Car dealers are not trying to scam you
Well, they might try to. But you have a plethora of measures to defend yourself against that.
Car dealerships and authorized service centres often have a bad stigma, especially among petrolheads. Many people accuse them of overcharging their clients for vehicles and repairs, ignorance towards real needs of a customer and general shadiness. However, in this article I will try to be a devil's advocate and explain why car dealerships are not as bad as you may think.
Don't hate the player, hate the game
As surprising as it may seem, being a car dealer is not an easy job. Salesman in dealerships are usually paid from commissions, which essentially means that in order to increase their earnings, they need to find more customers or maximize the profit on each vehicle they sell. As a result, they may resort to some shady tricks, which can create a misunderstanding between a client and the dealer.
First of all, salesman can be pushy when it comes to selling you a new car. They might try to convince you to buy a more expensive ride or to spec it more generously. However, being assertive or pretending a lack of interest will save you and may even help you get a better deal, as there is often way more wiggle room on a price than you would expect. What is more, you can also negotiate some extras like additional service packages or winter tires for free. If you don't ask, you don't get, so don't be ashamed to ask for an additional discount.
Secondly, if a car salesman wants to earn more money from each deal he or she makes, he needs to use a bit of "clever financing", which often comes off as shady to a customer. However, it is usually legal (if it wasn't, salesman would risk being sued, which is presumably something they would like to avoid) and the fact that such opportunities exist is a fault of modern world's bureaucracy, not a dealer himself. Clients are usually unwilling to read a whole 15-page long contract and as a result, they are surprised when something doesn't work quite as they've imagined, which creates misunderstanding.
Paperwork can be hard to deal with, but it's definitely worth reading, as nothing will catch you off guard later
Professionalism has its price
Authorized service centres are not popular with the general public either. There are numerous accusations being thrown at them, chief among which is overcharging for parts and services. As a matter of fact, they need to charge a lot for their work, as otherwise they wouldn't be profitable.
Authorized service centres have a lot of rules they have to follow as a result of their authorization. They can't cut corners, need to use genuine parts and have to strictly follow workshop manuals (a great piece of literature if you are into DIY, they are a set of step-by-step instructions for almost any repair imaginable for a given model). What is more, authorization itself costs some money, so the prices need to be high.
However, in exchange you get a professional service, which might not offer the cheapest possible solution to a given problem, but will surely get a job done. Some manufacturers have gone as far as to installing cameras in their workshops to allow waiting customers to watch mechanics work on their car. What is more, if you are dissatisfied with a quality of a job done, it is pretty easy to hold the centre responsible, as they are obligated to give customers receipts for their work (which isn't always a case with smaller shops).
Authorized service centres - pricy, but they get a job done
There's a good reasoning behind it
Let's face it - car dealerships and authorized service centres are mainly targeted at non-car people. They want their vehicle to be a reliable A to B transportation and they are willing to pay extra for that. They can get their car financed more easily, which is an important factor when you're buying a company car. They don't care about anything that happens under a bonnet as long as they can get to their destination without any troubles. As a result, they are willing to accept depreciation and rather high service costs.
That's not to say that petrolheads can't take advantage of such arrangement. If you have a relatively new car, you can take it to a dealer to get it inspected, so that they will pinpoint you exactly what's wrong with it. They will probably do a much better job than a regular mechanic, as they know these cars inside out. What is more, thanks to depreciation associated with buying a car new, you can grab a sweet deal on a 3-year-old, slightly used vehicle.
Lastly, an often irrational markup on parts is a matter of exclusivity and reliability. Many manufacturers took a lot of time and effort to find a best possible components supplier for their cars so that you don't have to worry about reliability. What is more, dealerships may be a last resort if you are looking for a specific, unique part for your 30-year-old, long-forgotten classic. In such cases the markup can be insane, but hear me out: this part has been waiting for you for a quarter of a century, you have to pay for that!
Paying extra for reliability and comfort is a no-brainer for many - and I can't blame them for that
They can try to scam you regardless...
However, a risk of being fined and a possible loss of credibility might not be enough to stop a dealership from trying to take an advantage of its clientele. They are usually dealing with non-car people, which might encourage some workers to cut corners here and there and charge regular price for the job. In fact, my mother found that to her cost.
Around 2010, she bought a Mitsubishi Outlander. Despite my general hatred for SUVs, I quite liked that car, mainly because it wasn't bland and had a soul of some sort. It's 2.0 litre VW-engineered diesel was audible from half a mile away and made it impossible to talk in a car without shouting at highway speeds. However, even though the car itself was lovely, the dealership wasn't so great. They've supposedly needed to change brake pads 4 times in 70 thousand kilometres. We are fairly certain that at least some of those changes didn't happen, as it's nearly impossible to wear out brakes in 10 thousand kilometres.
Looking back at the situation, there is a lot more we could have done to prevent this from happening. We could have asked to have replaced parts back. We could have asked a specialist to assess the actual mileage of the brake pads. We could have confronted them much more aggressively about the whole situation. There was a plethora of measures available to hold the dealer responsible in this situation. Which is something you wouldn't be always able to do with a regular mechanic, as some of them do their job under-the-counter and never give any invoices.
Mitsubishi Outlander - not a looker, but unlike many modern SUVs, it had a proper AWD and it was actually quite decent in a snow
Car dealers are not that bad
To summarize, many of the car dealers' "flaws" are a result of a harsh reality they need to deal with. Salesmen are just trying to make a living, which due to the modern world's economy requires a lot of complicated paperwork, which creates misunderstanding. Authorized service centres are costly, but they offer you a great quality that can be enforced with relative ease. However, that's not to say that there's no room for improvement. Not every car dealer is the same and maybe, if we only buy cars from dealerships, where the customer is not treated like an utter pillock, we can make a change for the better.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the article! If you did, you can leave a like and become a follower. Till next time!
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