Carol, remember when Sears (?) and others (?) got caught for reccommending
and doing unneccessary work. Well, I guess, Goodyear figured another angle
on it: charge wild prices.
I really think that the $129 for plug wires should be followed up on,
though -- a call to Consumer Reports (or whomever) might attract some
interest.
I have had good and bad experiences with garages in the past -- recently, I
returned my Voyager to a Chrysler dealer under a recall notice. The
discussions went something like this:
The recall is on the scratches on the inside of the tyres: "What will you
do?" "Oh, we know about this one. We look at the WHEELS and if they look
OK, then we do nothing." "No, here, look at this notice -- it is the tyres,
not the wheels" "well go over to the station there and have the technician
look it up" Result -- details of that recall not on the computer. I go
back. They are still talking about the wheels. I decide to take the Voyager
to another dealer who cheerfully replaces all 4 tyres.
Another experience in the UK: MG Metro Car goes to dealer for routine
service. Runs fine before the service. Comes back with note: "Cars runs
rough, may be valve out" Sure enough, the car now ran rough. So I check the
tappets. One closed down to zero gap. Adjust and car now runs fine again.
Again, I could not interest the service manager in this problem. I took the
car back and they looked at the tappet and agreed that it was now set
properly. They did not seem to understand that I had already re-set it. I
think they expected me to leave the mis-adjusted tappet so that they could
look at it, despite the damage it would have been doing to my engine.
Good experience: Alfa Romeo -- problem with gearbox. Official service
manual says to get the gearbox out, you have to also remove engine. Dealer
drops gearbox w/o engine, fixes problem in 1/2 "official" hours (and only
charges for time spent), washes car, etc.
Simon
---
Simon Matthews Avant! Corporation
Phone: (510) 413-8820
Fax: (510) 413-8080
E-mail: simon_matthews@avanticorp.com
|