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Originally Posted by Diseasel300
Sorry you took the negative commentary the way you did. The comments directed to the MB stealerships apply to just about every make and model out there.
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Gee, there's nothing like a backhanded complement to make our guy feel better about himself. . .
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Originally Posted by Diseasel300
In my experience Ford is the worst of them all though.
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Remove Ford and insert any brand and you will find anyone that says the same.
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Originally Posted by Diseasel300
The problem isn't the dealer directly, it's that so few people today actually KNOW how to work on a vehicle or even how to diagnose or troubleshoot the problem.
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And there's a reason for this. Many people with enough intelligence to do this kind of work run away from being an auto mechanic due to the poor image and car owners that treat them like their career path is a choice of last resort because they are too dumb to do anything else. RE, if you are not college bound, you are a waste of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diseasel300
You bring the car in, they plug in a computer, if it doesn't spit out the answer, they're lost! And that's assuming they didn't lie to you in the first place and say that your problem is "normal".
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Sometimes certain behaviors are in the range of normal. The tech didn't design the car or build it but you expect them to posses the knowledge of hundreds of engineers that spent millions of $ and who knows how many man hours designing the car? A dealer tech is bound to fix the car the way the factory says so due to liability, this further restricts what a tech can do. With computer controls, a tech can't bump the timing up or swap carburetor jets like the old days.
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Originally Posted by Diseasel300
For every 1 good, competent technician out there, I'd say there's easily 15-20 bad ones. And that's not just in auto-service...
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Then don't paint all with the same brush. What line of work are you in?
I've been in and around the auto business for 40+ years, owning a shop from 1988 to 1997. One of the reasons I closed it was due to growing weary of problem customers wanting free work. Customer expectations frequently out run reality.
I then went to work for a few factories fixing equipment perceived to be more complicated that a modern car when in reality they are easier for me. I only have to educate the customer once and they are happy the equipment is running again rather than an automotive customer that is irate they have to spend $ 50 for a repair.
RE:Free work. Your original clutch lasted 50 K miles, the replacement someone else put in lasted 50 K and the one I " just put in " lasted 50 K also and now you are threatening to file a suit against me because it should have lasted longer? Losing a days work standing around a court room where the customer is always the victim and the business the deep pocked bad guy is far more expensive than just stuffing a clutch disc in the car and sending them away hoping something else major fails before then hit another 50 K.