Car Mechanics

In your opinion, from your experience, are car dealership mechanics in the habit of taking advantage of women? Have you had a great experience, as a lady, where a car mechanic offered you excellent service? Any experience of the opposite?

I'm in the middle of an "experience", and want to see if I'm out of the ordinary. So I'll wait for some reactions here, then tell ya'll about the situation I'm in, and seek feedback.

TIA,
Jennifer

They are equal opertunity scammers. I have been taken and more than once.

Well im married to the only honest one I know! he is a deisel mechanic but can fix anything!!!
Ive had mechanics tell me i needed all kinds of stuff before and none of it was true.
YES they see a woman and think she cant know anything about cars and will try to scam you.
I can even fix somethings-dh was proud that i figured out that i need a new gasfilter on my garden tractor and then there was the twisting of the screw that made it run better-but dont ever touch it with a screw driver while starting-ZZZAAAPPPP all the way up to my elbow! lol

My dh has saved so many people 100s of dollars-my nieces car in alabama they wanted 875.00 to do the brakes my dh put them on for 60.00~

He can take your car for a ride and tell you what may be wrong! hes a GREAT mechanic
waiting to hear what they are doing!

We had a mechanic rig the rotar to fail, then claimed we needed engine overhaul.

And this was a shop we went to for several years and were fine before. Then they changed.

Molly

Still waiting on a few more replies... there can't be just three people on here with car mechanic experience...

Dori - I'll give your DH something to chew on.. 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac... Cruise control......

first thing i know he will say is -its a ford!
he is a chevy man through and through...but i will run it by him tonight

I found one dealership I really liked in Columbus, Ohio (and it was a Chevy place, Dori.) I took my car in there and the guy listened to me like he believed I knew what I was talking about, talked to me like he expected me to be intelligent enough to understand what he was saying, and then they fixed my car without suggesting that it needed umpteen other things done to it that it really didn't need - and all of this was covered by the warranty, so they weren't making any money off of me at all! The only thing he didn't do was tell me that I could have a loaner car since it was going to take a couple of days to fix the transmission, so I ended up taking the bus to work for a week. I'm sure he just forgot. I really REALLY appreciated that place!! And then I moved to Houston, so I haven't been back there.

I've had a mixed bag here.. But the last couple of places we have taken our cars have been very good to me, too, so I just keep going back there.

~ Marylyn

Took the truck to the dealership where I purchased it .... around 33,000 miles. Told them "the cruise doesn't come on. It's under warranty.. fix it." They replaced some parts, said it was good. It worked for about a week. Then it quit again.

Made a few appointments I had to cancel, which is my fault, and I admit it. Then tried to make another appointment, left messages (because service rep wouldn't answer calls). Finally had to get a manager involved to get an appointment. Now, I'm at 47,000 miles (plus or minus a few). I've got extended service warranty, so it's covered through 75K. (For the past year, it's been driving about 100 miles daily... now that's dropped to about 60 miles a day for last month or so.)

Truck stayed at dealership waiting on main-computer part for about a week. Picked it up earlier this week. (With paying the $100 extended service deductible, I might add.) Got out of the lot, cruise didn't work, then it did. Thinking it was a one-time glitch, I drove home & to work the next day. On way home from work, it didn't work again. Tried calling dealership, sent to voice mail. Went in there, told the service rep "I know you didn't work on it, but you better find who did. He needs to watch me drive it & see it's still broken." Got service guy in the truck, went for a drive, showed him it's still broken.

Truck stayed overnight at dealership to replace another part. It seems to be working now, but I'm not holding my breath.

Here's my question - Are they treating me like I'm stupid because I'm a woman, or are they really that bad at diagnosing a problem? Plus, why the charges on the second trip to fix what the first trip didn't fix? Adding insult to injury, aren't there federal Lemon Laws, saying that the same thing can't break more than a few times before they have to replace the vehicle?

I'm totally fed up ... I realize now it's working, but why did it take so many miles, so many parts, and wind up so expensive if it's still under warranty???

GRRRR!! Don't think I'll be trading back to a Ford once this one's paid off.. I've got four more years, but I might end up trading after three. Certainly not interested in driving it forever if it's going to keep giving me trouble.

I've had pretty good luck with mechanics. (My last car was a Chrysler "lemon" and everything that was predicted to go wrong with that model went wrong with mine. Shrug. I got 9 years and 150,000 miles out of it before the transmission went out - we fixed the transmission and sold it on eBay for enough to cover the repairs, plus a little. You win some, you lose some.)

A few years ago, this car overheated one hot summer evening (DH was out of town, so it was just the kids and me.) I pulled into the WalMart "service" department because it was the first thing I found that was open, and even though they're strictly tire/battery/oil change, those guys stayed late, refilled the radiator and fiddled with it to make sure it would get me and the kids home. No charge.

The guy who replaced the water pump (that's what was wrong) charged me a reasonable amount for the work - no questions, no haggling. (I don't remember what I paid, but we've had water pumps go out since, and whatever he charged was far less than I've paid for other similar repairs.)

I had new tires and brakes put on this same car - the next week one of the calipers went bad. A (female) mechanic tried to tell me I had to pay for the replacement rotor and all the labor since the caliper ruined it. Her (male) manager called me back and apologized - and fixed it for the price of the caliper, no labor charges.

The car dealership wanted $600 to fix the A/C. They kept it two days and never got around to fixing it - so I took it to an independent mechanic who fixed the computer sensor "stuff" for less than $200.

I think some of it is "luck of the draw" - and some of it is in how you mentally enter into the conversation. If I go in confidently expecting to be treated courteously and dealt with honestly, (and treat them the same way); generally speaking, that's what I get. Not saying this is the case, but conversely, if I went in with a suspicious, negative, gonna-get-ripped-off attitude, my guess is I'd probably get what I expected. (I'm a strong believer in the notion that people tend to live up to whatever expectations we have of them. ;o)

Update: Now it's not consistently working again... takes a few button pushes (over & over & over) before it works.

I've placed a call with the service dept manager.. I'm beyond frustrated...

Is the cruise control controled by computers? If so have they run computer codes? I understand some things take alot more diagnosing than others especialy if its electrical or computer related, there are so many sensors, wires, sometimes alot more than one computer and all sorts of things to check.
The only bad experience I can think of was with my 05 truck, the tires were scalloping and we didnt even have 3k miles on it yet, that told me it needs an alignment, the service writer tried to tell me the warranty wouldnt cover it because they dont know if we hit potholes or what. I said if I hit a pot hole both of my front tires would not be equaly scalloped and badly too. GGRR I had DH call the guy and next thing I know Im getting a phone call saying to bring it in so they can check it, well it needed an alignment, I got it done under warranty. Just because something is new does not mean its good, how many times have you bought a product or installed a light bulb and boom its dead.

The guy yesterday told me they've "replaced all the parts associated with the cruise, so it ought to be brand-new now." Yeah, but it's still broken! According to the paperwork I have collected on all the "work" they've done, it's been on the computer diagnostic everytime it's been in there.

I wonder if its in the control lever that you push, have they replaced that? LOL. I know its a pain when something can take so long, unfortunatly computers dont always give us the fastest way to fix something, alot of times the problem might not be occuring in a way needed to throw codes at the computer.

We're lucky and cursed in our area. Except for our main vehicle, most
of our automobiles are older, so they go to the town garage. They may
be a bit slow, but they know what they are doing, and are cheap.

Our other car has all the latest and greatest digital and new wave stuff, so
the older guys scratch their heads. Thus, we have to take this one to the
dealership type mechanics who charge us an arm and a kidney. I will never
buy another fancy schmancy car with all the brains.

With regard to male / female customers, I would say most definitely know
a sucker when they walk in the door. Whether they take advantage of that
or not seems to vary. Dealerships are more likely to do this in my opinion.
Ah, there's that word again. Opinion. LOL.

Go to the dealer and find out who the factory rep. is and give them a call. You would be surprised how fast you can get some attention when you speak to a rep.

My husband use to be a service manager for our local Ford dealership about 30 years ago, and since he has been in business for himself.