Stealership situation to get worse...

[Captiva Fan]

I manage a workshop in Melbourne for a major brand, we do between 55-75 cars a day. We have 13 qualified Mechanics and 1 dedicated Tyre fitter/Wheel aligner, no apprentices and no T/A's. Also 2 full time car washers.

We have 4 Mechanics that have been with the business for over 16 years and have a massive amount of knowledge. We spend a massive amount of money on training all of our Mechanics to ensure they are capable of delivering quality work. I like to think that our workshop bucks the trend of your every day Dealership service centre.

I would possibly take my car somewhere like that, I guess most would ... but I'd prefer to take it somewhere that when I get it back & it's obviously a good job I know who did it.
The guy I take it to, I almost feel guilty taking it there; it's beneath him; but he keeps accepting the work, so he mustn't be too annoyed to service a Commodore in between tuning Group A revival race cars & restoring 50's Chevs.

[Sloth]

i decided a long time ago, that i want a fish and chip shop.


im nt going into the shit i see daily. ill just rage....

[TFR002]

I would possibly take my car somewhere like that, I guess most would ... but I'd prefer to take it somewhere that when I get it back & it's obviously a good job I know who did it.
The guy I take it to, I almost feel guilty taking it there; it's beneath him; but he keeps accepting the work, so he mustn't be too annoyed to service a Commodore in between tuning Group A revival race cars & restoring 50's Chevs.

I have also ran a small workshop previously and completely understand why people take their cars to small local workshops, being able to talk face to face with the guy that works on your car is a massive part of it and makes it a whole lot easier to trust the guy, that is something that a lot of the Dealership service centres don't let happen.

*the problem is they equipped the express service bays with unqualified 457 monkeys. so they were still able to do it within time, but everything else was compromised

We run 2 express bays with 2 qualified mechanics on each bay, all the tools are supplied by the workshop, we also have a dedicated scan tool for the express bays to ensure that the PCM/TCM/BCM updates are carried out and the customers aren't left waiting past the promised time.

The overheads to run a workshop the size of ours are enormous, to the average Joe it may seem that factory servicing is expensive but when you have over 26 staff members that play a part in getting your vehicle serviced/repaired(plus factory support) to me it represents decent value.

[Captiva Fan]

The guy's actually not all that local ... getting either car worked on adds about 1.5hrs to the commute in each direction ... tried all the local guys, and thought they kinda sucked.
Think I need to feel the guy working on the car knows more about it than I do.

The only car I've repeatedly taken to a dealer workshop was the RS, 'cos one of the two brothers running the small local workshop Mum & then I had been using was poached as the manager of the Subaru dealer workshop.

[dnegative]

Performance workshops have zero issues doing service work if they have the time, its easy money and a good way to make new customers

[Bob Vegana.]

In most cases.

The last place I worked at, was pitched as a 'performance' workshop. The boss hated the idea of services, would always want them done half-arsed even if we had the parts in stock. For some strange reason, preferred to have cars hanging around for days on end, gradually getting engines or gearboxes or whatever fitted "Because we had to do a service", and then waiting just as long to get paid for said work, because the bill turned out to be magically bigger than what was quoted.

[Shonky]

Sounds like a great businessman.

[Bob Vegana.]

Sounds like a great businessman.

Taught me exactly what not to do

[Gin Kii]

The first new vehicle I have ever purchased did not even make it to the first service point (first service @ 15,000, I took it in at 13,000 with an engine rattle), instead the dealership stripped the driveline to pieces and told me to fuck off no warranty... !!!

[ZammoTheCockroach]