Dealer woes!

[Steve]

What is your worst experience with a main dealer? Any stories to tell?

[dis-lex-sic]

That's a bit negative Steve.

How about "What's your best experience?" instead

[Lexus Nerd]

When I was a kid, I remember sitting in the back of the car while my parents were expressing their concerns with the fuel system of their '81 Chrysler Sigma (yeah baby! ) to their dealer. They had owned the used car for just one day when they noticed the fuel mixture was too rich and the fuel gauge was fluctuating significantly.

"What's the warranty?" they asked the dealer.

"It's a driveway warranty," the dealer replied. "After it left this driveway, there was no warranty."

Thankfully, things have much improved since then. My own experiences with car dealers are as good as can be expected for anyone on a commission - real estate salespeople rank far worse in my book.

The worse experience I have had with a dealer is with a dealer-linked service centre (not Lexus). When one of my previous cars developed a really loud noise in one of the wheels a day after servicing, it was found that the nuts weren't tightened properly. I was told that it was "normal" for the wheel nuts to be hand-tightened at a service garage without finishing off with a torque wrench. That's just dodgy.