In the end, what matters to a buyer, is the same that matters to you, who are also buyers. If you self-service, keep a record. I suggest you purchase a maintenance record book. And document all services. Some would even go as far as the type of lubricant, as well as filter. The real thing, in the end, is an ongoing record.

 

Unless this dealer is no cooperating you should be able to have them pull the service record for you Vin # and it will have the dealer history of what has been done. It should also have the TSB history as well. As I mentioned in another post this is the 1st car that I will not service as long as it is covered by warranty and CPO warranty. Also check your owners manual for scheduled maintenance and see what has or has not been done. You can also ask the dealer for a breakdown of each of the items listed like a menu so you can determine what needs to be done and how much it will cost. Something to have to compare to an indy shop. Have a chat with the service manager and then talk to the GM to see what his/her expectations are of good customer service. By the way these are my expectations and what I receive from the dealer I am working with. I bought my car in Maine over the internet from a dealer. I asked and received the service record from them. My present dealer is in Albany NY and they also gave me a copy of the total service history of my car.

 

Sorry to hear of the many misfortunes. I must be very lucky.
Ive been to dealers in Ottawa, Toronto, Albany, Syracuse, Waltham (Deceased, sadly) and Baltimore. I've always had exceptional service at a fair price. In most instances I've dropped in unannounced!

Conversely, on a whim I've stopped in a few times at a quick oil change facility and have had to clean up paw prints all over the engine, requested a Wix filter and found a Fram installed, and in 1 case discovered very quickly the oil cap was not placed back on the cover. (Begs the question how did the car get from the service bay to the parking lot in this fashion.)

FWIW.

 

almost $1200 for something that takes, at the most, 2 hours to do, and OEM parts (oil, oil filter, coolant, pollen air filter, brake fluid, engine air filters) that can be had off Amazon for maybe $200-250 that means they are hoping to extract @$500 per hour from him. That is IF in fact that car needed this regular tune-up as prescribed but he has dealer paperwork that shows it may not even need this work done which this dealer may have known about (it should show up in his computer) or at least it was bought to his attention according to the initial poster if what he said was accurate.

You very likely do not need a tire balance unless you feel shaking (usually most felt at 62mph and again at 80mph for some reason), and the alignment is also questionable but there are signs you could look for as mentioned earlier. Very much sounds like unnecessary work purely said for profit making reasons.

There are some good/honest mechanics out there but I assure you this guy was not one of them. Either he is embellishing even if those items are needed or outright lying to make a huge profit. Just run away. Call other dealers and ask them how much for a standard tune up (@40K mles) on your XKR and gets quotes, $1100+ is WAY too much

 

I think we went through this discussion before. Maybe someone who has their own business or is running a business can provide a little insight as to how costs and pricing is established . Both a dealer and an indy have cost that they need to cover also inventory along with brick and mortar. Boil it all down and get an hourly rate. Now take that rate and apply it to the book times for a specific job (regardless how fast/good the tech is) and that's the price the customer pays. A DIY'er looks for the least costly parts and doesn't charge for his labor or overhead. So it's feasible that a dealers $1000 charge is equivalent to a DIY'ers $300 job. When I retired I was making $85 an hour and now I'm making a lot less but when I work on my cars I do it for free. When I go to a dealer I pay them their price which factors in their rate. A lot of them have a service menu with their prices for standard stuff like oil changes and alignment and so on. Some don't want to pay the price and some don't mind paying.

 

The premise of a good business is to profit through efficiency. So you bake bread at home for $1 or buy it from a company that can make the same bread for $0.25 and sell it at $1.25. The difference being you dont account for capital expenditure such as the cost of having to replace the oven. A small bakery may have higher costs and thats why they need to carry muffins.

A car dealership may however be totally different, they have astronomical overhead and I bet one half of the business is subsidizing the part that consumes the most overhead. The service shop being muffins.

I recently discussed in a meeting about how peoples expectations can be conditioned. Everyone haggles with the price of a car- no one haggles with astronomical prices at the service counter at the same facility. Food for thought.

 

While I seldom utilize a dealership, it must be said that you get quality and honesty there. At Midas I have caught them red-handed selling my friend a brake system flush and the dusty brake reservoir cap had never been touched. They came clean and blamed it on a crooked mechanic. Rubbish.

I bought an EGR valve from a parts store, because it was 1/3 of the OEM price, I have since paid for it 4 times over. Including having to take the car back to dealer to reprogram ecu- to reduce the ecu's tolerance to accept inferior parts. As for the lifetime warranty- yes thats only good till the first time you go back which is usually 8months. Then on its only warranted for 6 months. What they dont tell you is that the units they are selling you at 1/3rd of price are all previously used. They do work fine- but for 8 months.

I am a step ahead of them, I go back every 5.5 months

 

Here is an example of what my dealer does for customer service. Last Nov. I had them do a 4 wheel alignment because I was getting unusual wear on my front tires. They did it and the price was $175. I put 300 miles on it and parked it for the winter. The end of March while I was in the garage I noticed the passenger front wheel camber looked to neg. I put my level on it and the driver side and it look way out. I went back to my alignment sheet and the wheel was in spec. but on the neg side. I called the dealer and had a 3 way call with the service adviser and the service manager. We went through the specs and What I was looking for. The said bring it up and they'll fine tune it and try to his dead nuts on the spec even if it required new bushings or springs at no charge. The gave me a 16 XJSC and told me they will let me know what they find and will fix it. I then told them if they can meet my tire guys quote to put 2 new Conti's on the front. They called me an hour later and said they would meet my price. 2 days later and they called and said the car was done. I couldn't pick up the car until a day later and they said no problem. So the net was alignment was almost dead on , 2 new tires mounted and balanced , car washed and detailed , test drive and did their normal 10-20 point inspection. And also did my NYS inspection. Picked the car up and paid for the tires. Thanked them all and then met with the GM and let him know I was pleased .

 

Well done, you opted for competence and negotiated and demanded more and you got it all. Lesson for us all. Except those you who think paying more is a scam.

Was the wear on the outside or inside, or both, and on what tires. I know this has been covered to no end.

 

OEM Dunlops with wear on the inside. Toe was good but camber was on the neg. end of the spec. More on the right then the left. Mind you they were both in the tolerance range but for a cruiser I wanted close to dead nuts.

 

So for a bit more confirmation. The $1170 quote did not include an oil change - I took it there only for an oil change (cost $80). Seems like everyone seems to think the $1170 was on the high side for what they were quoting to do, and with the vin they could have easily confirmed what work was performed by the dealership I bought the car from. Could someone confirm what someone mentioned in an earlier response?
If I call the dealer I bought the car from would the service department share with me the service records? Are they required too?
Lastly: This is the only Jag Dealer within 50 miles.

 

Just a thought here as I am a dealer virgin of sorts. Have been wrenching cars for over 55 years as a hobby and can pretty much do anything. When I go to the dealer I always ask what they will do and how much it will cost. I also ask for all of the parts they remove and if they need to keep them for warranty I need to see them before I take the car. I also want the repair sheet to be as descriptive as possible. And any specs attached even what the torque that was used on the lug nuts. A little **** but just want to make sure they have answers. PS , I don't ask for the oil back but maybe I'll ask for a sample next change and get it tested.

 

The are not obligated to give you the records though I have yet to hear where a dealer, when asked, would not offer them up when you are the registered owner especially true if you tell them you just got the car and you want to also verify if the TSB's were done. If you have any sort of a relationship with a dealer they will probably print and hand them to you... which is good to have. Some will ask you for proof that you are the owner some won't.

Bummer you don't have more dealer choices, good idea to hunt done a quality indi if you don't already have one just in case and if you don't wrench yourself perhaps someone here in your area can chime in with a referral if you wanted

 

I think there's three points

- each of the mtce. tasks are priced very high

- some of the tasks seem to be 'upsell feel-good' items

- the dealer committed a blunder by not consulting his records first.

That's the last they'd ever see of me.

 

You're LUCKY with dealers. The ONLY dealer in Utah is 45 miles from me, and the NEXT closest is 316 miles, in Idaho. Next would be in Vegas, 477 miles, opposite direction.

 

I drew an 80 mile radius and got 4 dealers and picked one. As for an indy I am looking but so far everyone I talk with won't touch anything newer then a 2006 Jaguar. Even hard to find LR repair shop .

 

Coolpad, they are testing the water. If they see that they can pull one on you, you will become a preferred customer to fleece. Every business tries to sell you more than you need- I believe they call it supersize me. Look what happens when you put them on notice like Jagtoes did. Granted he knows his way around a car.

So come here and ask us. Your car is due for a brake flush if it wasnt done by the previous owner. Forget the tire balance- they do that free at Costco. Same with rotation. The thing to remember is that somethings you do as preventative maintenance, the rest you wait till you see a problem, such as alignment.

Just one word of caution. An indi can screw your car up pretty good if they are just the run of the mill. Jaguar takes a very specific oil and other fluids, get it wrong and there will be tears. Jag oil is available nowhre that I know of, other than dealer.

 

Hey someday I might get the numbers from you. I have wear on the inside and outside. May just be the compound. I would not let a dealer wash my car if he paid me. Its the source of swirls.

 

Q&C -
Jag oil is available nowhre that I know of, other than dealer.

Are you saying that Castrol Edge 5W-30 full Syn does not meet all of Jaguars specifications as detailed in the maunal and is not suitable for his 2008 XK? I may be wrong, have been known to be in the past, that Jaguar may be just be relabeling that as their own but even if not the case are you stating that it does not meet their specifications? Gonna love this oil thread! You stated that it also requires specific other fluids - are you talking about brake fluids other than DOT4? Coolant which is Pentosin I believe? Definitely takes a specific tranny fluid from ZF...

Will Costco rotate and balance tires that were not bought there (I know they give life-time balance and rotation if purchased there as will many places)? I've never asked but that would be good to know... I know I was recently quoted $25 per tire if not purchased at another reputable tire place.

Just for the record my quoted prices above were all OEM parts for the filters and such as seen on Amazon and www.bimmerparts.com so I was comparing apples to apples there. With regard to dealerships having overhead I have no desire to pay for their lovely marble floors nor their expresso machines nor their service writers commissions based upon flag hours. Dealers are making huge profits on their labor but usually at least 2.5x on there cost on parts which can be had elsewhere for the very same parts (air filter, oil filters, pollen air filters, oil, brake pads and rotors, etc). JagToes does it right, as I do, in being nice but also quite detailed in getting a forward quote which I will shop but also setting expectations in writing so there are as little surprises as possible. Simply telling them you think it needs stuff and tossing them a corporate charge card is a recipe for disaster, even worse be a woman and show up with a nice car and see what happens then... I've personally seen that numerous times sadly and it looks similar to what Coldpad has encountered here - grossly high estimates hoping you fell off the turnip truck last night or have deep pockets and little desire to shop.

Of course by virtue of your statement that Jag oil is only available at Jaguar, that's like saying that Only Cadillac builds Cadillac... so that is a rhetorical statement but still my previous question applies.

Letting a dealership wash your car - I specifically requested that Rusnak Porsche to NOT wash my new car when brought in for issues as I had just detailed it, when I got it back it was washed and door paint chipped, so I'm with you on no one will ever wash my cars but myself.

 

Here is the post where I listed the issue and results. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-160425/page2/
As for the wash and wax the paint has some small swirls already and I will be getting it detailed next month so they will be removed.