Current Events > Is it bad to go to dealerships for car repairs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Are the significantly more expensive in general than a non dealership mechanic?
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From my experience, they're cheaper
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Theyre for sure certified with your vehicle.

They also tend to mail you coupons and give you extra shit for free.
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My car is CPO and under warranty, so I go to them exclusively if I have an issue. Also, as mentioned, they regularly email me coupons and promotions for oil changes, tire rotations, battery service etc. Of course, they always come up when I don't need them at the time, but it's a good gesture.
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It depends. For very basic things like oil changes it won't matter. For mechanical issues though, YMMV. Some third parties mechanics can be shady as fuck all. They'll nickel and dime you for a bunch of half arsed guesses as to what is wrong with your vehicle.

On the flipside a dealership tends to be the most familiar with issues that can occur for your vehicle, and some of them offer guarantees where they'll fix stuff for no cost to you if they misdiagnose a problem. They of course do charge a bit more up front compared to third parties.
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I would say it depends on the dealer. At the very least, I wouldn't buy any significant parts from a dealer before shopping around.
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imo a good independent mechanic is hard to come by but worth finding
if not, then a dealership is your best bet since the rest of independent shops can be really sketchy
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prince_leo posted...

imo a good independent mechanic is hard to come by but worth finding
if not, then a dealership is your best bet since the rest of independent shops can be really sketchy

Pretty much this.

If you can find an independent place that is honest and good at what they do, that's a really good find and a relationship worth developing.

Dealerships are in general more consistently going to be okay. From my experience bigger dealerships are better because they typically have plenty of work coming in so there's no reason to fleece any one individual because it would just give them a huge backlog. They also are motivated to keep people happy because they want to keep you on the line so you might buy a car from them at some point.