Sounds Fishy to me, but what do I know

[krik71]

I have been on this forum a long time, so not completely surprised, although I am dismayed.

I hate to generalize about this, and don't want to offend anyone in the car business, but many sales people and service advisors are often encouraged to lie, paid to lie, and many would be fired if they didn't lie. After awhile, many of them become pathological liars, as lying becomes a habit.

Why people believe everything they say is beyond me. Many people don't even realize that dealers in the USA are independent businesses, not owned or controlled by the car manufacturer (as required by law in almost all states that I know of).

As someone who's been working on my own cars since I was 15, I certainly don't give a rats behind as to what some service advisor may or may not try to pull on me as far as required service.

My inquiry about which dealership was strictly punitive, ie. avoid rewarding such behavior by refusing to give that particular dealership any of my business.

 

[Mark_888]

As someone who's been working on my own cars since I was 15, I certainly don't give a rats behind as to what some service advisor may or may not try to pull on me as far as required service.

My inquiry about which dealership was strictly punitive, ie. avoid rewarding such behavior by refusing to give that particular dealership any of my business.

Thanks for the clarification. I would like to do the same, but pretty much gave up since a lot of Hyundai dealers are that way. I just ignore their little games. Plus, not all service advisors are the same, and it may not depend on the dealer.

Since I change my own oil and filters, I don't go to a dealer enough to worry about it. I worry more about whether their techs know what they are doing. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure one Hyundai dealer in my area hires techs who don't speak English, and are possibly illegal aliens. So I avoid that dealer.

 

[MadMingus]

Wow - tons of opinions - truly appreciate all the feedback, and the majority of it echoes my sentiments on the topic exactly, thanks all. As for the dealership - it was Hyundai of Lakewood in Bradenton. I had an AWESOME purchase experience there, I couldn't have asked for better. I think I was in & out in under 1 1/2 hours & everything was top notch from sales, finance, the whole nine. Service team just really frustrated me.... same guy told me that they 'rotated my tires as a courtesy with my oil change' on my 5.0 Genesis.....

 

[kf4zra]

I bought my 2013 and 2015 geneses at Courtesy on Hillsborough and they told me that i had to follow the severe schedule on both.

I just follow the manual for normal service, and have had no problems.

my car lives at the airport 5 days a week, and my garage for 2 days a week.

 

[kf4zra]

Wow - tons of opinions - truly appreciate all the feedback, and the majority of it echoes my sentiments on the topic exactly, thanks all. As for the dealership - it was Hyundai of Lakewood in Bradenton. I had an AWESOME purchase experience there, I couldn't have asked for better. I think I was in & out in under 1 1/2 hours & everything was top notch from sales, finance, the whole nine. Service team just really frustrated me.... same guy told me that they 'rotated my tires as a courtesy with my oil change' on my 5.0 Genesis.....

They said i had to have my tired rotated too, when i last took my 2015 5.0 Ultimate in. I asked him again if he was sure about what he said. He confirmed and when I told him the tires are staggered, he changed his opinion.

 

[jstkrsn]

Doesn't surprise me a bit about the service techs. I took my wife's Sonata in for the 15K oil change and they wanted to replace the platinum spark plugs for $120. They last till over 100K now. Was he trying to rip me off?

 

[williakz]

Maybe he heard "115 k" or "150 k" instead of "15 k." Did you ask them to justify their recommendation to change your platinum plugs? If so, what did they say? If not, why not?

 

[AustinTX]

In my experience, many service departments try to sell inexperienced customers unnecessary items and services. Oil changes at 3,500 miles, Nitrogen in tires, spark plugs at 15k miles, the list goes on.

My recommendation: Check your service manual, look at the manufacturers recommended service items and ONLY have those items performed that are explicitly listed in the service manual. Everything else the service department is going to offer you will only benefit the shop where you have taken your car - not you or your vehicle.

I have started taking my girlfriends SUV to the service because they keep trying to sell her dumb stuff (additives, "we recommend and engine cleaning", etc.) every time she goes anywhere for service. They sold her and installed the wrong battery at Jiffy Lube (why anyone goes there I don't know), then refused to replace it after she had several situations where she needed to get jumped because of a bad battery (they claimed it was heat issue). Only when I went in there and started to make a stink di they exchange the battery for the correct one - no more issues in the last year.

It seems like many of these places are crooked - and they abuse their implied "expert" status to trick/scare inexperienced or non knowledgeable people into purchasing unnecessary extras. There are honest service departments, but your best bet is always going by the manufacturers recommendations.

 

[kn5owa]

They said i had to have my tired rotated too, when i last took my 2015 5.0 Ultimate in. I asked him again if he was sure about what he said. He confirmed and when I told him the tires are staggered, he changed his opinion.

The tires on that car could be rotated side to side if the dealer is really looking for something to do.

 

[Mark_888]

They sold her and installed the wrong battery at Jiffy Lube (why anyone goes there I don't know), then refused to replace it after she had several situations where she needed to get jumped because of a bad battery (they claimed it was heat issue). Only when I went in there and started to make a stink di they exchange the battery for the correct one - no more issues in the last year.

Jiffy Lube is the worst chain. You can google and find many instances of outright fraud (not even changing the oil in some cases) that was caught on hidden camera.

It is kind of amazing, since Jiffy Lube is owned by Shell Oil (who owns Pennzoil and Quaker State), but most of the stores are franchised and the whole business is apparently out of control.

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[ksoze]

They said i had to have my tired rotated too, when i last took my 2015 5.0 Ultimate in. I asked him again if he was sure about what he said. He confirmed and when I told him the tires are staggered, he changed his opinion.

That may be because your manual and his computer show it should be done. Not so sure he was wrong. There is a separate chart for the 19" tires (side to side swap) and the complexity will depend if the tires installed are unidirectional.

 

[kn5owa]

That may be because your manual and his computer show it should be done. Not so sure he was wrong. There is a separate chart for the 19" tires (side to side swap) and the complexity will depend if the tires installed are unidirectional.

The manual for the 2G V8 at page 7-48 does show the possibility of a side to side swap for the 19" tires. As is typical for owner's manuals, there is no further explanation.

The Conti replacement tires are not uni-directional (aka directional), and I don't plan to do a side to side rotation, absent a convincing reason.