The High cost of a free recall

I thought a factory recall was free.   Technically, the cost is to be paid by the vehicle manufacturer that has issued that recall. However, the funds generated by the recall is at the “recall rate” – less for the technician in flat rate hours and less for the dealership in revenue.

But now your local automobile dealership has found a way to make the recall pay for itself.  The recall notice is one of the biggest ways the dealer can get you to come in to the dealership since only they are allowed contractually to perform the recall.  At that time, when you and your vehicle are a captive audience, they suggest all sorts of repairs (not related to the recall) and recoup some money.  

On an average, only around 15% of people who buy a car from a dealer end up going back to them for service. They usually already have an independent auto repair shop they trust and have a relationship with.

When you take your vehicle to the dealer for the recall, they don’t give you a choice for their vehicle inspection. They make it seem it’s a requirement for them to perform the recall.

So, you go in for what you know to be a free recall and then get a phone call about all sorts of unrelated problems, and in many cases,  they are asking you for thousands of dollars for additional repairs.

A great client of mine took her Lexus for the air bag recall to the dealer (her assistant took it). She is home nursing a broken shoulder and not very mobile.

When the dealer called her and  told her they needed to do more than $3700.00 worth of other work, unrelated to the free recall, she nearly fell on the floor and almost broke her good shoulder!

They said the car needed an air filter, wiper blades, a steering rack and pinion, an alignment, differential and power steering system fluid exchanges, fuel injection service and the spark plugs replaced. Bingo! $3700.00 plus tax.

She couldn’t understand how a vehicle that had just had been inspected 3 months before could now need such an astonishing amount of money to put it back together!

The answer is simple. In a dealership, the distance from you to your car, goes like this. Owner, general manager, service manager, dispatcher, service adviser, shop foreman, team leader and finally, the auto mechanic who worked on your vehicle. Who is she supposed to contact regarding these suggestions?

By contrast, at an independent repair shop, the owner is often the mechanic or service adviser working on your vehicle. The owner at an independent repair shop, cannot hide. They have a great deal of skin in the game. They must be as close to perfect as possible or else. A bad review, maybe a refund or the possible loss of trust from the client.

I bet that you will be hard pressed to come up with the name of the service manager at the dealership where you purchased your last car. But, I bet you to know the name of the owner of most of the independent repair shops you’ve been to. You would probably say you know most of their names, right?

So, consider this, if you take your vehicle to the repair dealer for a recall and get a call back from them asking for additional work to be performed, please check with your existing auto mechanic to see how much and or if any of it is really needed. Chances are you may not require as much in car repairs as the dealer suggests.

Remember, small business’s work very hard to earn your trust. And twice as hard to keep it.

Never say Never

NEVER SAY NEVER, the one thing I've learned is that in automotive, nothing is ever absolute!

When you are inspecting something, you just can't jump to conclusions. Due diligence is very important as the client will cling on to every word you say.

Long time ago, a truck came in with an intermittent engine miss, I was young and starting in business.
After replacing the spark plug wires, the vehicle left and the miss was gone.
I remember well telling the client "it'll never miss again"
Sure enough, those words came back to haunt me three months later. The engine overheated in his truck, blew the head gasket between two cylinders and it caused the worst engine miss you can imagine.

The client came back and reminded me of the words I had said. I replied I was talking about the engine miss caused by the plug wires. 
He staked his position saying "you said it will never miss again and I trusted you"
I ate my words and proceeded to perform free repairs on the head gaskets (including machine shop work). I took it as a learning lesson and thus, I was not bitter by the exchange. I had considered it my fault for being dumb enough to have made such a generic promise.

Soon after that, a client comes in with a Toyota Tacoma truck and it had a horrible exhaust leak. Upon inspection, we found the catlytic converter was completly missing. They are very easy to remove on those vehicles and as such, they are often stolen for the core value of the converter. 
He asked if by installing the unit, it would take care of his exhaust leaks and the horrible noise. Remembering my previous lesson and having learned from before, I said no!
I said it would take care of that specific leak and source of great noise but, I could not be responsible for any other noises. I had to first install the catalytic converter and then go back and check and hear if other noises persisted.
We did the job and there were no other exhasut leaks found. 

Fast forward to a short while back. Two weeks after we did an oil change on a  10 year old Honda Civic, the car is going down the freeway and suddenly there is a loud hissing or growling noise. The owner, as she is about 60 miles away, decides to take it to the nearest repair shop.

The owner of the shop proceeds to tell her that "there is no doubt in my mind the repair shop who previosly worked on the vehicle is responsible for the failure. They should be made responsible to pay for all repairs". 
The under car splash shield had come loose and made contact with the road. One of the ears had broken and caused the unit to sag low enough to cause the noise. 

How many times have we fixed those things for free, I simply can't remember. But I can assure you I never blamed anybody for their breaking. 
It happens as the plastic ages, it becomes brittle. That's the logical conclussion. For anyone to say they left it loose is wrong!
It's just one big assumption for which there aren't sufficient facts to support it. 

The other shop kept the vehicle there two days as they oredered the part, one splash shield, six clips and $145 in labor to install, for a total of $279.00
They billed her one hour in labor to replace a shield that takes two minutes to remove when you replace the oil and or filter.

I resent the other shops attitude, not for the money they cost us (Yes, we reimbursed the client for all the expense) but for the loss and  trust from our client. They scared her so bad, she no longer brings her vehicle to us. And that's the big loss!