Who do you recommend?

 

Jim Reed seems to be the dealer of choice among the Nashville Corvette Club folks. I just joined and these guys/girls are really into their vettes. Some have up to 5 vettes in their garages. I just joined a few months ago and since my '96 is long since beyond warranty (and I do my own work) I cannot vouch for the outfit myself but give them a call. We sometimes have our monthly meetings at the dealership on the 2nd monday evening of every month. Check us out, too. The club is chocked full of nice folks.

 

Thanks! I'll give them a call and schedule something for early next week. Going to the Evo school out at the speedway later this week.

I work 2nd shift, so afternoon/evening meetings are out for me. But please post any events/shows/track days/road trips here. Always looking for an opportunity to get the car out and play.

 

J.R. has had some VERY bad experiences with Jim Reed. Maybe he'll jump in and elaborate. I have always had good service from Tom Bannen. I just took my 02 ZO6 in recently to have the wiper motor replaced and the column lock recall. I also used their paint shop a few times in the past and very satisfied with their work. Also use their parts dept regeularly. They lock up all vettes inside the shop if they stay over night and the keys are kept in a lock box up front until morning. They at one point were the only dealer authorized to do work on ZR1's in the southeast region. I saw a ZR1 in there some years ago that was sent to them from Alabama.

 

Ruh Roh!! I did not know about that, Bryan. Oh well, like I said, I have no personal experience with any dealer (except maybe the parts counter).

 

Well, I had a sucky experience with Bill Heard.

Anyone know if a Cadillac dealership will do warranty work on a Chevy? Andrews Cadillac...

 

Definately STAY AWAY form Bill Heard!

Any GM dealer will work on Chevys except when comes to Corvettes.

 

Got an appointment at Tom Bannen for Monday. Guess I'll let yall know how it goes. Thanks for the info.

 

If it works out let us know. I have a multifunction switch in the box that I want replaced.

I'd do it myself, but after removing, rebuilding, and replacing the entire steering column on my '93, I don't ever want to dig into another steering column again...

Oh yeah, if anyone ever needs a pick-up or drop-off at a shop, let me know. I'll trade a ride for a ride, it's dang hard to pick up and drop off cars when you're on your own...

 

Bought mine at TOm Bannon and they were good to me on service.

 

Same here man. Although this time I expect to get a car from the dealer. Anytime you need a ride, let me know. I might charge you a beer or some such valuable commodity.

 

As a matter of fact that was part of what they did to mine a couple weeks ago. Didn't take the guy long to do it at all. My wipers were possessed and would come on by themselves and you couldn't turn them off. The mechanic said it could either be the motor or the multi-function switch on the steering column. Well, while he checking it out the washer button just popped out so he replaced the multi- switch and the motor for me. Not a single problem since.

P.S. They gave me a 2005 Tahoe to drive while they had the ZO6. It was sweet!

 

As a matter of fact that was part of what they did to mine a couple weeks ago. Didn't take the guy long to do it at all. My wipers were possessed and would come on by themselves and you couldn't turn them off. The mechanic said it could either be the motor or the multi-function switch on the steering column. Well, while he was checking it out the washer button just popped out so he replaced the multi- switch and the motor for me. Not a single problem since.

P.S. They gave me a 2005 Tahoe to drive while they had the ZO6. It was sweet!

 

Matt,
If you ever need a ride just call me, I'll help out anytime..

SFS

 

My dealer experiences in town :

Capitol Chevrolet - In the early 90's they wrecked my Cavalier Z24. They did well over $2000 worth of damage and denied it. Long story short, I caught them in a lie and they ended up repairing it. They also totalled a coworkers Camaro (rolled it) and expected him to go for a repair instead of a replacement. Luckily after some calls to GM, he got a new car out of them. This was also in the early 90's. Since then, I have heard that they were bought out and have heard a few good things about them.

Jim Reed - In 2001 They scratched the plexi-glass top on my showroom new 93 40th Anniversary Vette. This car had 17K miles on it, and didn't have a single scratch, ding, etc. Once again denied any knowledge of it. I was told the car was ready, so I went to pick it up. Well, it wasn't ready. At that time I looked over the car with the service advisor and saw then that the top was fine. The next day when the car was really ready, the same service advisor was there when I came to pick it up. After some bickering back and forth and realizing that they had no way out of it since we both saw it was fine the day before, they agree to replace the plexi portion of the top (at a cost of $800ish).

I have taken my C5 to Jim Reed on several occasions since then. I had a "Service Active Handling" message that popped up a few weeks before I finally found time to take it in. They said they pulled the codes and couldn't find any problems. Charged me a diag fee (somewhere around $45). They also wouldn't look at my rocking seat because they said if it had a loose bolt they would have to charge me. These charges appearantly are normal for cars under the GMPP extended warranty, so I really don't fault them for this. Ideally it would have been nice to cover these diag charges as good customer service. I mean, how long does it take to pull the codes off these cars or check for a loose bolt?

Overall, if I had to give me Jim Reed customer experience a grade, it would be a C. Not great, but they did come through on the scratched top. When I take my cars into dealers now I go over the car with the service advisor making note of any scratches/dings/etc... The last time I took my car into Jim Reed the advisor had somewhat of a attitude about this stating "We'll take good care of it, and I don't have any damage forms". I demanded that we document every scratch and explained why (siting the previous experience at Capitol and the top they scratched). Once I explained that, he was quick to find the forms!

Use your own judgement. I have had several people tell me that Tom Bannen treats their customers good. If they weren't on the other side of town, I would give them a try.

OH, and one more thing about Jim Reed. My coworker (with a 1995 Vette) was in there last year. He saw someone who worked there hand the service advisor a stack of comment cards. The service advisor tossed them in the trash in front of him!! My coworker called the service manager later that day. I'm pretty sure he still remembers the service advisors name, who is still there! I'll ask him tomorrow and IM anybody that wants to know it.

 

Tom Bannen was great. Did the work quickly, gave me a nice truck to drive, and narry a peep about any of my mods.

 

Next time your at Bannen's, find the guy who does their commercials, and bury him in the waste oil barrel.

 

Not hard to do, I have the procedures. If you can rebuild a column on a 93, you can do the MF switch in an hour or two.

 

I've heard good things about Tom Bannen. Forget Bill Heard and Carl Black. I've had okay experiences with Jim Reed.

Good Luck!!

 

I got it done. I lucked out, I didn't even have to pull the steering wheel because I rigged up a right-angle Torx wrench to get to the lower screw.

Everything's spiffy again.