to have any influence on the service some dealerships do provide. Experience such as these is a sure way to loose customer base and any loyalty one might have. It's no wonder domestic automakers struggle! It's the lack of service after sales!

Is there a reason why dealers don't like to do warranty work? Don't they get reimbursed by GM, or do they get 10c on a dollar???

four0nefive

Offer to take one of the reps to a track day next time and show them what happens when you go over 60 lol

Kamran

When he was asking for the speeds I drove the car at, he was asking for and was adamant that I get a print out of my top and average speeds for each lap from track organizer at the track??? ummmm, it's not a gocart track silly, and the car isn't equipped with transponder!

On top of that, I have a separate set of aftermarket forged trackwheels, which I regularly use at the track....one of which was sitting in my trunk and another in passenger seat while he was accusing me of driving over 60mph on OEM wheels!!!

AaronZ51

There is a bit of good news about warranty repairs - if you bought a GM extended warranty, Corvettes of Auburn is an authorized repair shop. They cannot do work under the original warranty but can on GM extended warranties - I was very relieved when I found this out on my C6 and had the car in there a couple times. The extended warranty definitely paid for itself in my case.

Kamran

I actually did call C of A, to ask if they were authorized to do GM warranty work, and they said no. But they were far more helpful answering my questions about my diff fluid analysis, when Lee Johnson not only had any no clue as to the answer, and didn't have time to talk but had enough time to get right down sarcastic!

If GM reduced the warranty on these cars from five to three while honoring tracking the car, I'm thinking of keeping with GM's wisdom for ownership duration. In either case I still have two more years on original warranty.