Why Dealerships Do the Bare Minimum Service to Your Vehicle?

This question comes up frequently. The answer in my opinion is they want you to purchase a new vehicle. They are not in the service business. They are in the new car business and must maintain franchise quotas and CSI scores or they will simply lose their dealership.

The Service Department and Parts Department is a secondary source of income for them. Simply put, they are trained to follow their manufacturers recommendations so the vehicle will self destruct and you are left paying the bill. Instead of keeping the vehicle maintained overtime and spreading the cost out, they will let it build up to be like $5,000 or more so the average person just says I will purchase a new car. New study’s show now that new car sales will drop by over 30% over the next 18 months so they will be working hard to maintain your vehicle less. 10,000 mile oil service intervals, 100,000 mile spark plug replacements, you name it. But hold on a second. Is every dealership like this? Not at all.

There are some very good ones out there that recommend the much needed supplemental services the vehicle craves. You just need to find them. Look for shops and dealerships offering supplemental services that may even include additional warranties includes with those services at no additional charge. Taking care of your vehicle properly by being proactive will extend the life of your investment so you can drive it for 10 plus years. I will give it to the dealerships though. They tried. For a while they started to lower service intervals and offer incentives and try to bait consumers in with fake specials and scum bag tactics. Once they figured out that there BS from the eighties was not working anymore they reverted back to just selling new cars and not servicing them.

A higher end car, we can use a BMW 5 Series for example, will most likely cost the consumer on average about $3,000 per year for a 10 year period to maintain including maintenance, repairs, tires, etc. Lets break it down. That is $250 per month or $58 per week. Lets do a comparison. A brand new 5 Series BMW at this time is about $52,000 before any incentives or rebates. Pay cash for that and God bless you. Most consumers will finance a car like this. Even over a 72 month period at 3% the payment would be around $9,480 per year, $790 per month, or $182 per week. Big difference.

At some point in your current vehicles life you will need to make the change and switch to another vehicle with less mileage. It is smarter to purchase a vehicle that is slightly pre-owned and save some money and usually have a better warranty too. That is another conversation. It is real simple. DO NOT follow ONLY the recommended items in you owners manual or the warning lights on the dashboard about service. YOU and a GOOD Service Advisor must take charge and get your car on a comprehensive maintenance plan so you are no stranded on the side of the road. During these maintenance checks, the vehicle should also have a visual courtesy check performed too.

This will ensure that any repairs needed are performed at an early stage before they end up causing other potential issues. Find a good independent shop. Find a certified shop. Find a shop with policies and procedures and one that can hand you a service schedule to follow and help you with your car. Remember that there is not a tool or person in the world that can predict what will go wrong with your car but there are plenty of good service Advisors and technicians that can offer you a service to reduce the possibility of a problem.

Preventive maintenance is the key to the longevity of your vehicle. There is a but. But, If you don’t like your car, DON’T spend the money on it. What is the point. For help with your car and also help with financing service and repairs with 0% interest please contact one of our Service Advisors. Why use your own credit card or cash? Get what you need done now. Not later.