Dashcam video of the servicing: https://youtu.be/xpX5FchCEVI
I scheduled an appointment for 11:00 am for a Full Synthetic oil change, tire rotation and multi-point inspection. Upon arrival, i received the same quote that I got over the phone, $57.00. This is a little bit higher than the Colerain, Ohio Joseph Chevrolet (which i assumed would've been the same price considering the "Joseph branding"). In Colerain, I was charged $39.00 for the exact same servicing and got a car wash. This Florence location said at the desk that they include car washes with the servicing, but failed to provide one during this trip. That is something i always enjoy, paying top dollar for an oil change bundled with a wash and i was pretty bummed that though they claimed i would get one, i did not.
Anyhow, onto the actual servicing. We left our dashcam running during the entire process. This is standard for us when we try new locations out. You can never be too careful. The video shows that the car sat waiting to be serviced for about 20 minutes, which isn't terribly bad. I mean, the oil needs to cool off a bit before the change is started. After 20 minutes, the tech appears. He gets in and carefully drives the car to his bay and proceeded with the multi-point inspection before getting out of the car. Eventually he gets out and lifts the car and did something that I rarely see. He lifted the car about a foot, then pushes on the fender to make sure the car would not move. I know this is normal, but in the Cincinnati area, this is the only time i have actually seen someone do this, kudos for them having someone following proper protocol.
Anyhow, it appears as though all of the servicing went as it should have. The tech took his time, chatted with a colleague and what not during the servicing, which delayed the time of completion a little bit, but hey, its not a pit stop haha.
At the end of the service, he drove my car around to the front, where it waited for me about an hour and a half after it was dropped off. In the video, i did not include the drive to the front of the building but i can say that the tech was respectful of my vehicle and did not drive it wrecklessly or harsh. This is something that is also pretty rare. Most places i have brought my car to have techs that treat every car like a race car in order to get the job done fast and that just rubs me the wrong way. So it was nice to see them taking care of my car like i would.
Aside from not getting the car wash that I was told and looking forward to receiving and paying a little bit more for the same service that i could've gotten for cheaper from another branch, everything went great as far as servicing except for when they gave me the pricing to get a few things fixed that they found during the multi-point inspection. I would advise that no one actually get the items fixed at that dealership unless you have a hefty bottle of KY jelly to accompany the amount of screwing you will receive. They claimed that i would need both valve covers (top and bottom). In actuality, i was aware of this, the car has 157,000 miles, things are gonna leak. But unlike them, i knew it was a gasket. They quoted me almost $600 for this procedure and thats just where the screwing would've started. Replacing a valve cover should only cost about $300 in parts and MAYBE 2 hours worth of labor if you're taking your time and sipping a beer. So about $480 at most and thats saying that you actually need a valve cover, which i did not. I only need the gaskets, which mind you would cost about $30 each from autozone to make the equivalent of $240 for the entire thing. They also found a caliper leak, axle boot crack and a cracked belt. With all of these "repairs" that no other shop could find, one could only think that they were only trying to make more money off of me. DO NOT take the bait people. ALWAYS get a second opinion, just because your vehicle is there and they found the issue, doesn't always mean it needs their attention.
Based off of everything i said here, 3 stars seems appropriate. I would return, but return with some caution. read more