dbvettez06

Was reading a thread today about a guy who took his C5 in for clutch work, with mixed results...Made me think back when i took mine to a 'good wrench' for a new clutch..............My clutch was getting tired, plus i am not exactelly stock.....Took car in , pickd it up at 5, felt a bit of shudder when pushing clutch peddel down...Called dealer , said 'give it a week or two, normal'.......So i did, the it started to leak ....They hummed and hawed, said must be a deffective slave unit.....Soooo, they order new one in and replace slave..Drive home, while shifting, same weird shudder feeling......And, it was moist , clutch fluid leaking...Then they say ' You know this clutch is not designed for your extra HP and TQ" I mentioned i drove it directlly home each time and did not get on it at all....Soooo the third time they pull it apart and the 'tech' said...YOUR engine is done, there is over 1/2 inch movement in you crank front to rear.....This is causing the slave to leak..What the #$# ..Car ideled fine, drove great, how could this happen, it is impossible....I decided at this point enough....They wanted to pull the engine apart at my cost and rebuild it......I drove car for a few weeks, then, decided to get the clutch replaced by ECS, and, thought might as well get stroked and forged too....Drove the car down to ECS, other than a clutch which was really sick, engine ran perfect....Had work done by ECS, took the old slave unit back to dealer and told him i wanted my $$ back....No way...Then, i noticed they had charged GMPP for part of the repairs, so i told them i would contact GM...Well within an hour the owner called me and said i could pick up a check for the total $$ i had given them...I will NEVER take it back to these crooks..... [this is a condensed version of the experience!!]

4THTOY

I once took my 96 in for an oil change, when I picked up the car it had 220 extra miles on it and a cracked front bumper, seemed that someone decided on their lunch break to take my car for a joy ride, needless to say my lawyer had a lot of fun with them, and I got a new front bumper, had it fixed at another shop and the entire bill plus my legal expenses paid by the dealer who screwed up

Humy

Jaguar dealership... went to pick my Jag from body shop, and gave them the keys to the rental(/loaner) from Enterprise... someone stole the rental car.

2 months later I find out the car was recovered in Chicago. Lotsa headache.

sailohio

That really sucks.

MTVette

The only time I've taken my Vette to a dealer in the 5 years I've owned it, it was a disaster. The idiot mechanic threw away one of the A/C support brackets, causing a bad vibration at certain RPM's. The worst part was that after replacing the power steering pump, a steel tube was mis-positioned, rubbing against a rotating part of the engine. One week later, the continuous friction perforated the tube, spewing P/S fluid and making the car REAL hard to steer. There were a lot more bad things that happened, but after threatening the dealer with a letter to GM, and to the attorney general's office, and to the BBB, and to this forum, he recanted and properly reimbursed me for out-of-pocket expenses. Even though he made good on the money, the aggravation factor was such that I'll never go back again.

sailohio

My worst experience was with a Pontiac dealer. I had a Trans Am I'd just bought from them. I had them put on a burgler alarm. The SOB alarm would go off anytime, for no reason. Once it went off in the middle of the night, sitting in a locked garage. Anyway, I had taken it into the dealership 12 times in two months to get the alarm fixed. On the 13th time, they left the car unattendend, on their lot, with the keys in it. They might as wel have put a "CAR FOR STEAL" sign on it. Sure enough, some guy jumped it it and drove it away. The LEOs found it two weeks later, stripped. The dealer told my attorney he wasn't responsible. He said it was an "act of God". I sued the SOB and won.

Chris.Shea

(Mitch.Shea posting under my brothers username)
STAY AWAY! they wanted 18,700 to put a clutch in, fix my tranny, and rear and it took them 6 months because warranty denied my claim and i had to pay 2k just for them to be able to put it on a truck bed. learned my lesson not to buy a car from a dealership so just stick to the forum.

my Z06 has been perfect so far though my waterpump is on its way out... got a replacement ready though just need time to install.

Fastbird

My worst experience came at the hands of a Pontiac dealership in Fairfield CA. I was stationed at Travis AFB at the time, and had bought a brand new 99 Trans Am from a dealership in Folsom CA about 75 minutes away because they didn't have that "stigma" about military people like the local dealership did. Anyway,

Two and a half months after buying the car I was putzing around one day and when I put the tranny into 5th it momentarily resisted, then went. That was the last time it saw 5th gear. The synchro's had let go and it wouldn't go back in, and if I tried, it would just grind. Reverse lockout wouldn't work either. So I take it to the dealership. A WEEK later, after hearing nothing, I call to check on the car, and get told by a rather rude service tech "We don't have the proper tools to fix your transmission here and no one around does. You need to come pick up your car and take it to the dealership where you bought it as they should be doing the warranty work on it anyway."

WTF over. I made sure that no one I knew went there after that point.

BlueDream

Took my C5 coupe to a Chevy Dealer for warranty work (only reason it went there). The passenger door side assessories didn't work (windows, locks, mirrors). Dropped the car off and went to back to work. About an hour and a half later get a call saying that they had ordered a part and I could come and get my car (they don't keep Corvette parts on hand).

When I went back they wouldn't release my car until someone came to talk to me and he was "out on a test drive" (which later appeared to be "took a customers car to lunch"). He told me that my car was making a "funny noise" now. They told me that because my car had been modified that they couldn't do anything else to it. Talked to the owner and he indicated that they had "no responsibility for anything left in their care." Also said that it is their policy to drive everything brought to them (other than oil changes) to avoid law suits...

Turned out the "funny noise" was the chipped piston and the crack in the engine block. Had another garage fix the car (all at my expense) and had to sue the dealership.

If you are like me you are wondering why they needed to drive the car to diagnosis an electrical problem with the windows and door locks. During depositions, their early 20's "corvette expert" admitted that his diagnostic reason for driving the car was to "listen to the radio while driving to see if the speaker would cut in-and-out."

Lets just say we reached a settlement before it went to court. On a side note, the $400 part they ordered wasn't even needed. All my mechanic had to do was take a look at it, clean up the wiring harness connections and it worked just fine.

Frizzle86

I took my DD to the ford dealership. They told me i bent two piston rods, and then said it would cost me $7K to have a new motor put in.

I had a wrecker bring my car home and they charged me 700 bucks for the tear down of the engine and left all of bolts, an oil pan, valve covers in my back trunk. I would of assumed they would of put the car back together.

ArKay99

I bought my C5 used from a local dealership. About 2 weeks after I bought it, about 200 miles the 'Change Oil' message showed up. I made an appointment and brought it in at 8am on the following Saturday for the oil change. I called at 3pm to see if it was done and they said, 'oh yeah, come pick it up.' I went to pick it up and they had it in the lot. I went to pay the bill. It was $90. For an oil change! I was really pissed and asked the service manager what oil they used. Mobil One he said. I had a coupon for Mobil One on me and showed him. I asked how many quarts they put in. 8 he told me. I said first of all it's only supposed to take 6.5 to 7 quarts and a new filter, and the oil is only $5 a quart, and the filter is $10. He said they had to charge the minimum 1/2hr labor on top of that which is $100p/h. I said ok and walked to the car vowing not to have them do any more oil changes. I had cleaned and detailed the car to pristine before I brought it in. When I opened the door I got grease all over my hand. There was dirty grease and oil on the steering wheel, seat, and inside door pulls, handle, and hood release. I opened the hood and there was oil all over my passenger side FRC and dripped on the exhaust manifold. That was where that last quart went. I pulled the dipstick and thankfully it was just under the top operating level line. I replaced the dipstick, got in the car and drove it home, smoking all the way. On Monday I bought a lift, a set of manuals, and tools and have been doing all my own work since. Oh, I cancelled my service contract on that Monday too
.

MarkPDX

Tom Benson Chevrolet in San Antonio, TX forgot to put coolant back in my engine which ended in up with my engine massively overheating. They were less than helpfull and someone at the dealership (they would not tell me who) put 70 miles on the car. I will never buy another GM product (Corvette or otherwise) as a result of how I was treated. There were some other problems I had with them and I have a big thread here on the experience but don't have time to dig it up right now.

HemiKLR

I haven't had any horrible dealership experiences because I hate going to them and only do so when necessary. Some of my favorite stories though have to do with my Syclone and Typhoon enthusiasts. The best I've heard is that a Typhoon owner took his truck in to get some warranty work done. This was a little over a year after the trucks had come out. He drives it back and they have a tech come out to look at it. So he pops his hood and the tech looks in and tells him, "man we can't warranty this. You voided the warranty as soon as you put that turbo on there". He just stares at the guy blankly, grabs his keys and drives off to another dealership without even saying a word. Another story is from a local guy that took his Ty in for some work, not under warranty though. He got the truck back two weeks later with almost and extra 100 miles on it. He was furious to say the least and ended up taking them to court.

Dave1998

I brought my pontiac to a pontiac dealer to replace defective head under warranty, and while it shop, a large tool box rolled into the side and driver's door had to be repainted

I bought a new Chevrolet and when it was delivered, still on the truck,
the truck driver dropped the chains from the car above it on the roof and the roof had to be repainted.

Accidents happen

keliente

No offense, but I wouldn't have put it back together either. Granted, the $7k they quoted you is a ripoff, but if you only paid the guy $700 to tear down the whole engine, that's only around 7 hours labor. Most tear down & reassemble jobs at a dealership pay at least 15+ hours.

I've never had a bad experience at a dealership/shop because I never go there doing your own stuff saves a lot of hassle. I have sublet a couple of jobs, but only to a mechanic that I completely trust, who wouldn't try and screw me if something went wrong.

Oh yeah and I am too poor to afford cars that are still under warranty anyway

ja03c5

Why is it that we rarely see a thread about the GOOD things that a dealer does for someone? Everyone sees the bad...always gotta gripe...

Here's an example of a nice one:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1499378

4DRUSH

Took car to dealer for the steering recall and had them change the oil also. Got it home two days later and checked the oil. It was 1 qt high and black. Drained the extra qt. out and took it back to the dealer for an explaintion. They said only thing they knew was the tech drained the oil and forgot to put the plug back in, lowered the car and dumped 6 qts. of oil on the floor. so they made the tech buy 6 qts. with his own money. At that point I figured the tech was pissed and put used oil back in my car and kept the new oil for himself.
Jerry's Chevrolet, in MD. would no refund my money or change the dirty oil. NEVER AGAIN !

hellrazr

i've noticed my cars got worse the more regularly i see a mechanice. i was so frikin' paraniod at one point that I figured the "honest" mechanics had this scam where they did good honest figuring you become a regular, and then they start sabatoging the car knowing that you are coming back to them.

so, i do the **** myself. i know it's done right, and i know nothing gets ****ed with. Otherwise, i stand there and watch. i don't care how long the job takes.

yeah, i sound like a nut, but it's the principle of the thing.

dbvettez06

I totally agree with you, there are some GREAT dealerships out there, with technicians who are knowledgeable, and enthusiasts themselves...But, there are the other ones too....

DeeGee

Took the car in for a routine service and they did a 30 Point Check. Noted a transmission leak but didn't tell me when I collected the car. I spotted it from the paperwork when I got home. Three calls later still no wiser as to whether the leak was a problem so I booked it back in.

They do another 30 Point Check and tell me the transmission was overfilled Drained a little fluid and all was well. Where was the leak in the first place?

The kicker: The guys says that its well known that the Vette vents transmission fluid if its driven hard - over 100mph regularly. He asked my about my driving habits

In their defense they're normally quite good.