What's the deal with them anyway? I get treated absolutely wonderful at my Chevy dealership. I have heard so many horror stories of taking in a vehicle under waranny to a dealership and leaving with no help, and sometimes legal pursuits. Is this mostly GM's problem, not the dealership's? I don't have a new vehicle, in fact my vehicle didn't come from my dealership originally, and I get great service. I have been going to them for a couple years, taking in my dad's vehicle a few times, my mother's a few times, mine a few times. I have also had them do a few oil changes for me. This past year I have gone in just to get the opinion of the Service Department Manager, on a few different things about my vehicle. I get excellent help. In fact, this last week I took my Suburban into the muffler shop because I keep hearing a little exhaust leak by the donut gaskets. They told me the exhaust system was fine, my engine just didn't run right, causing the sound I was hearing. I took it strait to my dealer, and he immediately came out and listened to it. He brought the car in the shop and hooked it up on the scanner and couldnt find a problem. He listened a little closer and determined this was lifter noise, and a little exhaust ticking from the exhaust donuts. All of this was done FREE OF CHARGE. Engine turned out to be fine, runs great. I mentioned I switched to synthetic oil, and asked how much he would charge when the time comes to change it. (Don't like crawling under there in the winter weather.) He said, "Just bring it on in with your own oil and I will put on a filter and do the labor for free, no sense in me charging you 7 bucks a quart when you can get it for 4 bucks at the store, your a good customer!" Now thats what I call customer service. Why is it so many other people have huge issues when going to the dealership? Any one out there with the a similar/different experience?

Dealerships are independantly owned. You probably got one of the few good ones. However, customer-friendly service is something almost all try to provide. When it comes to having something break, you may be telling a different story. Often times they just replace stuff until the problem's fixed, and charge you for parts that didn't need to be replaced.

Gotta disagree on the random parts replacement till it's fixed issue. As a former field rep for GM, this was not in the normal operating policy for any service dept., no consumer would stand for 4 parts to fix one isssue without solid proof the parts were indeed faulty. On the contrary the dealer has the luxury, if necessary, to remove parts that did not correct a conditon and start over, an independent cannot do this.

Well, I can't disagree with someone who has experience with dealers (Although, look up the diagnostic procedure for a '05 Buick Teraza ABS module. We all got a good laugh from that flowchart). I was only going by what some of our customers have said about going to dealers. We've had customers come in with several new parts that didn't fix anything, but they ended up paying for them.

And I know you're right about some independant repair shops, but we regularly send back "tested" parts (everything short of a PCM). I suppose it depends greatly on the amount of parts the shop buys from the dealer.

A properly Trained Dealer Technician is the best person to fix your vehicle. They have the training, product knowledge, equipment and support to properly diagnose and repair your vehicle.

In my area, good dealerships are few and far between. I had worked at a Cadillac dealer for a spell and they treated their customers well and had a good overall reputation.

Some of the older established ones have better customer service and are more on the "old school" side where mechanics evolved into service managers. I've worked in some large independent shops where they had service managers with comparitively less automotive experience and it made a big difference.

I try to fix what I can on my cars (one GM and one Ford) and have a good independent shop that does the rest. I really can't justify taking my 10 years and older cars to a dealer for routine repairs.