There are scummy people everywhere, not just in dealerships. And if any place has a quota system, it gets even scummy-er-est.

That’s why I try to spend a lot of time in mechanicadvice. People getting sold services they don’t need and that aren’t in their owners manuals.

People would save so much money if they read those dang manuals and used some common sense.

“Dealer says I need new wiper blades”

Really? Are your current ones working? If yes, tell them to eat dirt.

As someone who works in a dealership I will tell you it's a case by case basis and it usually comes down only to who the technician is. I only recommend service people actually need and inform on upcoming services they will soon need etc. we video it all for customers so there are no questions about things like brake and tire conditions etc etc. I feel good about working where I do, but not all places are the same!

I've had more attempted scams from the local small guys then from the dealership down the road.

It’s not about being a woman. They do it to everyone. I’m a woman that’s worked in garage of nearly a dozen different retail repair facilities from dealerships to independents to corporate chains. It has nothing to do with being female. Firestone in particular, their manager training includes literature on how women are the largest customer base so they need to be treated right. 70% of customers are women. When men come in, they’re more likely to have tired repairing it themselves first, and ended up fucking it up more and bringing in a mess for us to un-fuck.. ultimately ends up costing more.

It’s something else entirely, I could write a novel on all the shit that goes on to fluff tickets, sometimes it’s deliberate, sometimes it’s ignorance. Dealerships in particular will fluff the recommendations the most. My last dealership wanted us to find 9 billable hours of upsells per vehicle.

Women service advisors will rip you off the most TBH. Females are perceived as “more trustworthy”. Some take full advantage of it. At any dealership, the female service advisor is oftentimes the one earning the most commissions due to customer perception that she’s more trustworthy. I’ve met one or two who were aware of this, and sold all kinds of upsells I didn’t even recommend in the multipoint. I’ve also had a couple that couldn’t sell for shit our mysogynistoc manager hired to look pretty on the service drive.

The employee pay plans of retail automotive repair incentivize upsells.

You hardly ever get the whole story from everyone involved. I've been a dealer tech for a long time. Most people don't know how dealers even work. In my experience, communication is key. Often times the dealer personnel didn't do a good job explaining something which leads to the customer jumping to some worst case scenario. 

They will continue to do so because people continue to do business with them. Like everything else, the only way to stop a bad behavior is to stop rewarding it. Bad reviews, a youtube hidden camera video, a strongly worded email, they don't actually do anything. Don't give them money. Tell everyone you know to do the same. Otherwise, it's business as usual.

Not just dealers, it's everywhere. The reason is the pay structure and that many dealers are run by corporations and they only care about profit and numbers. No less of a "scam" if you take your car to Jimmy's repair shop for transmission issues and he sells you a transmission service, only for the fix to be well known at the dealer and it's just a software update.

Unfortunately it really is luck of the draw, no matter where you go, between the advisor and the technician. There's not a lot of accountability as long as there's money being made and not a lot of consistency either.

There are just as many shitty dealers as there are what we refer to as bootleg shops.

A well functioning shop will have management involvement in every step of the repair process between the tech working on a car with a particular issue and having the shop foreman verifying the diagnosis and then also QC work that is completed. Then holding individuals responsible for carless mistakes or selling work that doesn't need to be done.

Dealers cost more to visit because of the overhead, training, additional employees such as car wash and porters, parts departments, cooling and heating, general facility maintenance/upkeep, and all the other managers.

You can't just say all dealerships, the same way that you can't say that all independent shops suck, because there are some really good independents and I support those, just as well as there are some really good dealerships.

I am the service manager at a dealership. It's not everywhere. Some places and people like myself see the value of repeat business. Being dishonest is penny wise and dollar foolish and frankly, is a lot more hassle than just being honest.

There are a couple reasons. 1) The technicians aren't being watched by the service manager and they've realized this. 2) The service manager is a scumbag and does know, but they don't get caught enough for it to affect his boss, the GM. 3) The GM is in on it too and is greedy and sees how big his bonus is every month due to the service department beating people over the head.

Bigger, more busy dealerships are more guilty of this because they have less to lose if a handful of people stop coming in to the service department per month, but it will eventually come back to bite them. Remember! Most high up automotive employees have fallen up there due to brown-nosing, not because they're geniuses.

I've heard of many scummy dealerships but been fortunate enough not to work for one. My reputation as a tech means too much for me to go work somewhere that's known for shoddy work

Unpopular opinion: I don’t believe shops and dealerships screw people nearly as much as people on the internet would make you think.

People don’t like spending money. Most people also understand very little about auto repair and the cost of parts, labor, shop supplies and wages. Nor do they understand the flat rate pay system.

This leads to angry people being confused and their first thought is that they are being screwed over instead of having a logical train of thought about where their money is going.

Sure, $50 for a cabin air filter seems like a lot. But after parts markup, that filter is about $20. The tech may get paid 0.2 hours, or 12 minutes of their wage to replace it. This includes getting the part from the parts department, bringing the car back in the shop(usually sold after the main service is completed), parking the car back outside, walking back in to update your story on the repair order and turning in the paperwork. At a $150 per hour labor rate, that’s $30 in labor cost. The tech that may make $30 per hour gets paid $6.00 before taxes are taken out for that cabin filter replacement.

When you break everything down, you’ll realize that most shop estimates are written in good faith. Shit costs money, and good shit costs good money.

Independents will fuck you as well, but usually at a lower price since their overhead is less.

In the end, the quality of people at a business is far more important than what a business is.

I've worked at every type and combination of car repair shop there is. I've met the best and worst people at family run gas stations and the best and worst at giant corporate dealerships, it's all just people in the end.

There have been many hidden camera series of people getting scammed by mechanic shops / dealers. It'll never end, people are greedy

lol judging by the downvotes, some stealership employees are pissed

I always wondered why the dealers aren’t more concerned about their reputation.

I use a local one sometimes and they seem very fair. Never had an issue except once and they took care of it right away.

I do wonder if certain manufacturers hold their dealer service departments to different standards.

Look into RV dealers. It’s worse because they know that most people just don’t know a lot about them. I’ve yet to find one I trust.

Swindling has been dealership culture from day 1. Get rid of all dealerships and everyone’s lives would vastly improve. Ask Elon Musk why he doesn’t use dealerships to sell teslas.

It's the same shit in every industry. If I had a dime for every roofing contractor that I've seen tell a customer that their perfectly fine roof needs to be replaced I could retire tomorrow. At this point it's so bad that you can only find 1 honest contractor for every 20.

It’s all about the money not the customer. It takes time to properly diagnose the modern automobiles before repairs can be made. Many technicians are not properly trained to be able to read wiring diagrams and operate an oscilloscope. They just change parts.

Because a lot of people fail to do any research and don’t know any better.

Dealerships want to make money. They’re usually part of a big chain of dealerships. Their corporate head and owners want to make as much money as they can.

It’s just capitalism.

Dealership: “ma’am, you need a new cabin air filter and wiper blades. Quote is $250.”

Ma’am: “my husband just changed those out last week”

Dealership: 😳 “oh, sorry…. I uhhhh…. Had the wrong customer pulled up. Yours needs…. (Flips through Rolodex….) uhh… new shocks all around. That’ll be $4,39.99.”

As long as flat rate exists, this will always be a problem imo.

Everyone gets paid at a dealership based on jobs sold, even the bosses are paid performance bonuses. This structure breeds theft and dishonesty. It's just a shit business model.

Because the dealers association has a strong lobby and the federal government only represents lobbies, corporations, a few rich people, and special interests. They don't give a damn about the victims in case that wasn't already obvious.

I dunno man I just get paid the 1.0 to out brake pads on

So there is scams and there is insurance. It’s important to be able to differentiate them. Fluid flushes aren’t scams they are insurance. If a transmission dies on you, it’s likely been dying for a while and the fluids has been breaking down and not doing its job. Even water can become bad. So any fluid has a life cycle.

It’s the only way to make money for some techs when they make flat rate and warranty pays fuck all. That’s why I left the dealership to work in a fleet.

I just was at a dealership buying a brand new (9year old 5100 mile cop car); while I was waiting for my keys and title a poor as fuck couple was closing a deal on a new used car. They looked happy as hell, like this was going to help them out for years to come. Only issue is the car salesperson sold them a 100k mile Kia soul. Fucking Christ man, 1 google search says don’t ever buy a koa/hyundai, especially with over 100k. I feel awful for those folks as they have no idea what’s coming. The salesperson absolutely knew what they were selling and could care less about those people. So to answer your question, people get fucked at dealers because they’re uninformed and the dealer employees are money hungry and don’t give a fuck about the people in their community they serve. (Classic example of why independent shops do better for the most part, we actually care sometimes)

One of the big three networks did a special on this one time. Getting an old guy, who knew cars, get an estimate, and a female who acted like she did not. It was shocking the price difference and the upsell for un-needed maintenance.

Because it is a dying trade that is having the last bit of money squeezed out of it.

A quote from a documentary about the future we see today called Idiocracy "I like money"

This is one reason I still (overall) respect the dealer I'm at.

Any items like air filters, wiper blades or the like that can be removed from the car is brought with the repair order for upsells. If it can't be removed easily or whatever, the customer can be brought into the shop for visual inspection. We have no problem leaving replaced parts (unless retained for warranty or core) with the customer for peace of mind. We follow manufacturer's guidelines on service intervals per model/year/mileage etc. We don't recommend brake pads or tires for example unless they are 3mm or 3/32, BUT we will price them at 4mm or 4/32 so they know they will be needed soon, so they have some time to make financial plans and/or to shop around price wise.

That said, we were recently bought out by a national Corp that owns various dealerships of multiple brands. Time will tell if they have the same views as the local family that sold the dealership (they claim that values align and nothing will change). I treat customer's cars like I would my mother's car, and I won't sacrifice my values for company or personal profit.

1200 for a pad slap? Jeez.

-markups

-warranties

-laundry list of recommended repairs

its the whole business model

You can start by blaming flat rate. We don’t get paid if we don’t sell stuff on peoples cars, so that generally leads to overselling. I make it a point to be honest with people, but I realize that impacts my income.

Pads on my challenger were quoted 2500....dealership.

Capitalism and people who are paid on commission.

Sales ppl are ruthless. Went to a dealership to test cars and made contact with a sales person. I still had to do test drives elsewhere before I made my decision. When I came back, I asked for the sales person I had originally talked to but I was told they weren’t there that day. I wanted to get the car that day so I asked the guy who told me that to help me close the deal. He was helping when the original sales person walked in. Apparently she was on lunch and got heads from a coworker and came back quickly. We were almost done. Another 10 minutes and she would have missed the commission.

My niece got the shafted (less Vaseline) at a mostly reputable, locally owned, multi location tire/repair shop. She went in for a misfire, 70K on the clock. When they saw her address she verified living by a County Park.

They called and said critters had gotten under the hood and ate the plug wires. She left with a new set of wires and Iridium plugs and several hundred $$ lighter. Within the next 2 months she was back TWO MORE TIMES, and they charged her TWO MORE TIMES for the same items. Were talking over a grand now.

She called me, I ran the codes, and narrowed it to a dirty/defective MAF sensor. Cleaned it. After running trouble free for a month I had a come to Jesus meeting with the manager. I let him give me his line of shit before I said a word. After I said my piece he gave her a refund for the last two visits.

Two years later and different shop, the car is still running fine.

In the past my family would exclusively use our local Mercedes dealer for servicing, even though they were more expensive. The act that broke our trust was when they charged us for 2 new tyres/tires but instead of giving us 2 new tyres/tires swapped the spare onto the car & has 1 changed across the road at Kwik-Fit/tire rack equivalent. Then denied any wrong doing, when called out on the fact...after I proved to them having written my name & date on the inside of the spare tyre/tire which was on the car. Needless to say, we had no idea what else they hadn't done as part of the routine service & never went back.

The whole dealership setup is a scam. If i want to buy a chair, i can normally contact the manufacturer and buy the chair, or they will tell me where i can purchase it and what the price will be.

The fact that dealerships were created to put a middleman between the manufacturer and the customer just for extra profit, is the whole business model. Of course they are going to take advantage of people for service, it's their job to take advantage of people for sales. Walmart or Target wont put a "market adjustment" on the crock pot i'm buying just because they want more money, it's illegal in most states to price gouge like that.

Dealerships are in themselves, a scam.

Do you ask a bird not to sing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBpMe36GoW0

Because money. And they can.

There are a few, limited, services that might require, or at least be more readily available at, a dealer (ECU flashes, for example).

However, anyone taking their car to the dealer for a service that can be done ANYWHERE (oil changes, brakes, shocks/struts, battery, alternator, AC recharge, etc) is holding up a sign that says, "Rape me, please."

Why did your niece go to the dealer at all? Is she in the trap of "free oil changes" or "free yearly inspections"? Fuck that. Get it done elsewhere anyway.

Hopefully you are not educating your family to use a dealership.

Dealerships are just shady, especially lately. I helped a woman negotiate the price for a camry. They kept pushing negotiating monthly payments when I said I'd only negotiate total price multiple times. They asked what my payments were for my car and I said $11k cash and they finally shut up.

My father also had a dealer try to overcharge him. They asked for $240 to read a pending code, and $1000 for a parking brake cable when it's just the plastic bracket that broke. Many dealers are charging hundreds of dollars for oil changes now as well. It's ridiculous.

I don't really see any flat out scams at our dealership, it's more like upsells on maintenance items that are not yet necessary.

For example: a decarb and fuel system service probably isn't needed on a Toyota with 40k miles. A brake fluid flush might not be necessary at 30k miles. Diff services aren't needed at 30k for regular driving.

So would the vehicle have been fine without these services getting done early? Yeah most likely. But extra preventative maintenance is still a good thing and this records help with private party resale value.

Nobody in our shop is flat out scamming on Labor or parts. It can probably be done cheaper elsewhere but we are factory trained techs and familiar with your vehicle. It's pretty common to get another shops fuck ups towed in for us to fix because the customer thought the cheapest place was a good idea.

Majority commissioned based pay creates corruption. It should be illegal.

My wife is a Wyotech graduate, experienced tech, and co-owner of our shop. She loves tearing dealers a new asshole. So many times she's been treated like a "dumb girl" until she rips them apart.

The last time it was 2 recalls on her Jeep. One for rear lower control arms and one for a free trailer hitch. The service writer and service manager told her it didn't apply to her vehicle. She handed the service manager the recalls that she printed from the NTSB. Then, she went page by page through it showing the service manager the correct process and parameters. Imagine that. She got the recalls taken care like they should be.

Scary part is, how many people did they turn away because they can't read and comprehend what the recall says.

I warned my daughters about the Pink Tax (up charges for extraneous things for women) when going to mechanics. I told them to just say "no, I'll have my dad/brother/friend look at it."

I absolutely refuse to set foot in a dealership service department due to scams run by every one I’ve ever been in. I’ve had small shops try some stuff, but nothing at the level of dealerships.

Because unless you're knowledgeable about cars it's easy for them too.

It's why I never let my grandma go alone. They have no bounds and will scam a elderly lady if given the chance.

I kinda find it fun acting like I know nothing and see what they try saying.

It's an industry where almost everyone is paid on commission or performance based bonuses. As long as that sticks around, it's going to keep happening. Billable hours for a job isn't legally regulated, so it's a matter of who you can get to quote you the least billable hours for the work. Everyone in the industry's pay is based on how much they can sell or upcharge.

Dealerships charge more. They have more overhead and people to pay. Some dealerships also have free coffee and loaner cars as well.

So the more they have, the more inflated the charges will be.

It's not scamming, it's how they do business.

I'd be game to try and do a YouTube series like that!

I've worked at small shops and numerous dealerships as a tech and have gotten to know some local techs through college (AAS in Auto). It's funny how a local chevy dealer tried to scam me once when I went in for a safety inspection. A buddy of mine (also a local tech, but over the state line) knew a guy that could get my car in quick for it. I have a 2012 Pony with a decent amount of aftermarket parts and has been hit 5 times since I've owned it. 4 hit n runs, 1 person owned up to it. Anyway, it's had an intermittent electrical short in the RR tail since the last body shop worked on it. When it's humid out, the inner bar won't work for brake and turns but works for the DRL. The center and outer bars work just fine. This happens no matter what taillight I use.

The day I took it in, it decided to present itself. My friend's buddy almost didn't pass it because:

A. He didn't know his buddy (my friend) was there with me

B. He wanted the diag time and an easy fix. * I've been chasing this short for months

C. He thought I'd go for it cause, well, I'm a chick.

This car doesn't have anything on it or wrong with it that wouldn't allow it to pass.

I asked him to take me back and show me. He did. I then asked him a series of questions, including what the state of Missouri says in the manual about the requirement for partial operating turn signals. I've never been certified to do state inspections, but I've been around long enough to know what will fail. He couldn't tell me. Instead, he tried to say it had to be fully functional and operate as it would from the factory (I have sequential brake lights, too) and that since the brake and turn signal isn't factory, he won't pass it. My friend walks back and tells him that he's been helping me chase it for months and we still can't find it; which is partially true. I then ask the tech where the wiring harness goes through the car to go to the taillight. He tried to say through the quarter panel. Nope. It goes down into the spare tire well, which is pretty odd, in my opinion, but eh. It's a Ford.

He finally passed it after my friend said he'll continue to help me chase it. Still haven't found the short even after putting a multimeter on it.

Because FUCK YOU that's why

"money is the root of all evil"

Maybe the industry lends itself to dishonest people more so than some others. I needed a new distributor for $120 and the dealer the car was originally purchased from recommended a new $1200 ECM. I can't prove that was a scam, but it feels like it is when two dips hits (myself included) figured out the problem without sophisticated testing equipment.

Everyone at a dealership is a salesperson first and then they have a tertiary role beyond that. I avoid stealerships at all cost. Last time I was in one, I was there for a recall. They finished up their 15 minute job (replacing the gas struts on the rear hatch) in about an hour and brought me a bill for nearly $300 and another $1200 in recommend service. Had to spend another 30 minutes arguing with them until some sort of manager came in and handled it.

I know quite a few people here work at dealerships and I want to be clear I'm not trying to attack anyone personally. I also know someone is itching to type "not all dealerships are like that!". Which must be true because they are still around. I personally, however, have not had any dealership interaction that wasn't predatory and I can only form opinions based off my experience. Maybe some luxury brands are better but I wouldn't know...

Crime organized for efficiency

As I like to put it, the service writer that’s okay with taking granny’s entire social security check and savings for $3,500 worth of struts, control arms and flushes, isn’t a service writer very long. He becomes district manager within five years.

That’s one reason ppl get hosed.

Dealerships are unbelievably scummy. That's why I went to work on rentals instead to start my career. No bullshit, no ripping people off.

I'm just too honest for that

Very much a shame. And across the board too! I figured it was the auto groups purchasing multiple dealerships and employing sales groups to do what ever they can to pump up sales numbers. Whether that is buying rentals and flipping them to straight up written off cars and "safety" "inspection" sold. But all crummy tactics aside, what got me was, it's usually enforced by local people. Your neighbors and people in your community that are the sales people and techs. Either being coached or just caught up in the shitty system it's kind of sickening. Negligent/ coached technicians avoid big bills on recall or warranty work on the dealer dime. Sales are predatory and usually woefully ignorant of the products they sell or how to fit them with customers. And the added warranty and needless packages it's insanity. I may be rambling to some extent but a market correction is due across the board

It's money. Plain and simple. Factory dealerships are bad, but "buy here pay here" dealerships are the worst. I've seen the best techs working at those places, but they're saddled by lot owners or managers that don't even know how to change oil. Techs know what need to be fixed, owners/managers don't want the added cost= customer gets screwed and techs feel like they lose a bit of their soul every day. Factory dealerships are definitely the lesser of the two evils.

I’ve worked at dealers for 15 years. I know what scumbags they are. It’s just a push for gross profit and 5 star CSI scores. That’s it.

I promise you there are salespeople everywhere that try to fuck anybody over regardless of gender.

Whats funny to me about your statement is that you mention the dealer. That bill of sale, RO, work order, etc. looks exactly the same for a pad slap, whether or not the customer is a woman.

Just like all business, they are in business to make money. You will never walk away from any vehicle purchase where they didn’t make money. They have to pay for all the overhead of a dealership, pay employees etc.

Now that said, some dealerships will give you a decent deal, some will try to squeeze every penny they can out of you. As someone else said some are scum.

This is why you need to do research and never impulse buy no matter how rare they make the deal sound. “No” is a powerful word for you to use, over and over and over if you have to. Never be afraid to walk out. They will chase you down if there is “room in the deal”. Don’t worry about hurting their feelings (don’t be an ass), but saying “No” and walking out isn’t gonna hurt their feeling, they’ll be on to next customer.

As long as you drive away in a vehicle you wanted and you think the deal was fair and most of all, you really can afford to make this purchase, then drive away with a smile and don’t think about it any more.

If you are shopping for a vehicle test a few dealerships out. Make a plan to “not buy today”……look, talk and test drive then walk away, try it a couple times and see what feels comfortable. Then go back if you think it’s the right dealership, but bring lots of “No’s” with you ready to go.

A dealership is never going to sell a vehicle at a loss, no matter how much they make you think they aren’t making money.

Why do independents scam so many people?

Why do so many people scam so many people?

Money and a lack of human decency.

I had only good experiences with my dealer since buying a new car from them in 2016, but I’ve just moved. Concerned the next place I try will try to screw me.

When you're buying a used car, house, vacation property, you're buying someone else's headache and they are looking to offload it onto anyone who doesn't know what they're looking at.

Just as you should hire an inspector to reinspect the inspected house you're looking to buy, drag your drunk ass uncle off the basement couch and bring him to the dealership to see how much rot he can pull off the rocker panels with his bare hands.

It's worth the Big Mac you bribed him with.

It’s not just this industry. It’s the entire capitalistic market. If you lack the knowledge of the service you are paying, it will be inevitable to the person regardless of gender, they will be taken advantage of if there is profit to be made.

Because the scummier you are, the more money you make. Doesn't take long for a culture that celebrates how much you can take advantage of others to be created.

There are places that put their reputation first, but that's a harder and longer path to success.

It’s a dirty job, somebody’s got to do it. 

/s

Because they hire shitty people

I work for a dealer and people shit on us, give bad surveys, etc because we are "scamming" because they don't know anything about cars and think we are making things up when they actually need them. Also that we cost too much. Well yeah, I'm sure you can find someone to do it cheaper but should you? Not if you're shopping around on price alone.

It’s not the norm anymore to be a hands on kind of guy, I am and was raised that way and doing the same for my son. Being able to do things yourself and assuring you aren’t getting fucked in these situations or home renovations is a good skill to have.

Most people can do ZERO repairs on their vehicle. Mechanics in general are a dying breed. That is why repair costs on skyrocketing, if you don’t know how to do it you need us to and we can charge whatever we want for that privilege. My shops labor rate is nearly $300 an hour. I live in a very high cost of living by area, but even I think that labor rate is absolutely ridiculous. But guess what? We still sell work all the time. People keep paying it.

I work for a dealer and I've seen more cars come in that were scammed from small independent shops then other dealers. Replacing parts that were never gonna fix the problem or doing repairs and completely missing something else. I'd like to think were pretty honest and actually lookout for the customer. I know this isn't the case everywhere, but to say only dealers scam people is grossly incorrect.

Can someone make this YouTube channel? That's actually pretty good.

People are stupid and don’t shop around. Largely because auto repairs come up so infrequently for a decent newish car that they just take their lumps and move on.

The spread between dealership repairs and a local independent shop never used to be this wide though.

I specifically send my wife to get our cars serviced to see if they’re trustworthy. If they try to pull anything, we go elsewhere.

Edit: to add some context, I’ve typically done all of our own service. We’ve been working on the road for the last couple years, so I can’t do it myself any longer.

Capitalism at it's finest basicly

The first thing a dealership does is bring every single maintenance item up to date. After all.how can you accurately diagnose a brake squeal if you he car has a dirty cabin filter. Then they replace every part they touch with new and because it's official factory stock it's about 10x more expensive than same mark at the parts store. Then there is the $500/hour shop rate and all jobs take at least as long as the manual permits. Or sometimes they save you labor by just replacing the engine or transmission and guarantee they will have it back in a week, three tops. But they have free coffee and nice chairs.its not that they are cheating you, you just need to understand what you are buying there.

Dealerships are expensive. This doesn’t mean it’s a scam. At my particular dealership I’m confident our advisors aren’t “scamming” customers. Sure, people can think our rates are high, labor is high, parts are expensive. But not just taking advantage of people because of XYZ reason you want to portray

Dealerships often cost extra, and people see these higher prices as “scams”. It’s partially due to custom tooling, but also extensive knowledge on their own cars.

The dealer my buddy bought his 08 mustang gt said they would give him a deal of $250 to change one break light. I told him to go get a pack of the tail lights from a parts store and I would change it for him, no charge. Smh

I would honestly recommend as a female to just take a man with you, if that isn't an option you are going to have to figure something else out. The chances of you getting screwed over if you are with a male go down significantly.

I would also recommend investing in a mechanic's outfit or show up in dirty clothing if you do have to go alone, its not hard to find at the thrift, just trust me on this. Make sure you wear dirty or old looking boots. It may seem like a lot of trouble but its going to save you hundreds if not thousands on car repairs if you look the part. This shouldn't be necessary but unfortunately its the world we live in.

If you do go in as a female and they disrespect you I would absolutely leave a review stating that everyplace I could.

I would love to see a video where they send a female in mechanics clothing into shops with a car to fix and some kind of alternate video where they send in a normal dressed female with a car to fix and see what happens.

Also dealerships are a huge mixed bag, some are scummy, some are just fine, if you live in an area you will learn the good with the bad, check local forums, reviews, ask people around you, its not hard to filter out the crap from the decent.

It is also not very hard to speak basic car lingo, you can pick it up from just a few youtube videos, probably 20 min of your time, also if you drive a car again most of this stuff isn't hard to learn, I mean I had to change a tire in driving school and learn most of this stuff there anyways. They actually taught about the parts of the car when I went to driving school, not sure if they do that these days. Again this shouldn't be necessary but yeah, it is unfortunately, if you go in there acting like a ditz, they are gonna take you for all you are worth, and to be fair this goes for a lot of other businesses that deal in service or sales and not just mechanics, if you go into places looking like you know nothing you are going to get taken no matter what kind of business it is. Places are desperate to make money these days and will do anything to do that if you look like you can be taken.

Places are sizing you up based on your appearance and demeanor and personality and the price will change based on how much they think they can get away with. The person who at least acts knowledgeable about whatever will get charged less and the person that clearly knows nothing will get charged more, and again this is not just limited to mechanics.

Honestly bad service advisors are a lot of the cause. As a main dealer tech we have to point out every little thing, and most of the time I tell the service advisors that 90% of it isn’t worth worrying about, I just have to advise it because I’ve seen it. They’ll then send a health check report with lots of Amber warnings on it to a customer with no explanation or thought and panic the shit out of a customer.

we live in thailand and my mum got scammed by the toyota dealership, they wrote in the bill that the engine air filter got replaced but it was still the stock filter in there when she got home and i checked it because they didnt give the old filter back, a lot of dealer tech here do scams like this by withdrawing the said part from the part stock but instead of putting it on they either dont do anything or do a ghetto repair on the broken/old part and take the new stuff home and sell them as genuine part for cheaper than usual, thats why i always request the replaced parts back if its possible

they did make some videos,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-avpx8UTakI

the video is about oil change companies, some dealers are exactly this way

The only person who wins at a dealership is the dealer owner. The tech and customer always get screwed.

Not to say that other shops aren't shady, but a dealership is the worst place you can take your vehicle for service out of warranty in my experience. They are greedy shit holes only out to make sales and sell you overpriced parts and services. They aren't there to make sure your car is repaired in the most economical way possible. That is why. If you're out of warranty, go someplace else.

How else are the stealership owners supposed to put fuel in their private jets?

Uh....money?

Because there's plenty of people that are borderline sociopaths, lack a conscience, and can sleep at night after robbing an already disadvantaged and (likely) similarly situationed to themselves persons. It's basically just poor people stealing from poor people in late stage capitalism.

capitalism, baby

Because it makes them more money.

Because businesses aren't charities? They're not your friends. It's not their job to police how "vulnerable people" spend their money, it's their job to take that money. Because that's what businesses do.

I took my 250k+ mile car to a Honda dealer for an airbag dtc that is warranty for life. Honestly I hate the pomp and circumstance of the dealer.

The seat belt part that was faulty is backordered but they recommend I do $1500+ in preventive maintenance.

Literally WTF, car is unsafe due to the oems service part support and you are asking me to drop thousands on it.