General Motors announces 5 year / 100,000 mile powertrain warranty 0 deductable

[Mike Hohnstein]

Hey man, I've been in service work all my life. Some of my closest friends are
in dealership service departments.
There is little you can tell me about the reality of things, I'm not a consumer.
If you pay flat rate, that is a problem for the tech making a decision to put in
just a little more effort, or to care just a little more. All he gets paid for
is to beat the clock, not to give a $%*#, and you pencil users know it. My
hourly guys can stay on the bench and not have to worry about fighting with the
service writer for their time. You know what I'm talking about, if not maybe
you need to spend a little time on the shop floor.
For the record, my shop does heavy duty drive train work and dealerships cannot
compete with our pricing. We don't do any of the "general automotive" repair
that most of the after market relies on.
Most dealerships seem to have one or two golden boys who get the cream and the
rest of the crew gets handled.
It's a system that is fraught with political BS for techs and creates
adversarial conditions on the shop floor. That's the way it is up here, maybe
your "superstore" is a little more enlightened but I have my doubts. Just
keeping up with the service bulletins for all the various makes must be a
daunting task. All I know is we are at 80 and hour and most of the dealers are
at 85 or 90.
The extended warrantee has been used before, hell is wasn't that long ago Mopar
had 7years/70k, boy did we get a lot of mini vans coming in with 75k miles and
sorry owners.
Change the oils and filters per recommendation and don't let the kids drive the
thing and most cars last pretty good.
MH
----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Darst
To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 6:50 AM
Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: General Motors announces 5 year / 100,000 mile
powertrain warranty 0 deductable


Mike,

Things are either different in your area than mine or they have
changed drastically.

Warranty work represents only 25% of my fixed operations, down from
75%. We have increased our total service business over the past ten
years, 200%, so part of the reduction in warranty would be from an
increase in customers volunteering to come into my store, which
exponentially increases the overall service business.

My techs don't "slave" against the clock. They are paid on flat
rate, which is a commission basis. A good tech will make more money
than a not so good tech. Good meaning experienced and trained. It
also protects the consumer as the tech is not paid by the hour to
fix a problem they didn't get right the first time. They fix come-
backs at no cost to the customer or the company.

As far as Fords, agrees. They have their fair share of problems.

As far as Dodge vs GM... In the 90's we would have a 65% Dodge / 35%
GM warranty mix, with sales being about equal. Now we have 45%
Dodge / 55% GM with chrysler products outselling GM products 2 to 1.

Why do you suppose that is? Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep is owned and
operated by Daimler, a German company. The same company that owns
DaimlerBenz(Mercedes Benz) owns DaimlerChrysler.

In the OLD days, independant shops appeared to charge less for same
services that were performed at dealers. Brakes woul;d be 60% of the
cost of a dealer installed brake maintenance. Not so anymore.

Dealers use a matrix to determine the labor RATE. We charge less
than the local independant shops for this labor procedure, to make
up for the cost of the far superior brake linings we install. We
gurantee our work and don't need the aggrevation of $15 brake pads
that squeek, dust terribly and wear out prematurely.

Our service customers drive 30 miles and more to continue to have
their vehicles serviced by my team. Even with a repair facility
within a mile of their home. They know what they are getting, we
proved it to them during their warranty period, and they liked it.

Things have changed, dramatically, for dealers. Offer good service
at a fair, competetive price, provide service beyond the
competition... OR GET OUT OF BUSINESS, which many are doing because
they just can't shift gears to this mentality.

Soap box parked in driveway now...

Jay Darst
HPR Automotive Superstore
Sales and GREAT service
85PT40 Wanderlodge Owner
--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Hohnstein"
<MHOHNSTEIN@...> wrote:
>
> I remember when the General had 5 year 50k miles in the late
60's. My SS 396 325hp Chevelle got a water pump in Pendleton OR for
nada back in the day. They even covered the special high
performance engines. I suspect it was hard on the bottom line, they
stopped it in '70 I think. I had rental Hyundai last month in
Portland, it was Azura sedan with 9k on the clock. Their top of the
line piece, good looks, pretty fast, not bad on the handling.
> I wonder about the 10 year deal, they better hope that most folks
lose the car before the end of the term.
> On the other hand when trying to turn over the floor plan, volume
is king, most dealership service departments ain't the kind of place
that really helps customer relations. That deal where they make the
techs slave against the clock don't do a lot for encouraging good
work. We get a fair share of late model work after the owner gets
tired of the run around especially on them Ford diesel trucks.
Fords stock will be much worse if they have to match a serious
warrantee program. We don't see much of them GMs, lot's of Dodges
though.
> MH
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jay Darst
> To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 12:41 PM
> Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] General Motors announces 5 year /
100,000 mile powertrain warranty 0 deductable
>
>
> This is a bit off forum content, but I think its worthy of
noting.
>
> GM announced, about 20 minutes ago, that they now offer a 5
year /
> 100,000 mile warranty on all 2007 model vehicles.
>
> This warranty covers all 2007 brands and models, it is across
the
> board.
>
> For those of you who purchased a 2007 Yukon or Tahoe when they
first
> came out in Jan/Feb this year, you will be receiving a letter
> stating that your warranty has been extended.
>
> If you bought a GM Continous Protection Plan (GMPP), you will be
> receiving a partial refund for that cost, directly from GM!
>
> This is very big news for a company that has been experiencing
hard
> times (like Bluebird).
>
> When Hyundai was troubled with questionable quality, they
announced
> a 10 year / 100,000 warranty and now that is the BEST franchise
to
> have as their sales are very very good.
>
> Wander if Bluebird, known for their quality, should offer a
> powertrain warranty of 10 years / 500,000 miles? hmmmm that
might
> work :~}!
>
> Jay Darst, Owner/General Manager
> HPR Automotive Superstore
> Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Buick-Pontiac-GMC
> Sullivan, IL
> http://www.hprcars.com
> OH, and 85PT40
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>





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