Complimentary Service

Did you point out to the Manager the service on your vehicle was poor value for money?
You could have stayed home for less and achieved more!!

Then again, what did the dealer promise from the service?

Geoff.

I had complementary spark plugs replaced in my Diesel.
I was supposed to pay for them as they were on the service Bill.
Sort of complementary service - Petrol service for a Diesel.

Funny

Almost word for word .....this was posted here on the forum about a year or so ago when a bloke took his Hilux in for its 1000km service

Sounds almost too hard to believe Ev........but, I had much the same experience(though I was not on site - the evidence was clear enough though)-I took them to task over it - they marked me of course and paid me back later - lesson is that you can't win - in the end they of course have lost me as a client (they couldn't give a hoot). In my view the MAIN ISSUE HERE is that the factory may have overlooked importantissues like fluids etc - these corrupt dealers would never pick these sorts of things up - I was about to go bush for 2 weeks - !

Hi ev700

Any hints on who the dealer was so I know to avoid them ???

Cheers

Darryl
TD 100 series
Brisbane

I think that dealer is fantastic and you shuld go back to them.
If they don't touch anything, then they won't stuff it up :-))))

The last couple of new vehicles we've bought have never been back to a dealer. I find the peace of mind more important to me than the worry of having a vehicle stuffed up. I've had some nasty experiences in the past.

Cheers
Phil

I would think this first sevice is to try and pick any faults nat picked up in the validation part of the manafacturing. It would also gove you a chance to get fixed anything that just hadent been manafactured right (eg some rattle somewhere)
The problem is if it wasnt under warranty you would also have got a 1500$ bill as well for all the things they had to fix

Hey Ev, wouldn't have been Oldmac at Springwood would it. I put my new Prado in last week for it's 1K service and what you described is exactly what happened to me. Saw the whole process from the eagles nest.

With all due respect, there is bugger all to do at the 1000k service. Most of it can be checked as the drive it into the workshop. The tyre stuff and the shiny engine spray is to make the owner feel like something useful was actually done.

I'm much happier if they leave it well alone. When I took delivery of a new Prado in 2002, I was proud of the fact that it escaped almost 3 years of driving without having that cosmetic muck sprayed on the engine :-)) And I bought the 79series second hand, and one of the big selling points was that the owner did his own servicing. I phoned him up and he gave me the blurb. Happiest day this year was when the warranty ran out and I didn't have to worry about it any more :-))

Cheers
Phil

yep, sad but true.

back in the bad old days when i did a stint as a "holden technician" the dealer i was at did actually do something at the first service. We used to check all the fluids, a lot of autos needed a top up, and usually the engines needed a dribble of oil as the rings were still bedding in. Found a few cars without air filters fitted, and commodore steering rack mount bolts were also often loose. Not to mention the basic stuff like spraying the battery terminals with corrosion preventative, topping up the windscreen washer, tyre pressures etc etc..

We also cleaned the car inside and out, so it was like the owner was picking up a new car again, it gave a nice sense of pride in the job.

We also actually did a proper pre delivery inspection, which most dealers nowdays dont do. they have monkeys with the title "accessory fitter" which means hopeless butcher who fits mudflaps etc.

Its a discrace nowdays, our new astra needed some warranty work done and so we gave the first paid service to the dealer to do it all in one go, well of course they stuffed it all up, and i got the vehicle home to find a complimentary pair of cotton gloves inbetween the intake manifold and block, the dipstick not even fitted back in its tube, and a litre short on oil. Mind you i gave them 5 litres of synthetic to put in, and i got back a car with 4 litres of mineral crappola.

The car itself has been great, the only trouble has been with anything the dealer has fitted or touched - no real surprise there i guess. But they do keep sending nice marketing letters telling us the next service could be due, hope we are happy with the car and their great service 1 year on ....

It seems the best you can do nowdays is to buy the car for full price, get ripped on lots of accessories, pay top dollar to the same dealer for servicing, and then maybe they might actually do some warranty work on it for you, or give a bleep e in general, NA WHO AM I KIDDIN, you'll still get shafted.......