Having Your Truck Serviced..

[TheBullLady]

Question... do y'all take your "under warranty" service work on your vehicles to the same dealer you bought the vehicle from.. and does it make a difference?

I bought my 2004 Dodge from a dealer that's 1 1/2 hours away.. and it's a total pain in the BUTT to drive it that far for the little stupid things that have gone wrong.. (U joints.. now an "air bag module" that's causing my batteries to drain after two days :x ) There's a dealer in Waco, which is where my office is, but I've always been under the impression it should go back to the same dealership.

 

[WORANCH]

any Dodge dealer will (should) service your truck.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

I worked in the service management end of auto dealers for 35 years before retireing. It was my experience that some dealers dislike doing warranty work on a vehicle they did not sell.However under the dealership/factory franchise agreement all dealers must provide warranty repairs to any owner regardless of where the vehicle was purchased. I never did understand the mentality involved in not wanting to service a vehicle that was not sold by the dealer. It is money in the dealers pocket either way.

 

[TXBobcat]

There's a dealer in Waco, which is where my office is, but I've always been under the impression it should go back to the same dealership.

I haven't heard very good things about the dealer in Waco; but personally I've only had my Dodge in there one time for a factory recall to reprogram computer. I didn't have any problems with the service, and I have bought parts from them. Just a little food for thought. Might ask around and see what other people you know think of their service.

 

[dun]

As MPR said, they have to service it, but some will fight tooth and nail to not do it. The advantage in going back to the original dealer is hopefully you've established a relationship with the salesman. If he/she is worth a toot, they'll bend over backwards to help you with service issues, or any other problems you might have. I've always mantained that it's the salesman that sells you the first vehicle, it's the service department that sells you the second one.

dun

 

[eric]

As stated, they have to service it under warranty, but they don't have to service it very quickly. More than likely, you'll get pushed behind any paying customers or they will put some "gomer" on your truck to repair it.
That's really one of the decisions you have to keep in mind when you shop around for the least expensive price, do you want to drive to an out of the way dealer for warranty work. I found a new ford a couple of grand cheaper in Terrell, but decided to buy here in Carrollton because of the convience to my office.

 

[fit2btied]

One place you have to be careful with for warranty work, a GMC dealer does NOT have to work on Chevys and vice versa. My father-in-law (retired from General Motors in St. Louis) had transmission problems with his GMC while on vacation in Montana. There was a Chevy dealer 20 miles away that wouldn't honor the warranty. General Motors had the truck hauled almost 120 miles away to the nearest GMC dealership.