Vehicle Service/Maintenance with Dealers

[Dupras]

Question for all the owners out there. Do any of you travel outside your local dealer to get service on a new vehicle? We have a local dealer who is so incredibly difficult to deal with and such poor customer service that I am thinking of driving an hour or so to have vehicle serviced for regular maintenance. Anyone else have experiences like this and are travelling for service? Any thoughts?

 

[KWKSLVR]

I live 8.5 hours away from where I'm buying my Ram from. There are 9 RAM dealers in a 50 mile radius of where I live. Most are meh and 2 are absolutely terrible. I'm just crossing my fingers that I don't need anything done to mine ever that requires a dealership .

 

[rws1944]

Go to where you feel you get the best service. You are not bound to the dealer where you bought the truck. This works for routine maintenance and warranty repairs.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Regular maintenance? Like oil changes and what not? Find a trusted mechanic in the area. Don't bother with dealers.

I found a great guy. Treats me right and has a good group of guys at his shop.

It went a long way with his crew when I was there with my wife and an old customer of theirs was in for an inspection. His brakes ate into the rotors and they had to fix it to let him drive it. He was stressing hard and did not look rich. Needed to work payments for the couple hundred they were charging him (nice discount for brakes and rotors). My wife just paid his bill as we left and didn't say anything to him. The guys told me he was all teared up when they told him. The guys at the shop really respected that and take care when looking at my stuff.

 

[Dupras]

Yeah I’m thinking about things like oil changes, routine maintenance, and then anything warranty related.

I’ll be honest I never really thought about going outside a dealer for routine work when I’m in the warranty period, just didn’t want them to come back and have issues should there be a warranty related issue and it was serviced outside a dealer.

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Yeah I’m thinking about things like oil changes, routine maintenance, and then anything warranty related.

I’ll be honest I never really thought about going outside a dealer for routine work when I’m in the warranty period, just didn’t want them to come back and have issues should there be a warranty related issue and it was serviced outside a dealer.

That would be illegal of them thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act signed into effect by President by default Ford.

But yea, actual warranty items? You are stuck with the dealerships.

 

[Dupras]

That would be illegal of them thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act signed into effect by President by default Ford.

But yea, actual warranty items? You are stuck with the dealerships.

Except I’m not in the US haha (Canadian, eh)

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Except I’m not in the US haha (Canadian, eh)

Oh. Sorry about that. My heart goes out to you.

 

[Dupras]

Oh. Sorry about that. My heart goes out to you.

 

[NRitland2]

Regular maintenance? Like oil changes and what not? Find a trusted mechanic in the area. Don't bother with dealers.

I found a great guy. Treats me right and has a good group of guys at his shop.

It went a long way with his crew when I was there with my wife and an old customer of theirs was in for an inspection. His brakes ate into the rotors and they had to fix it to let him drive it. He was stressing hard and did not look rich. Needed to work payments for the couple hundred they were charging him (nice discount for brakes and rotors). My wife just paid his bill as we left and didn't say anything to him. The guys told me he was all teared up when they told him. The guys at the shop really respected that and take care when looking at my stuff.

Paying it forward is so important now a days! Nicely done

 

[brian42]

I travel for service but not as far as you.

I bought my truck at a dealership 120 miles away. I have it serviced at a closer dealership which is only 20 miles away.

There are several RAM dealerships closer than that ro me (including about 2 miles) but they are all difficult to deal with and the service staff is not very helpful. I'm not about to leave my truck with them or give them my business (I may not be paying them but FCA pays them for the work they do on my truck).

I'm willing to put in some extra time to use a dealership that appreciates my business. In the end all that matters is that it's a factory authorized service department and it doesn't matter where you go or how many places you go to.

 

[SD Rebel]

I'm also in San Diego like Brian42, we have about 7 to 8 factory RAM dealerships in the San Diego County area within 30 miles of each other. That said, I won't take my truck to any of them, since my experience with 3 of them, including my selling dealership service department has not given me confidence of trusting them to do the most basic thing with my truck.

I have never owned a vehicle that made me not trust the dealership to do service, until I bought my RAM. I read that FCA/Stellantis dealerships were essentially last in service surveys in North America, and I certainly believe it now. I don't think they were prepared for all the new trucks, Jeeps and cars they sold these last few years and are slammed. Because of that, they seem to turn little task into big problems due to this. They have high scores in sales, that was a good experience on my part, but their service departments seem to suck.

So for basic services, I do it myself. I rather enjoy doing the oil changes on this truck, I did a full write-up if you look it up, and if you follow my DIY instructions you can do easily without spilling a drop of oil. Make sure to keep your receipts, a log of when you did the oil change and at what mileage, I would also keep the used oil filters, especially the first one until you are out of powertrain warranty, which is 5yr / 60k.

For any problems within warranty, I will have to go to the dealership, luckily my truck has been 100% since purchase. I'm torn whether or not to buy the extended warranty because I really don't want to go back to the dealership should I have an issue in the future.

 

[SD Rebel]

I travel for service but not as far as you.

I bought my truck at a dealership 120 miles away. I have it serviced at a closer dealership which is only 20 miles away.

There are several RAM dealerships closer than that ro me (including about 2 miles) but they are all difficult to deal with and the service staff is not very helpful. I'm not about to leave my truck with them or give them my business (I may not be paying them but FCA pays them for the work they do on my truck).

I'm willing to put in some extra time to use a dealership that appreciates my business. In the end all that matters is that it's a factory authorized service department and it doesn't matter where you go or how many places you go to.

I'm in your area as well, what dealership did you actually like to do service on your truck? I bought mine at San Diego RAM, but not happy with them for service, or National City RAM.

 

[brian42]

I'm in your area as well, what dealership did you actually like to do service on your truck? I bought mine at San Diego RAM, but not happy with them for service, or National City RAM.

Jack Powell in Escondido. Family-owned and not in a conglomerate of dealerships so definitely has a more personal feel.

They are busy as all dealerships are (they are the only Chrysler service department open on Saturday) but they do good work and all the service staff I've come across are nice and helpful.

The only other one I would have considered is Bob Baker in Carlsbad (where my dad has bought his RAMS) but they've changed ownership recently and I hear people are jumping ship with the new management.

I'm torn whether or not to buy the extended warranty because I really don't want to go back to the dealership should I have an issue in the future.

With all the expensive parts, computers, and dealer-required programming to make it all work I opted for a MOPAR extended warranty. It's not as good as the basic warranty but gives me peace of mind that any big ticket items that bite the dust before March 2026 will only cost my $100 to fix/replace.

Plenty of differing opinions on ESPs but I drive 20K miles/year so the 7 years/unlimited miles plan was a no-brainer for me to get coverage for ~140K miles. It's already gotten me a new gas tank and I have the steering noise/grinding issue (albeit very slight) so I see a new rack & pinion system sometime in the future. YMMV

 

[SD Rebel]

Jack Powell in Escondido. Family-owned and not in a conglomerate of dealerships so definitely has a more personal feel.

They are busy as all dealerships are (they are the only Chrysler service department open on Saturday) but they do good work and all the service staff I've come across are nice and helpful.

The only other one I would have considered is Bob Baker in Carlsbad (where my dad has bought his RAMS) but they've changed ownership recently and I hear people are jumping ship with the new management.


With all the expensive parts, computers, and dealer-required programming to make it all work I opted for a MOPAR extended warranty. It's not as good as the basic warranty but gives me peace of mind that any big ticket items that bite the dust before March 2026 will only cost my $100 to fix/replace.

Plenty of differing opinions on ESPs but I drive 20K miles/year so the 7 years/unlimited miles plan was a no-brainer for me to get coverage for ~140K miles. It's already gotten me a new gas tank and I have the steering noise/grinding issue (albeit very slight) so I see a new rack & pinion in my system sometime in the future. YMMV

That's awesome, I'll give them a try, I live in the South Bay in Eastlake, it's about as far away from a San Diego based dealer to me, but worth the drive for a good place I can trust. Thanks!

Yeah, I want the piece of mind if I keep the truck. I'll see how the 2023 re-freshed RAMs are, if I don't move to that, I will get the warranty. My warranty ends probably just as they are releasing initial images of the 2023 model, so it maybe tight

 

[Ram92131]

Jack Powell in Escondido. Family-owned and not in a conglomerate of dealerships so definitely has a more personal feel.

They are busy as all dealerships are (they are the only Chrysler service department open on Saturday) but they do good work and all the service staff I've come across are nice and helpful.

The only other one I would have considered is Bob Baker in Carlsbad (where my dad has bought his RAMS) but they've changed ownership recently and I hear people are jumping ship with the new management.


With all the expensive parts, computers, and dealer-required programming to make it all work I opted for a MOPAR extended warranty. It's not as good as the basic warranty but gives me peace of mind that any big ticket items that bite the dust before March 2026 will only cost my $100 to fix/replace.

Plenty of differing opinions on ESPs but I drive 20K miles/year so the 7 years/unlimited miles plan was a no-brainer for me to get coverage for ~140K miles. It's already gotten me a new gas tank and I have the steering noise/grinding issue (albeit very slight) so I see a new rack & pinion system sometime in the future. YMMV

SD local here too. I used to have good experiences at Jack Powell. Oil changes were fast and inexpensive, and the repair work I did there on my previous Grand Cherokee V8 was solid. But recently I gave up. The last couple times I tried to go in for the fast lane oil change they turned me away... too busy. I think they have instead tried to shift more of that work to appointments. So I took it to Poway. That's worked out OK.

One dealer I won't go to again is Kearny Mesa. Several years ago I took the Grand Cherokee in for an oil change. They cross-threaded the plug and didn't put the air filter housing back on. Then, shortly thereafter, I had a camshaft go out. They addressed it, but then my AC leaked shortly after that. Never went back since they seemed to put in more problems than they took out.

 

[SD Rebel]

SD local here too. I used to have good experiences at Jack Powell. Oil changes were fast and inexpensive, and the repair work I did there on my previous Grand Cherokee V8 was solid. But recently I gave up. The last couple times I tried to go in for the fast lane oil change they turned me away... too busy. I think they have instead tried to shift more of that work to appointments. So I took it to Poway. That's worked out OK.

One dealer I won't go to again is Kearny Mesa. Several years ago I took the Grand Cherokee in for an oil change. They cross-threaded the plug and didn't put the air filter housing back on. Then, shortly thereafter, I had a camshaft go out. They addressed it, but then my AC leaked shortly after that. Never went back since they seemed to put in more problems than they took out.

This is why I do my own basic services. The cross threading a drain plug and forgetting to put the air filter housing back on is the stuff that happens when the lowest level techs are doing a job they don't care about on a truck they don't own.

Of the many examples I've heard, the one that sticks in my mind is examples of tech's forgetting to put oil back in during and oil change and don't realize until they drive it around the corner and have to go back and fill it up. That is nightmare fuel for people who actually care about their vehicles.

In the past 3 decades of vehicle ownership, I have too many times paid people/shops to screw up my vehicle. That is why I've moved to the DIY route unless it's something that absolutely requires a dealership visit, such as warranty work.

They opened up a new CDJR dealership in Chula Vista, Mossy RAM. It's close to Eastlake, so I may give them a visit if I ever have to go back to the dealership.

 

[WW2]

Buy some ramps and do it yourself. Dealers use the lowest form of life for lube techs. I have one after another horror stories. Only take your truck there if its warrantee and you have no other choice... Just Sayin

 

[WXman]

Question for all the owners out there. Do any of you travel outside your local dealer to get service on a new vehicle? We have a local dealer who is so incredibly difficult to deal with and such poor customer service that I am thinking of driving an hour or so to have vehicle serviced for regular maintenance. Anyone else have experiences like this and are travelling for service? Any thoughts?

First of all, I never ever let a shop or dealership do basic maintenance on my truck. Why let a minimum wage employee with little to zero mechanical knowledge service a $64k vehicle? Especially one that's as simple as pie to service as a Ram 1500? You can save a LOT of money by doing it yourself and the bonus is you can use quality oil instead of the junk the dealer gets imported in 55 gallon drums.

As for repairs, yes I will go to whichever dealer treats me right even if it's 35 minute drive away. I don't tolerate dealerships who treat me poorly. There are too many other options out there. Some are great, some aren't. Drive to where the service is great.

 

[Cbty2050]

Dealers use the lowest form of life for lube techs.

Not all, maybe some. I'm sure you started at the top of your trade/profession as you left the womb.

You can save a LOT of money by doing it yourself and the bonus is you can use quality oil instead of the junk the dealer gets imported in 55 gallon drums.

What dealers use 55 gallon drums for oil? You would be amazed that most dealers use Pennzoil.