The dumbest thing you were told at a dealership or repair shop

After my second oil change at the dealership and right after Toyota came out with the letter increasing the oil change interval to 10k miles with 0W20 oil, the Service Advisor tried to tell me that the letter said that it was OK to use 5W30 dyno oil after filling my car with their bulk oil.

After realizing that I wasn't going to go for the BS he kindly took me back to the oil changing bay and let me observe the oil being drained and refilled with 0W20.

 

when the epa downgraded the mpg on the sticker on the gen II, a salesman told me toyota had put in a bigger engine for more power.

 

That the exterior mirrors are only heated if they have the little squiggly line etching on the mirrors. Yeah...I taught him that the Prius II and up does have heated exterior mirrors without a squiggly line by getting him to read the actual sticker on the car.

 

"This station wagon has plenty of power to pull your gooseneck horse trailer."

 

That my tire pressure was dangerously high, immediately after coming off a winding mountain highway. (not my selling / servicing dealership).

The maximum pressure he would allow as the car left the shop, turned out to be underinflated when the car reached sea level and cooled.

 

I was once told by a salesman that the car I was looking at (an Acura Integra) had the maximum power to weight ratio allowed by law. If it had any more HP it could not be insured.

 

The service manager told me they'd cleaned the carb. on our fuel injected car.

Close runner up, more stupid/dangerous than dumb: when I brought in a vehicle on which I'd actually seen a cracked brake rotor, got a phone call back from the service writer, saying everything was ok, and I could pick up the car.

 

I took my 91 Mercedes 560 to Discount Tires and asked for a 4 wheel alignment. The service manager said they could do the front wheels but not the rear because my car had a live axle.
Duhhhhh? (The last passenger vehicle made by Mercedes that had a live axle was sometime in the '50, early '60s) Needless to say I took it to another shop who had a more knowledgeable manager.

 

I had EZ Lube change the rear differential oil in my 2007 Eclipse Spyder and go ahead and charge me $350 to do it. They were very upset when I told them I wasn't paying for anything but the oil change to which they replied that they will be holding the car and calling the police if I refused to pay....

I let them call the cops and the manager reaction when I told him I had a FWD car with no rear diff was."then why would you authorize us to do the work?" Uhm.......why the f*** would you try and lie to me about it, any other person not knowledgeable about cars would have said sure go ahead and do it, especially when they used phrases like "if your rear differential locks up from sludge it could cause a dangerous traffic collision" That shop is no longer in business FYI.

I was also told by a Toyota salesman that Toyota discontinued the regular Prius and was selling the V due to increased size but no hit in MPG.....Wth!? Keep in mind this dealer had 1 2011 on their front lot and 12 2012 V's. I wonder if people actually bought that shit cause when I looked in their online inventory it showed 4 2012 Prii all model 2's. My guess was why sell a $24k model when we can get em into a bigger car for $27+.

 

LOL, ez lube is a GREAT story!

 

My friend actually started a company to help fight dishonest repair shops and mechanics. He used to be a manager at a tire/repair shop in San Diego and just got tired of people getting ripped off and getting substandard work done.

Protect Yourself Against Dishonest Mechanics :: AutoServiceSecurity.com

 

I had called the dealership that I bought our Prius at last Sat and asked what they would charge to take an extra set of rims that have TPMs on them, mount my studded snows, and reset the TPMs. He told me that ONLY the dealerships can do this because every sensor ID number must be put into the PCM and that the machines that do the resetting costs around $30,000 so no one has them. He said that when tire shops mount new tires they tell the customer to return to the dealership to get the TPMs reset. This morning I went to Tire Barn and a half hour later all the rims with studded snows were on the car and I was on my way...with no idiot light on the dash.

 

Not at the dealership, but 10 years ago when I was dating my wife we toured the Corvette Museum. As a partially completed car came down the assembly line the tour guide pointed at the catalytic convertors on the car and said that these are the TURBOS that can be shut off with a key to reduce the hp for parking attendents. I asked, if those are the turbos, then how do they reroute pressurized air up to the TB? He said that comes further down the assembly line!!!!!!!!!

 

I had a Jiffy Lube type place employee come into the waiting room and tell me that my Volkswagen Vanagon needed the anti-freeze changed. He even had a little dipper thing that showed it wasn't good at a cold enough temp. I told them if they could find anti-freeze in that vehicle, they could change it.

The same idiot tried to argue with me, when he showed me the bill that had a radiator flush and coolant change on it.

 

when shopping for my Pri, I asked for a white one. First dealer told me he did not think they were making them in white any more. On to the next dealer!

 

I'd say he's right. We were hoping to get a white 3rd gen, ie: plain, non-mettalic/clearcoat white. They're not making them anymore. Now, the Prius V comes in white...

 

I was once told that changing my own oil would void my warranty and I could no longer get any warranty work or recalls done for free.

A mechanic once told me I couldn't drive my car to Canada because my speedo didn't have the metric increments on it.

I was told that the state patrol car I bought at auction didn't have the 318 engine in it because the state patrol takes out the engines and replaces them before auction because the 'cop engine' was some sort of super top secret.

And finally--- I was told that my father couldn't possibly have a world land speed record in a car he built by himself because they never allow anyone but professional racing organizations compete in Speed Week on the Flats.

 

BP or pure...did not matter. He said they could not get them. I went to the next dealer and had my BP delivered in 3 days. What it came down to was they did not have easy access to one, so they give that dumb a** answer. I even gave them the VIN...they told me it did not exist. It does and I now have it...but not on their paycheck!

 

I was told at the dealership that they had highly trained technicians.