I believe that this auto dealer ship provides deceptive diagnosis to further sales and parts that are not required to repair a vehicle.
The following occured that leads me to believe, beyond any dought, that this deceptive practice has been going on for some time.
On 05/19, I brought my vehicle in for an oil change (Special Deal as avertised). During the paperwork part of the job, I was asked if there was anything else that need to be done. I asked about what makes the engine stall suddenly for no reason. He said that diagnostics would tell what was wrong and that it would be $98.00 to find out. I had the diagnostics done along with the oil change. The Paperwork for the diagnosis said that the crank sensor was bad and was required. I asked for the cost of the sensor, and decided that the $70 to $80 charge plus installation was to much left the dealership.
Following that, I went to the autoparts store and bought a crank sensor and installed it myself. I didn't fix the problem. I then found out that nobody can get a return on anything electrical on automovtive parts. So the part I bought cost $39.39. I decided to find out what was causing the problem and bought a Automotive computer analyser to see what codes the vehicle was making. The codes showed that the Camshaft sensor was defective, not the crankshaft sensor. I went to the autoparts store again and they confirmed that my diagnostic meter was accurate by using thier own diagnostic meter.
(By the way, this diagnostic charge was $0.00). I bought the camsaft sensor, installed it and "Walla" all the error codes went away, the check engine light went out and and the car was fixed.
So, the camshaft sensor was $45.78, my diagnostic meterwas 39.95, the dealership diagnostic was $98.00 and the nonreturnable cranksaft sensor was $39.39. A grand total of $223.12. This could have cost $45.78 had I gone to the autoparts store in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying for stuff when it's justified, but there is still more to come.
I fugured that the dealership probably would have put the crank sensor in and found that it didn't fix the problem as well. They would then say that it was bad anyway, because thier policy the same about used electrical parts. I then would have be charged increased labor charges for that and the camshaft sensor they would have to put in also. I don't know how much higher the cost of the camshaft sensor would have been, but seeing that the autoparts store prices are a lot lower, I imagine the camshaft sensor would be around double that price. Ultimately, I did save some money, but the Idea of a bad diagnosis really gets me.
I went back to the dealership and talked to the service manager. I got the song and dance about "Generic diagnostic meters" not the same as "Chrysler Factory Certified Equipment" and that the codes in their diagnostic equipment couldn't be wrong. I said to make amends, all I wanted was the diagnostic charges refunded. He said, I have a business to run and people to pay and I can't do work for free. I said the Autoparts store guy came out to the parking lot, spend 1 minute to plug in and read the codes and did it for free.
Now I am starting to get miffed, by not only the overcharged prices, but by the arrogance and the weak justification. He also said we have lots of people trying to get the diagnostic charges back and this is the way it is and he doesn't care about the autopart store policies. Lots of Diagnostic charges refunded - how many more bad diagnostics has he done?
I then left the dealership, saying to him that after I publish this story, maybe he should have refunded the diagnostic charges afterall. I won't be doing business with this dealership anymore and maybe you will want to think about this also.
Alan
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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