I bought my car from an out of town dealer because he offered a great price but I am wondering if the level of service is any different from a dealer who did not make the initial sale?

 

Sadly it probably is. For what it was worth, when I had to go to get some TSB work done, I lied and said I bought the car in Florida and had to move to Virginia. Tried to make em feel sorry for me. Didnt really change the fact that they screwed up everything but that is probably complimentary for all their customers..

 

+1. Some dealers are just stoopid like that. They put you at the bottom of the list and treat you like crap if you bought somewhere else, just because they can. Gotta get your rocks off somehow, I guess.

I'd go with gkaufman's story - I mean people do move to another city once in awhile. The last local dealership that I had a good experience with is in a small retirement community known for its influx of winter visitors. If they treated everyone who bought their car somewhere else like crap, they wouldn't have any customers.

 

I don't think it matters. I'm in the Atlanta area and there are probably a dozen ford dealers within 50 miles. I get coupons in the mail all the time from many of their service departments. Just like any business, they have to compete for your business.

 

I went searching for the service writers from the dealership I used to work at. The dealership doesn't exist anymore, but people need jobs somewhere.
This way I have an established group of people I know to go to.
Talk to people in your area and try to hook up with a service dept. you can have some faith in.
That makes more of difference in quality of care.
Going to the dealer you buy from is only important for original damage to the car that they did.

 

If anything, I would say that they should not give a crap. The reason being is that when they sell you a car it is on a thin margin of profit. What they are hoping for is that you come in and use their service dept to get the proper level of gouging. They should be kneeling before you for taking your car there when you didn't buy it there. Do what I do, if it is something light, take it to Midas. Something heavy take it to the dealer. I have never had an issue with any Midas store, and the one that I go to in Newark DE for oil changes is run by a real cool cat named Wayne. That man is reasonable to a fault. I give Wayne the oil and filter from Autozone that I bought and he charges me $10 for the labor and disposal. Real carefull people too. Free readouts of your computer errors. Will even reset them for free. Nice people.

 

I have taken both of my mustangs to a different dealer for service/tsbs etc. The only time they ask if I bought it from them is when I had the 5000 service done on it. That was just a cost issue as they discount it for vehicles they sell. Otherwise is should not matter to them where is came from.

 

Dealers make the real money off of their service departments. The dealer I bought my car from has crap service, so I take it somewhere else. They treat me great, even though they know I didn't buy my car there.

 

Yep, no issues here on swapping dealers.

Key is to research or test to find the best service dept in your area and stick with them. Won't matter if you didn't buy the car there...

 

Shouldn't be a problem. At my store-we take care of vehicles from any Ford or L-M dealer-we hope that if you like our service, you will buy from us in the future. Oh and yeah we want the $$ that the business brings in.

 

In my area there are over 7 Ford Dealerships...use the one that gives you the best service...remember $$$ is $$$...all dealerships love the money!

 

Well now I have a significant problem. My cloth vert top is not repelling water at all and gets totally soaked. The local dealer who I have been going to for servicing says that the selling dealer should have checked this as part of the PDI and that I will have to return to him to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, the dealer I bought from is 100 miles away.What do you think I should do?

 

I bought my car through the Military Exchange while I was in Iraq and picked it up when I returned to the states from a dealer in Austin, TX. Since then I have moved 3 times and have never had a problem getting warranty work done. I had a couple of TSB's taken care of by a dealer in San Antonio when I was stationed there and I just had my leaking brake reservoir taken care of under warranty where I am now in Fayetteville, NC.

 

That's complete bull, and you should find another dealer for service.

 

How can that happen so soon? Mine still repels like it was new. Beads up better than the paint. It might be possible that the dealer treats it with Ragg Top or something as part of the PDI?