Dealership or independent mechanic

How many prefer the dealership or an independent mechanic to service their Truck?

 

a quality independent knows if he screws up he pays for it. dealerships are corporation idiot mechanic in garage screws up, probably rewarded for charging customer to fix his screw up. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIR. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO ASK QUESTIONS AND CHALLENGE SUGGESTIONS BY MECHANICS. ITS YOUR MONEY!!

 

If I can't do it myself it goes to the dealer.

 

Like Jim above said, if I can't do, I'll take to a mechanic

 

I usually do all the maintenance on our vehicles but sometimes there are things that i just can't, or won't, do. When that happens I'll take the vehicle to an independent I ran across several years ago.

An example: The left front wheel bearing on the Mrs. Lexus RX was starting to make some noise and not having the proper tools (mostly not having a 20 ton press) I took it to our guy. $260 and an afternoon in the shop and the job was done. The bearing alone would have cost me close to $100 and I would have wrestled with the thing for an entire Saturday, if not longer, so i made sense to just take it in.

I have referred several people to this shop and every one of them has made them their "go to" shop. Also, I have never taken any of my vehicles to a dealer for any kind of service/repairs. I would rather find a good independent.

 

Ditto... my dealer has been outstanding for service/maintenance.

 

Dealership for free and warranty service.

Local mechanic who I have been dealing with and trust, will get all future business from me.

 

I’ll take it to my private mechanic. I know him good and he has worked at dealerships when he was younger. He worked for toyota and subaru. The dealerships around me suck. They did my 2 free oil changes and overfilled it by a lot. Kinda took a fit on the service manger. My daughter took her truck to them cause she had a drop of oil under her brake pedal. She had 32,000 miles on her truck and was 33 months old, so it was still under warranty. The service writer told her she had to pay for the diagnosis and toyota would pay for the repair. She told him she was going to call toyota to verify that. They changed there story real fast. They suck.

 

Never had to deal with a toyota dealer as there are none locally and I've only owned the Tundra for 5 months or so, but all my escapades with the local Ram dealership were negative. Brought it in for a suspension squeak and they decided to go ahead and weld a bunch of holes into my new exhaust. A blind man with parkinsons could have done a far better weld. Never seen such terrible work in my life, and that's saying a lot. Then the excuses they made on how hard it is to weld exhaust were pretty rich. Have had to get the owners involved when their "mechanics" screwed up my truck, been charged $120 just to be told they couldn't work on my truck because it had a lift, yada yada. I prefer independent. More trustworthy and I feel like my go-to has actual mechanics working there, not "service professionals" or whatever the heck they're called nowadays

 

If under warranty it goes to the dealer.
If not, I do it. If it is something I am not capable of doing I take it to an independent shop. There is no reason to pay the high dealership price.
I have a local commercial truck shop that works on my trucks. They do a great job and have great prices.

 

I've been hit and miss with stealerships with both warranty work and basic maintenance to the point I'd rather do it myself, and as stated before if I can't do it, I'll find an independent mechanic somewhere.....

 

If he doesn’t know ohms law on modern cars, he’s certainly a parts flinger. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s fact.

 

There is no real answer to this clearly it just depends on the mechanic regardless of who he works for.

 

Very true, but a Mechanic you know and trust, is very different from a Tech at the dealership who is just randomly assigned to work on your truck.

 

Thanks all. I have an independent shop in mind they charge a bit high but do good work, just was unsure if it was worth it compared to the similar dealer prices here in MD.

 

I will gladly pay a little more for a shop that does good work and stands behind it.

 

If I cannot do it, it goes to mechanic. Only the dealer for warranty work.

 

Obviously, but this sure doesn't mean that you can not find a Dealer that you feel the same way about and that earns your trust.
Sometimes it is not only about the money too where a dealer will usually be more expensive.

At the very least I want to think the dealer offers mechanics focused training on your vehicle if represented in their store as they are the ones tasked with supporting and maintaining your warranty on the vehicle.

Again obviously there are a wide range of dealer service departments across the whole spectrum of levels of quality ans=d service EXACTLY the same way that there are independants across the spectrum.

All I am saying is that I am not going to paint a group with this broad a brush as I am sure there are dealers who are terrific too.

There are also companies both indies and dealers who start off one way and end up another and sadly this is my experience and it makes it tough to remain faithful to any one place without continuing to do the work to watch them for your own good!

 

The only thing have to be careful with independents is the part they use. For example when I replaced the AC compressor on my 2001 Lexus, replacement compressors were anywhere between $115 and $329. I went with the $329 as it was Denso the exact compressor on my car. Lexus wanted $1200 for the identical compressor. I replaced a front wheel bearing and used a timken bearing, sure it was $109 vs $39 but I am positive I will never replace the bearing again. Bottom line is as I try to say over and over everyone wants as much money as they can get out of you. If they can put in a $39 bearing that last 20K miles why install the $109 and loose $60 profit.

 

I take it to the dealer. I have had more bad experience with independent mechanics than I have had with dealers. If the independent mechanic screws up it is just me and him. If the dealer's mechanic screws up I can take it up the chain and deal with someone who has a reputation; I have not had many issues but usually sitting down with the service manager and stating my issue in a respectful way got things repaired. With the independent dealers they have screwed up and did not want to own up to it, so there was nothing I could do about it; just had to go to someone else and paid again to have the same issue fixed.
If I had a reliable independent mechanic that I could trust it would be different, but so far I have not found him.

 

I do my own work on non-warranty things. First thing I do when I take it to the dealer for warranty work is say, "I ain't paying for shit!". I also add work I do to the vehicle's maintenance history on the Toyota/Lexus website. For maintenace facility I put it under self service.

 

It depends on what it is. Right now, since it's w/in warranty period and since I trust the dealership, I'll take it there for the free oil changes and any warranty work.

Post-warranty, I will usually take it to an independent for small stuff, though I'll usually insist on OEM parts.

 

I generally use the dealership, that way if something happens that should be covered under warranty they cannot say I didn't do regular maintenance etc.

-T

 

I use the stealership for warranty work and electrical work. Everything else goes to my local mechanic.

 

It all depends on how savvy you are. When I had an Audi and Mercedes, I had to find a trustworthy independent mechanic because it was soooo expensive at the dealership.
Now that I've had 2 Tundras and wife's RAV, I just go to the dealer for most work, but I use coupons from the service specials sections of their website and NEVER get the Toyota recommended service for the mileage. They usually have a BOGO free oil change offer, inexpensive alignment deals, and % off coupons. The Toyota Owners website sometimes has some to as well as Toyota Finance.
When the service advisor tells me "oh you're at xx,000 miles and it's time for the recommended service", I look at the maintenance manual and it usually is an oil change (around $75.00 but actually $37.50 w/ coupon), fluid checks (which they fill for free), safety check, and checking and adjusting floor mats all for well over $150+/-. Of course there is tranny fluid changes, diff gear oil changes, etc. but like I said, coupons.
I also think the key is to find a good service advisor you can work with. I went through about 4 before I found a guy I like and knows me and my vehicles. He always gives me free wipers once a year, calls them "birthday wipers." It also helps to have 4 Toyota dealers within about 50 miles of each other. Competition is the great equalizer.

 

There’s good and bad for both. Some areas have a trust worthy dealer. Others trustworthy independents. Ask around for who’s best.
Personally I go to the dealer... but uhh I work there.

and yes. Ever since it got bought out by a dealer group. The service has gone to hell. I practically get punished for being honest.
Back when we were family owned? Totally different.

 

Do it yourself if time/skill/equipment allows. Otherwise, find an independent garage you can trust.

I haven’t been screwed by a Toyota dealership yet, but I have been surprised by their incompetence and pricing. The dealership ordered the wrong parts, causing multiple trips (we live 45mins away), and wanted to charge two hours labor for a 20min job. On another occasion they wanted to charge $100+ to change out my air filter =\ Somebody must be falling for it, but it’s not worth the free car wash and trouble.

 

Technicians that work at dealerships are not working for a corporation. The dealership is an independent business. The advantages of going back to the dealer is that they have most likely seen your issue before and have done the work many times which helps in the quality of the repair. Also they have more technical support provided by Toyota.

 

An independent mechanic relies on actually fixing your vehicle to earn income and develop a reputation that will grow his business.

Dealers are less incentivized to keep your current vehicle running properly for you, for obvious reasons.