Re:Re:Gen 4 service cost

Just picked the car up from dealer. Oil life reset wouldn't talk to their computer. Brought the car home and we had a think. Instructions are, ignition on, push and hold indicator knob, select oil change and press and hold knob.
This doesn't work.
Once you get to oil change you give quick push on knob and then Reset OC comes up and then you push and hold knob until successful comes up and light goes out.
Now why didn't they know how to do it?
They initially said that it could be my air horns or supplementary instruments.
Balderdash!

Roger

To me it seems these days the Main Dealer Technicians (mechanics) are not trained to think for themselves.

A **** trained technician is only trained to follow the **** script, if a problem falls beyond that they are screwed! And if the OBD2 computor diagnostic does not find a fault, then process of elimination doesn't exist

**** insert any car manufacturer

You pay a premium for the expertise of the main dealer, that's why they cost more than the independent
Sorry to say but my own experience over the years is they just fleece you. 
Won't go near them myself these days.
 

Unless it's for real specialist work or something that I can't justify buying the equipment for to do myself, I have opted out of the entire paid technician system. This has been facilitated by buying cars that are inherently well built in the first place and hasn't always been the case but with Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota especially it has been much easier than with Land Rover, Mercedes, VW, Ford and Jeep. I still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about fixing the Defender and the C220d, random things going wrong just because it was Tuesday and either being too numb and heavy to fix without a hoist or needing a special electronic key that only works if you are stood on one foot with your hair parted to the left and your right buttock on fire. I'd sooner have an impreza or cruiser or Jimny any day, they just work even if they are broken.

On Viv's Audi the onboard computer can be set to advise you as to when a service is due. The first one was at 12,000 miles and when we collected the car we received a supplementary sheet advising us that the two front tyres were due for replacement. I queried the tread depths mentioned - I had previous to the service measured them - and profuse apologies were forthcoming when they re-measured them. At the next service we became the proud owners of the only tyres in the cosmos that had actually grown in size, and we have it in writing.

Say after me, I will not be conned, I will not be conned

---

Roger

ps. What a horrifying sight, Lambert with his arse - or at least half of it - on fire.

The problem I have with them is on more than one occasion I have caught them out, intensionally or not, try to extract vast sums of money for work I don't need.
They assume the person in front of them knows nothing, it's always interesting if you go armed with facts.

I enjoy working on my vehicles and have the tools, software and manuals for the vehicles I own, they don't expect that.

I had a Nissan that I suspected the VVT diverter valve was faulty. Error codes and cleaning had almost confirmed, but at £350 it was a lot to just change and not be 100% sure. The workshop manual detailed a test that could be performed by the dealer specific software tool to confirm, and the time to do it, so I opted to take it to the main dealer for confirmation.
Booked in and told about my findings and wants, the first call from them was to confirm I would pay for a code read by the "engineer". I told them what the code was, but they insisted the "engineer" must do it, ok I said.

The second call was to confirm my error code (D'oh!) and ask for permission to remove the intake system to measure for timming chain stretch?????
Nissan's own service manual said the code was VVT valve, so why the timming chain?
They tried to imply it was a known fault and would cost £80 to investigate and £1500 to fix. 

It's was not a known fault, they lied, and my vehicle had only covered 30k t the time. I told them to put it back together and don't touch it any further.
I eventually found the value secondhand from a breaker in London and swapped it, sold the car 4 years later still working fine.

So main dealer and the "engineer" wanted to march me down a £1500  cam chain replacement I did not need and then the £350 plus labour to fix the original problem.

Honest mistake or elevation of jobs to keep cash flow high?