When the warranty on your car has expired, do you continue to get your maintenance done at the dealership?

or find a good fair mechanic close to your home?


sharethis

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Car Maintenance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to “When the warranty on your car has expired, do you continue to get your maintenance done at the dealership?”

  1. I’ve found my own mechanic that I trust. I’ve been lucky to find a good one, and it’s nice to be able to get quick emergency work done once in a while. I found that with the dealership it always took so long to get an appointment, and most of the time I had to leave my car overnight or sometimes longer. I’ve found it to be less expensive also. Of course, once in a while there’s something that has to be done by the dealer, but that’s pretty rare.

  2. No, I was lucky enough to find a great mechanic who charges less than half of what the dealership would charge and does a better job. He gets the work done faster. I don’t have a fancy lounge to wait in while the work is being done but you can’t have everything.

  3. No! They’re a rip off. Find your own guy that you trust.

  4. mechanic close to home is a lot less expensive and a lot more convenient. However there are simple things you should be able to do yourself——–change the oil —replace the oil filter—change the water coolant—–good to do before the summer heat and really saves heaps !

  5. i do it myself

  6. Good question. My honey-bunny of 20 years is a dealership auto mechanic. “Close to home” is right! I just have to roll over during the night and say ‘Oh by the way, there is a squeak. . . ‘.

    but seriously, the dealerships are so expensive. . .

    edit- those high prices the dealerships charge, they keep. the actual mechanic (or ‘technician’ they like to be called now) they see very little of that money. That’s why they love to do side work, they actually get more into their pockets, without the dealership taking nearly 85% of the labor rate! Markup on parts is 300%.

  7. I am in that boat right now. . . . I had been getting all repairs and recommended maintenance at the dealship (but I was also told recently that I could have had all that done privately as long as I had receipts and it was a certified mechanic). . . my warranty is up now and I am looking into those private extended warranty policies but they seem like a scam. For me it was “easier” to take my car to the dealership and get a rental if needed because I was not close at all to any repair garage and some times they needed to keep my car over night. I live in a different state now and am hoping to find a good mechanic rather than the dealership.

  8. I was under the impression tat the warranty was in force as long as you used a skilled mechanic who services your car according to the manual and uses only parts approved by the car manufacturer. That is until the expiry date of courseVery seldom I ever used a main dealer

  9. No written rule that you must have the dealership perform required maintenance on your vehicle. You can use any car maintenance services as long as their services are documented. Dealerships make a lot of money from their service department because most people do not realize that other auto services can do the same services as the dealership service department.

  10. I won’t pay dealership prices one day more than I have to.

  11. Yes, I do. We drive Chevies and Buicks. Our two older sons are GM mechanics.

  12. ALL my maintenance is done by MY mechanic. . . He’s certified on my car’s warranty

  13. We have never owned any car that was ever under a warranty. Even years ago when my husband and I made very good money and were able to shock away thousands of $ per month, we drove 20 year old cars. My husband is basically the only mechanic we have ever used. He usually gets major parts from the junk yards.
    In many ways we are overly thrifty. We would rather take trips to Europe ever year then drive a new car the few miles back and forth to work.
    I remember years ago when my husband owned his own machine shop, he was driving a very old Saab, people would always ask if our car was made in Mexico since they had never seen anything like it before. Cash and carry has always been our motto.

  14. I don’t buy new cars so I go to a good mechanic that lives in town where I live.

  15. THEAmericanPatriot on June 4th, 2010 at 5:20 am

    I have a 93 Voyager and have NEVER had it serviced at a dealership. I do have a 2004 Honda Shadow (that’s a motorcycle for you cagers) and since Honda where I bought it is the closest shop (2 miles), I take it there. I used to deal with a shop 15 miles away because it was on the way home, but now it’s way out of my way.

  16. I’ve had an independent mechanic I’ve used for nearly 30 years, but I still do to the dealership for oil changes and tire rotations.

  17. Depends. If you have a good history with the dealership and feel that the repairs have been fairly charged. then I would keep going back. If not, I would look for a mechanic that treats you and your vehicle in the manner that you expect.

Leave a Reply