integraguy wrote:
I took my Ranger to a Ford dealer for a "tune up" that included replacing the plugs and wires. When I got the truck back I thought it ran kind of "funky" but put it down to "bad gas". When it didn't get better I decided to check under the hood. They replaced the spark plugs but only hooked up 4 of the 8 wires (it was one of those 8 plug 4 cylinder Rangers). For some reason, they hooked up the difficult wires and left the easy ones un-hooked. At least I'm guessing that's what they did.
I would like to throw business to my dealer...but after trying 2 different Ford dealers, they never seemed to care for doing a repair correctly and completely. The dealer my father buys his cars from seems to do good work, probably because they are in a small town and really know their customers. Too bad they are too far from me.
Ditto, I'd love to support a dealership, as they likely know the specific problem areas of their particular line. But both the Mazda dealerships in my immediate area (upstate NY) are terrible. So I go to an indie for jobs that I can't tackle myself.
I have a beef with a certain Mazda-VW dealership in the area, and they will never see another dime of my money. Literally 3 days after I moved here (from across the state), the dashboard e brake light on the car starts coming on when I'm using the brakes. I take it to the dealer as I'm new to the area and don't know any good independents and had my tools in temporary storage across the state. They diagnose a leaking rear caliper, also having contaminated the pads. I'm not suspicious, it's been a problem area on this car before. I authorize the repair (caliper and new pads and rotors in the rear) and I pay gobs of money (OEM part prices on a Protege are stupid expensive).
I come back a few days later (part needed to be ordered) to pick up the car. Driving off, the brake pedal is mushy as hell. I bring the car back and ask for it to be re-bled/inspected as I brought them a car with a very firm pedal (I'm nice but firm). I wait 30 minutes, they say I'm good to go. Driving off, the pedal is better, but still not acceptable. My fault here, but I say screw it and head home. Dealership was getting ready to close, and I figure I'll just bleed the brakes myself. A few weeks later, I'm doing just this and discover a stripped fitting from hose to caliper (on the opposite side of the replaced caliper). I contact the dealer, they are unhelpful and not willing to own up to anything, but offered me a few vouchers for a free oil change. I laugh and say bye. I thought about contacting Mazda, but the fact is that the car was 7 years old at that point, and I'm not the original owner (or a repeat Mazda owner). But I will never go to either of the Mazda dealers in this area again.
It's shame really, as I'm not a guy that starts foaming at the mouth at the mention of dealer service departments. My first car was a Pontiac, and the local GM dealer had one of the best service departments I've ever dealt with. They weren't the cheapest gig in town, but they were such a joy to do business with that I was happy to pay the higher price.
