Main Dealers Can Yours Be Trusted ?

[Kwasaki]

After the topic by ' Velocette ' l had not given it a thought before that there were many people in Thailand who do not know much or nothing about motors but if your not into the mechanical side of motors then you need to trust something or someone !!!.

l deal with my local ' Cockpit ' set up and the reason why follows :-

My Vigo is 5years on now but prior to this the Toyota main dealer wanted to fully check it before three year warranty finished.

l took it in although it had only been serviced by them a couple of months before but there were a few things l wanted checked because of some noises etc that had developed after going on bad trackroads to many out of the way Temple visits for my wife and they might be able to be fixed under warranty.

l was not physically well at the time and could go scamberling under the motor myself.

When it was all finished and being told everything was fine, they gave me all the empty bottles of stuff they had put in it and charged me accordingly. With all smiles on leaving we noticed the noises were still there as well as the squeaking from rear springs and my Mrs said take it back.

l didn't because l wanted a independant auto place to check it out and over first.

So when l saw 'Cockpit ' in l went, although my Mrs explained, the guy there spoke English enough to understand l wanted oto look myself.

They put it up on the hydraulic ramp, straightaway with me present he noticed the two ' U ' bolts on the rear axle housing on the offside only had one nut & washers on each and was visibly moving with a clunking noise the nearside was in tack but two of the four nuts loose, one of the rear shocks was knackered. The spare was flat and one of the rear wheels was buckled.

They greased up the rear springs and fixed all the rest and realigned all the steering.

They sent the wheel to a place in Bangkok to be straighten but l bought a new wheel and kept that one as a spare.

l haven't got shares in ' Cockpit ' in case you're thinking that but l certainly trust the one l have got here and the Toyota dealer don't ever touch my baby anymore.

Happy safe motoring everyone.

Edited October 17, 2010 by Kwasaki

[aussiebebe]

Can main dealers be trusted? Certainly not; can they be anywhere in the world? No. I remember watching a British documentary several years ago where the producers asked a mechanic to sabotage a motorbike in various easily-fixable ways and then sent the bike to various dealers to see if they spotted the problems. Around 20 garages failed to spot the fact that the forks had been turned around! That's the UK, so imagine Thailand. I share similar concerns to the OP; I previously drove a Toyota Soluna-Vios and had little faith in the dealership mechanics. A scheduled service at 100,000km failed to highlight the need for new brake-pads for example, despite brakes clearly being on the check-list in the owners service book. I later took the car to B-Quick and the pads were worn down to the metal, so I was left to conclude that the Toyota mechanics never checked.

Independent places like B-Quick and Cockpit are good and I see no reason to continue dealership service on a car out of warranty, however it should be noted that non-dealership service can invalidate warranties.

[Kwasaki]

Can main dealers be trusted? Certainly not; can they be anywhere in the world? No. I remember watching a British documentary several years ago where the producers asked a mechanic to sabotage a motorbike in various easily-fixable ways and then sent the bike to various dealers to see if they spotted the problems. Around 20 garages failed to spot the fact that the forks had been turned around! That's the UK, so imagine Thailand. I share similar concerns to the OP; I previously drove a Toyota Soluna-Vios and had little faith in the dealership mechanics. A scheduled service at 100,000km failed to highlight the need for new brake-pads for example, despite brakes clearly being on the check-list in the owners service book. I later took the car to B-Quick and the pads were worn down to the metal, so I was left to conclude that the Toyota mechanics never checked.

Independent places like B-Quick and Cockpit are good and I see no reason to continue dealership service on a car out of warranty, however it should be noted that non-dealership service can invalidate warranties.

Yeah !! that,s why l like to check things myself, on this occasion l was not able to, although l use ' Cockpit ' now l still check it out after.

What you say is correct but are warranties worth anything in view of the service you get. ???

[onnut]

Yeah or no they cannot be trusted. I took my 2008 Accord in to have the 40k check and I told them there was a strange noise coming from the back. sounded like gas or something!!!! anyway, they did the 40K checks and told me everything was good and my breaks will need changing in 10k Kilometers. so of I went and sure enough the noise started. I turned around and went back to the same guy and told him I want to see the underside also. so after 30 minutes for messing around I noticed my breaks were worn down to the mettal! pricks said they checked

Why dont they just do it properly the first time.

I had a few more problems with that dealer over the last two years, so I will not be buying a new car off him again.

anyway, I am going fortuner next year! yeah I cant wait. a nice big 3 liter white one. every fecker will see me coming and I doubt I will have too many knobends driving up my arse either!

[Kwasaki]

Yeah or no they cannot be trusted. I took my 2008 Accord in to have the 40k check and I told them there was a strange noise coming from the back. sounded like gas or something!!!! anyway, they did the 40K checks and told me everything was good and my breaks will need changing in 10k Kilometers. so of I went and sure enough the noise started. I turned around and went back to the same guy and told him I want to see the underside also. so after 30 minutes for messing around I noticed my breaks were worn down to the mettal! pricks said they checked

Why dont they just do it properly the first time.

I had a few more problems with that dealer over the last two years, so I will not be buying a new car off him again.

anyway, I am going fortuner next year! yeah I cant wait. a nice big 3 liter white one. every fecker will see me coming and I doubt I will have too many knobends driving up my arse either!

l'm surprised to hear that from Honda l thought they were the last resort, really from a bias point of view from motorbikes for Honda that make's me think what have people got do to make Honda move there excellents to cars.

Your going for Fortuner well hold your breathe for a better service then.

[mca]

The problem with a lot of main dealer service centres is they are like production lines. Bish Bosh Next. Bish Bosh Next. I dropped my friend off to pick his Isuzu up from the main dealer in town and had a quick glance in their service centre. A huge aircraft hangar type affair. A quick head count revealed about 25 vehicles being worked on. It was manic.

I took my Space Wagon to the main agent for a 60k full service and they said I could wait. I don't think so. I had a bulb blown at the front and it came back still blown. Never again. A full service with my local garage back home was a full morning affair if it was straightforward or an all day job of it needed some extras.

Now I use a local shop who'll actually look at the list I provided, take the time necessary and do what I ask for.