Dealer vs. garage: what's the dealio?

you don't HAVE to go to a dealer. but you should find one who specializes in japanese imports.

ask friends neighbors co workers for recommendations for a different shops near you.

you don't HAVE to go to a dealer. but you should find one who specializes in japanese imports.  

WHY??? There isn't anything special about any Japanese vehicle I ever worked on. A good mechanic who's had a wide variety of experience won't have any problem working on domestic or foreign. Some German vehicles or exotic vehicles may be the exception.

Like the others, mostly cost but I've had good and bad luck with both. If it is a possible recall issue though, I'd be inclined to go to the dealer. They have a better knowledge of the particular type of car, have seen it before, have specific training, tools, and support. For a newer car, or complicated issues, I go to the dealer. For most others a regular garage. I'd have to have a lot of confidence in a regular garage to let them tear an engine down.

Thank you Bing, that sounds like very balanced and logical advice.

Dealers in general tend to be more pricey in both labor and parts.

I use dealer mostly when car is new and if they satisfy me I stick with them. Recently though my dealer service managers changed and now recommend unneeded by maintenance. Fortunately a really experienced in my car make indy shop opened who I really like.

One advantage of dealer though is the occasional unpublished warranty. For example my wife's 96 Honda Civic at 140k was stalling after driving high speeds and Check Engine light was on. We did not have a good shop so tried the local Honda dealer. Got a call of good news and it was going cost $1500 for new cat converter and two oxygen sensors! But they said Honda had an extended warranty and it was all covered and cost us $100 for an exhaust component that was rusty and not covered. I think an indy shop would have cost $750-$1000+ in this case.

OP, just to add a bit here. If you go to the dealer talk to them about this low compression and suspected tight valve lash problem before authorizing any diagnosis or repairs. Try to find out in advance if Honda Motor Co. will good will this repair for you up front IF that is what the problem is. Based on the 65 PSI compression reading it sure points in that direction.

This way you should be able to avoid any diagnostic fees, etc.

I agree with the others, it really depends on the car, the cars age, the specific dealer, and the alternative independent shops. I drive older cars and have found that independent specialty shops have more experience with my car (because the dealers don't normally see older cars). I also like being able to deal directly with the owner (who is very experienced and knows my specific cars inside out). I might be more inclined to use a dealer with a newer car because they have access to all the latest diagnostic equipment that is required to service new cars.

One thing besides labor price is the parts they use. There are times that OEM parts are NOT better...in fact they may be worse then aftermarket. With the dealer you don't get an option....OEM only. Things like sparkplugs are outrageously expensive at the dealer. Yet you can find the EXACT same plug made by the exact same manufacturer elsewhere a LOT cheaper...but it's NOT OEM.

The other thing I hate with dealers is things like Alternators, starters are always NEW. A good rebuilt is as good or better and a lot cheaper.

I noticed in the waiting room at a Subaru dealer a mechanic told a woman she needed a new alternator on a 10 year old 150k Subaru. They stated that Subaru part was out of stock and they could get the part locally from autoparts store for a third of the cost vs Subaru. My Honda dealer(previous car) actually recommended to me to replace my 150k radiator out with aftermarket. Factory part was near $700 and aftermarket around $250 for part and they gave me the choice. My honda dealer was great but people/management change which is why I like indy shops.

Dealers do stock factory authorized rebuild parts I think it is more make dependent than anything. For example my close friend with her "infallible" 140k 2002 Accord had the normal auto tranny explosion. She used a dealer who installed a factory authorized rebuilt transmission with 3yr/36k warranty.

You have good dealers then...The ones I've dealt with would NEVER offer anything but OEM parts. As for Factory authorized rebuilt parts...GM and Ford are the only ones I know that offer this. Never seen a Toyota or Honda offer them.

Yep, my local Honda dealer offers aftermarket parts and factory rebuilt parts too. I would not go to a dealership for a new alternator or a new starter anyway. An independent shop could easily handle such an easy job with lower labor fees.

Although there's already plenty of good opinions here I'm going to toss in my two cents. My favorite kind of shop to deal with is hands down an independent that specializes in one Bramd of car. A shop that lives, eat and breathes one brand of car will almost always be able to give you top notch service, which can soemtimes be even better than the dealer, while at the same time being more affordable. That's been my experience over the years. The more common "general garage" I'm less enthusiastic since they don't get to really know all the little quirks of a particular make in depth, or don't have the latest in equipment to troubleshoot very new models. I've yet to find an "General SHop" that I've ever had confidence in.

As for the dealers they always make sense when you're in warranty, if you need a recall taken care of, or if you have something exotic or difficult for an independent to deal with. BMW comes to mind as a make that can be very difficult to stay on top of for an independent, and I can can tell you as someone who used to work for BMW that it's very difficult just for the techs at the dealer to stay on top of them. Every other month you're on a plane doing training seminars on the latest device BMW has installed and how to properly troubleshoot it. An independent can do it, but it's not easy and you NEED to be friends with a local dealer when you get hung up.

It really depends on the dealer and where you live. Some dealers do oil changes for $24 and some charge more. Conventional wisdom is that dealerships cost more, but that isn't necessarily true anymore. In my opinion, the big differences are:

1. With a dealership, you don't have to save the receipts in the event you need warranty work. The dealership has all the maintenance records in their computer.

2. With a dealership, the mechanics don't work on as many different brands of cars, so they might be a little better at complex jobs. Last week on Car Talk, a woman called in because her mechanic forgot to reinstall clips on her axles during a clutch job. I believe this is less likely to happen at a dealership.

I have found a shop that I trust with complex jobs, so I don't necessarily follow my own advice, but, generally, I feel good about getting maintenance done with my mechanic. However, if I needed a new clutch or transmission, I would probably go to a dealership. Statistically, I believe the odds of complications would be lower.

training=DEALER (never ending)
whenever training=independant (if hes in the mood)

have a wonderful day!

Hardly Ableson wrote:
> training=DEALER (never ending)
> whenever training=independent (if hes in the mood)

It's difficult to learn anything or draw any conclusions from this.

I worked in both dealerships and independent garages. While it's true that dealers make more training available, not all mechanics are equally serious about learning the material. I've learned to place more value on a mechanic's skill level, how conscientious he or she is, their experience and integrity. In the long run, that far outweighs the amount of training videos they are told to sit in front of and watch.

I too was troubled by your slam against Joseph Meehan's reply on this subject. With the enormous amount of respect he's earned in this forum, replies like your earlier one only serve to make you look foolish.

Joe, this "Hardly Ableson" character is mmsamma, under a different name. I'm sure of it now. We can just ignore him.

Deleting my post...not going to fuel the fire.

you're not feeding anything. just one mans opinion. if you think you dare not ,you dont.if you like to win,but think you can't,you WON'T.

Thanks to all for the informative feedback... even with the different opinions, I feel confident that we'll be able to make much more educated choices.

I will add another benefit to using a dealer vs independent. If you repair a vehicle at dealer typically this includes a 1yr/12,000 on repair labor & parts(with Subaru, VW, Honda likely all). So if you relocate and are far from home and your recently replaced timing belt explodes you tow to the local dealer. This can happen with independents too if they are a AAA approved shop.

It happened to my brother with his 1990 VW Passat that had a four month old replaced at VW dealer timing belt snapped 100 miles away. VW covered the repair & tow to a local to breakdown dealer. The repair was major as there was valve damage beyond the simple timing belt replacement. VW even gave him a loaner (not sure if typical) since the parts took a bit longer to acquire.