Soured On Dealer Service Quality

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
GRUMPY I Took 08 VETTE, to a dealership to have after market headlight and tail lights put in and when I picked it up the lights worked fine but it looked like a blind man put car back together. The fenders were so misaligned it looked like hood was on crooked, one light was in correctly but other was recessed in about 1/2 inch. After a conservative look scratches on hood and nose of the car. Had to take it back for them to fix lights, will not fix scratches. I took it to the dealership thinking they do this stuff all the time and there would be no issues. Wrong again. My question is its an 08 convertible no body damage in great shape, estimates on getting g entire car painted.



having had similar experiences, in the past ,and seeing the general
(who gives a crap attitude some dealership mechanics have displayed,
) and having friends and knowing dozens of mechanics at dealerships,

convinced me decades ago of the absolute mandatory need to purchase a shop manual and to learn how to do almost all my own repair work.

face facts, most of the guys that work at dealerships look at it as a JOB, and as such, its something they personally make more money doing, if they get work out fast.

if they cross thread something while using an air ratchet or forget to install a fastener....
hey, it will work long enough,

so that its most likely someone else's problem when it comes back!

if they get more done per hour spent.
("good enough for GOVERNMENT WORK")
seems to be most dealership mechanics I know working creed if they don,t know the cars owner.


now obviously theres some good dealer mechanics that give a crap about quality,
but theres more that learn how things work with OTJ training
or only get help from a skilled experienced mechanic only after they screw up.

yeah its a P.I.T.A, and theres a few things that require tools you can,t afford, forcing you to a dealership,

but there are custom shops and skilled one and two man shops where an experienced mechanic will take their time on your vette, and treat it as a valuable car.

because they want you to return and keep a good reputation.
thus learning to do as much as you can, and having acquired as many skills and tools as you can afford is a good idea.
you either pay exorbitant prices to have your corvette worked on,
or you learn how to do as much as you can yourself
the internet is one of the tools you can use as its generally helpful if you do enough research


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