Infiniti Dealership Service Experience

[Warpkor]

I received a flyer in the mail for a good deal on brake service from one of the Phoenix area Infiniti dealerships. I'm not much for handing off my car to others and do most of my own maintenance, but I thought the deal was decent plus I wanted to give some local guys a fair shake.

I had the rear brake pads replaced and the rotors machined for $200 and an alignment for $99. They were also kind enough to do a 31 point inspection just for kicks. It's the inspection report that I find difficult to chew on.

The following are a few quotes from the dealer provided report:

Observation: Found cabin/Hepa micro filter dirty
Recommendation: Replace cabin/HEPA micro filter

Observation: Found automatic transmission fluid to be contaminated/burnt
Recommendation: Perform automatic transmission fluid exchange service

Observation: Found coolant to be in poor condition or contaminated
Recommendation: Perform coolant fluid exchange service

Observation: Found rear differential fluid to be dirty/contaminated
Recommendation: Perform rear differential service

These were just a few observations from the report. Just over $500 bucks for these services. Actually, all of the report observations and services totaled over $3000.

The rub: as mentioned above, I do much of my own work on the car. Just a few weeks earlier, for example, I had replaced the HEPA filter myself and it was essentially brand new. Dirty automatic transmission fluid? Well the car has a manual transmission and I serviced it in the recent past with synthetic gear oil and at the same time serviced the rear differential with the same brand synthetic. When I replaced the gear oil in the transmission and differential, I was pleased to see how clear and clean it was. I also replaced the crush washers as per the FSM. Poor condition or contaminated coolant? The coolant was replaced in the recent past as I had to replace a faulty thermostat.

So, is this a dealer tactic to generated income from the unsuspecting consumer? Mistakes by the tech? Just a bunch of hooey to be ignored as they really don't physically inspect said items? Down-right false statements?

What say you?

[kmckis1029]

hahahahha... yeah... had the same thing happed when they did the inspection of my 2010 G37x... they quoted me a $1900 if i was to get all these item fixed. the difference for me was my car had just hit 60k and i hadnt checked some of the things on the list yet. So in my case they were probably right. I just went down the list and did all the maintence they suggested my self. it cost me about $200 vs that $1900 they quoted me.

[SVTCOBRA]

Obviously they did not check the fluids. They may have looked at the mileage and assumed. I would bring it to the service manager's attention that his employees must not be doing actual inspections since you recently performed all of these services. If he gets overly defensive, then I would just let it go since you might want to keep a relationship with that dealer.

Times are tough and the service departments are now recommending services that really are not needed. My mother-in-law has a Altima sedan with less than 30K miles. The dealership recommended flushing the brake fluid and power steering fluid.......not needed at 30K. She had it done before she called me.

Unfortunately, folks that do not know better will trust the dealership and pay the price.

[Missouri Swede]

My mother-in-law has a Altima sedan with less than 30K miles. The dealership recommended flushing the brake fluid and power steering fluid.......not needed at 30K.

Recent model year Nissans and Infinitis have brake fluid change in the Schedule 1 routine maintenance every 12 months/15,000 miles. Anyone know why? (Wasn't in older models.)

My Infiniti dealer specifically does NOT recommend brake fluid change until 48 months/60,000 miles (and also the power steering fluid at 48/60K). Does anyone else have their dealer make maintenance recommendations at longer intervals than Infiniti recommends?

[audtatious]

Obviously they did not check the fluids. They may have looked at the mileage and assumed. I would bring it to the service manager's attention that his employees must not be doing actual inspections since you recently performed all of these services. If he gets overly defensive, then I would just let it go since you might want to keep a relationship with that dealer.

i would bring it to his attention just to see what his reasoning would be and to ask him how they determined the fluids needed replacing and if they actually checked the filter or not. Giving a report back that state fluids are dirty/contaminated means there was some way to check it against some set level, else, what they are reporting is bordering on fraud.

I've had my dealership mention things that were scheduled to be maintained but they specified it was based on Infiniti recommended service schedules and not because they looked at something.

[Warpkor]

Originally, I spoke to the service advisor about the false statements on the the report. If the tech actually had viewed the HEPA filter, he should have noted it was in brand new condition. Response, keying error on the report. Following up on the false statements regarding the transmission fluid, etc., the advisor spoke over my voice indicating the issue as being related to the age and mileage of the car. I pointed out that the language on the report specifically relates to "inspection", observation, and "found to be...", and the advisor quickly deflected the issue and would have nothing more to say.

I had the chance to complete an email survey taking the opportunity to express appreciation for my advisor's professionalism and efficiency but I also noted the false statements on the inspection report. The dealership has called twice though I haven't responded. I think I'll let them stew over it a bit. The last voice mail again reiterated that the report findings were as a result of the cars age and mileage.

From my perspective, there is no argument that the report findings were false. The dealership's business tactics are unethical. Changing the language on the report and thus the consumer expectation is the only ethical way to address this issue.

I hope that the service completed on my car was actually done correctly. Their credibility is quite suspect.

[audtatious]

From my perspective, there is no argument that the report findings were false. The dealership's business tactics are unethical. Changing the language on the report and thus the consumer expectation is the only ethical way to address this issue.

I agree. It's easy for a layman (non-car person) to assume the car needs work or it's chances of failure increase with the way it's worded.

[Mudgen]

I hope that the service completed on my car was actually done correctly. Their credibility is quite suspect.

I think the probability that they did the work charged for is quite high, and they're just using a canned "inspection" report for the age/miles of the car to generate more chargeable work. They can always attribute a fake inspection report to be a matter of judgement, but they can get caught out on physical evidence if they fake actual work.

[kmckis1029]

yep i agree... the defense of "age and milage" is both unethical and will trick the avergae car owner. But they can, as Mudgen stated, call it a "Judgement call" and get away with it. So many people are probably getting tricked by this SMH.

[kmckis1029]

the other sad part is the average car owner never looks under the hood unless there is a problem, so the odds are actually in their favor to just assume you never looked under your hood. then odds are if you arent looking under your hood, based on "age and milage" that maintence probably needs to be done. the OP just happened to be in that small percentage of people who actually know exactly whats going on under his hood.

[pc240sx]

This funny how r dealer try to rip off ppl ijust do my oil change at Nissan dealer and this service girl gime a paper report about my g35 she said ineed a drive belt cost $40 labor$100 and cabin filter $17 labor $40 ok iwill back so u take my $140+ tax just on labor. ON my way back home i just stop at autozone auto parts get 2 new belts x $45+ 3 years warranty in cabin filter $12 doit myself 35 mins.labor FREE..total saving $140.00