Even Comcast technical support could have fixed that problem. The first thing they tell you is unplug the box, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in.

Maybe that is why Comcast has so many problems, they think they are fixing cars.

Did your dad pay with a credit card?

@apd09: +1 Funny

Sometimes local repair garages are the best things around. It's just a bunch of guys who love doing what they do, see it as a hobby, and charge a competitive rate. The ones out for money, not enjoyment, are the ones to look out for...

I'm surprised they even worked on it. One of our student employees (I work for a college) used to drive a circa 1985 Buick Regal (with 2-tone paint and laundu roof) and pretty much every garage he talked to said they didn't work on cars that had carburetors.

@wcnghj: Won't matter if he did. Car repair payment is not contingent on the vehicles condition, sadly.

I'm at a loss for advice to the OP. I've been screwed out of an extra $800 from a local mechanic who took 3 tries to repair my wife's 2000 VW Beetle, but I legitimately think that he did his best and just couldn't diagnose the problem.

@wcnghj: Amen. If I were this man's father, I would SO dispute those charges. Over seven hundred bucks and they still didn't fix the truck?

If you don't know what you're doing, then STOP DOING IT. Geez.

Wow - sounds like my car last year, except the other way around. It died on the way down to see my parents, and I was stuck in a Walmart parking lot all day, waiting for family, from either my husband's side or my parents' side, to come get me. We got a trailer from UHaul and drug it to the local repair place we've used since before I was born, and have always had good service, always trusted, etc. My car is stuck, 80 miles away, at this repair place, for a month & a half - they never touched it. My mother finally gets it towed to the local dealership - up and going in one day. Never did find out why our usual trusted mechanics never worked on my car. They don't have a big enough lot to say "Oh sorry, we missed it sitting there..."

Not to mention the day before that happened, I lost my job, so I couldn't even find a job for a month & a half, since I had no transportation (local transport around here sucks).

@alastria: I do believe you're looking for the "rambling complaints" section of the interweb; this area here is called "comments"

This was similar to what happened to me with my old car. I went with a problem, they replaced a bunch of stuff, gave me a big fat bill but the car still had the problem. What recourse do I or anyone have for that? I guess I can't ask for them to put the old parts back in but why should I have to pay when they didn't fix the problem. In my case, i was pretty upset and the mechanic ended up not charging me for the labor after he fixed the problem the 2nd time around

@SonaliHamlegs: Your comment was just as productive as his. And so is mine, so I guess that makes 3 of us!

I used to live in Jefferson County, New York for awhile, and I can tell you that F. X. Caprara is full of fail. Rule of thumb: Never, EVER go to any car dealership, foreign or domestic, within 30 miles of a large military base (like Fort Drum) for ANYTHING. Not even for wiper blades.

@HurtsSoGood:

Never, EVER go to any car dealership, foreign or domestic, within 30 miles of a large military base (like Fort Drum) for ANYTHING.

@HurtsSoGood: Why would being close to a military base make a difference?

Unless the dealership kept your dad informed of what work they were doing, how much it would cost, and got consent I think they owe you a big refund. If they want to charge a "diagnostic" fee for looking at it that's one thing, but a mechanic doesn't have carte blanc to randomly replace parts in the hope that one of them would be the problem. They shouldn't be able to charge you for additional work they had to perform because they lack knowledge in their chosen profession.

@apd09: I gave you a golf clap here at work.

People are looking at me funny now.

@HurtsSoGood: What's the reasoning behind your advice?

And define "within 30 miles of a large military base" - I live in El Paso, Texas, home of Fort Bliss. Is the entire city of El Paso off limits for car repairs, or just 30 miles from the edges of the various military grounds/land? If the former, what am I supposed to do if my car breaks down, have it towed to Albuquerque?

This is why I don't feel sorry one bit for all those dealers being closed. Idiots!

@Brent Woodle: Still claiming your name is Brent, eh?

You're the guy who owns the crappy lawn mowing service that killed that guy's garden. I just KNOW it.

Dealer shops are unfortunately Hit or Miss. I purchased a new car and the headlamp assemble was filling with water during a steady rain. I took it into the shop for repar (along with about 5 other minor issues) and the dealer said that water in the headlamp assembly was "Normal" and a technical service bulletin had been published on it. I requested a copy of the TSB which said that condensation was normal, but standing water was not, I then asked the service manager to look at the headlamp and tell me what he saw... "Standing Water" was the response. "So tell me again why this is not covered?" They ordered a new headlamp assemble that afternoon.

@Matthew Berkhan: Its a tough situation. Usually what happens is they call you and say that they think replacing widget X will fix the problem. You say OK, so they replace widget X.

If widget X wasn't the problem you don't have much recourse. Also, you don't have the knowledge to know if widget X was ever a problem or you probably wouldn't have taken it to the mechanic.

Car repairs are an anti-consumer game to begin with... you just have to find someone you trust.

@lannister80: Oh the comedy. You realize I'm posting from a Facebook account, right?

@SonaliHamlegs: I do believe you're looking for the disemboweling section of this site.

@coren: Voweling. Make a snarky comment, look stupid. Check and double check!

@HurtsSoGood: I used to live in Watertown. You're right, never trust the dealerships out there, especially with the local area having so many mechanics that it should be really easy to find someone to get work done.

Not sure why the proximity to Drum would impact the ability to get a car unless you're implying that the dealerships are there to explicitly rip off the soldiers.

Then again, I bought all my cars used, so I guess I just never ran into this problem.

In any case, dealerships should almost always be considered as a last resort to get a vehicle repaired unless you have some sort of service plan with them. Way too expensive for the work done.

@madanthony: 1985 Olds Cutlass Ciera I got at 23,000 in 2003, and it's ~2,000 away from 100k now. Love that car. Open engine bay, standard parts, etc...

@tomok97: Dealers ready to overcharge young soldiers and young soldier's wives/(husbands) who don't have knowledge of dealer or service scams yet. The same dealerships will sell an overpriced car to a soldier since they know he(she) has a gov't job and maybe living on his(her) own for the first time after high school with cash rolling in and very few expenses.

This is the same reason that pawn shops tend to congregate around bases. The whole issue of credit/debt in regards to our countries soldiers has even been put on notice as a readiness concern with some programs enacted to educate and assist soldiers...

I live in the Nashville, TN region and understand these issues from having friends near Forth Campbell KY which borders Clarksville, TN.

@Brent Woodle:

Let me guess.. the coil packs (guessing she has the 1.8t)??

If not, well, after taking my 2001 Jetta to the dealer 3 times, and being charged almost $1500 in repairs for service (which they said would fix the problem and it did not the first time), parts, and labor, on the third trip back they finally admitted that it was the coil pack which was a recall, that work got done for free, but not before I spent $1500 on the service and rental car costs since they had my car for almost 3 weeks and would not provide a loaner.

Oh, and on top of that, the service they did.. turns out they did not do, when I took my car into a different dealership, they noted that all of the parts in the vehicle were still OEM from the factory, nothing had been replaced, which the 80k service is supposed to include (plugs, belts and some other misc things).

In the end, I did manage to get some of the money back from VW corp, mostly for the rental and some of the labour, but I still got screwed :(

Just FYI, I'm not sure an 88 would have OBDII. The closest my 1985 comes is a terminal under the steering wheel you need to short two contacts on. Then, the lights on the dash will blink out the trouble code, a la morse code.

To be completely honest, my first question was going to be: Did someone pull the battery to check it/replace the battery? I only say that b/c my ol' Pontiac Sunbird had a dying battery, and it would actually freak out and pin the speedometer to it's max and then like shimmy, then keep going. Mechanic swapped the battery, and she was right as rain. My current 85 Olds started acting up as well, and finally died on me, but it seems the problem was the battery terminal bolt was stripped, and caused a loose connection, which led to a layer of corrosion, which would block any connection when the car vibrated just right. Disconnecting the battery/cleaning the terminals&contacts/using a new bolt cured it as well. I'm surprised No one at the dealership pulled the battery for testing. Even Autozone will do that for you for free.

Reminds me of the time my corolla was making a weird noise. So I took it to the local dealership, figuring they would be able to figure it out quicker than anyone, they charged me a $75 diagnostic fee, told me it was fine, just my recently replaced belts "breaking in." I should have known that was BS right off, since the noise was a recent thing, and I had almost 10k miles on the "recent" belts, but they swore up and down that was it.

Fast forward to the VERY NEXT DAY, driving from my (now) wife's family's Easter party, to my family's, I put on my turn signal and my radio shut off. Uh oh. that's not good! turned off everything electric that I could, and barely made it back to her house to switch to her car. I got to take the next day off to change out the alternator that'd been making all the racket by, you know, not working at all!

I went back, after changing the alternator myself (I seem to recall the condo association being unpleased with that, but that's another story), got my $75 back, and barely an apology from the service manager. To this day, my wife has to toss the mailings I get from that dealership (despite having asked several times to be taken of the list) before I see them, or listen to me complain about them again!

I had a problem once with a car's battery constantly dying. Replaced the batter, so they could do an electrical check, found nothing wrong (Sears). New battery died, Sears said I'd have to buy a new one.

The dealership said it was problems with computer parts, charged over a grand (this was an 86 crown vic) to replace all the parts (grandparents paid for it).

Battery still died. The Shell service center around the corner from my house looked at it, and found it was a bad alternator in about 5 minutes.

Moral of the story:
Always trust a local mechanic over a dealership. I don't even trust them to change the oil. Only think I'll use dealerships for is warranty work.

@alastria: I hope that there is more to this story as I am wondering why you would allow them to keep your car for that long.

I often will drop my vehicle off in the evenings without an appointment if something breaks, and if I don't hear from them by 1pm, I give them a call to make sure they found the car, and to get an estimate on when they expect to start diagnosing the problem, and then check up on them periodically.

I had a car in the shop for 1 week for a simple repair, and they kept feeding me a line of BS (it is on the lift, but the technician is at lunch...he is still diagnosing the problem etc.), finally on the last day when I checked on the status, they said that they finally connected it to the diagnostic computer and the ABS Sensor was broken. My response was No $h!+, that was what I wrote on the service request because the ABS light came on! It took you a week to tell me that after you lied to me for a week saying that you were diagnosing the problem when you weren't. I told them to forget about the repair, I would take it somewhere else. A few minutes later I get a call from the dealership apoligizing and telling me that they would be providing me a rental car at no cost and some free oil changes if I would give them a chance to redeem themselves.

Bottom line, be persistent, and demand reasonable status updates and let them know that you will be calling back in a few hours/days as is reasonable...the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

My power seat stopped working, and I checked out the basic stuff. Took it to the dealership. They said they diagnosed the problem, and needed to replace the seat mount (the part with all the motors/frame) for about $1000. Bummer, well, if that's what's wrong, do it. Got it back, and it still failed the same way. So I guessed it was a switch at fault (since I hadn't checked that), and I put a mark on it so I would know if they replaced it. Sure enough, got it back and only the switch was replaced. They said a connector pin was bent or something.

Demanded the old part, and tested all the motors myself and everything was fine. Took it back to the dealership, and sure enough, they admitted it was working. Why did they replace it, then? They refunded my money, and I still have all the new parts.

If they tell you something is wrong, get the parts they replace. If you can test the parts and show they are working, then demand a refund for fixing something that didn't need fixing.

No, I won't be taking my car back there. If they can't properly operate an Ohmmeter...

Actually not surprising the dealership mechanics are probably more used to seeing up to 5 model year old vehicles and some of the intricacies of older ones would pass them by, I think OBDii came out in 94ish, but it could have had obdi. I know my car needs to have the computer de-powered after certain repairs otherwise you get some weird symptoms.

@econobiker: Thanks. Never really thought about it. I live in a major city with tons of car dealerships so it's never really been an issue for me. I guess I'm safe as I'm too fat to be mistaken for a soldier. :)

@BoardShortin'_GitEmSteveDave: AutoZone will do that for you if a) you ask them to, or b) you are explaining your symptoms and an employee there is knowledgeable enough to suggest this. I think the main problem in the OP's case was that no one in that shop had any practical experience.

"Vehicles from the 80's, need a bit more experience, what one would get from an experienced mechanic."

This simply isn't true. Modern vehicles require a great deal more training and expertise to repair largely because of all the added electronics, not in spite of. Trust me, a scan tool is by no means an end all, be all diagnosis machine. It may give you a clue so that you know where to start looking, but it is not a device that allows for a "scan car, order part" process. Without scanners, diagnosing and repairing modern vehicles would be nigh impossible.

obd2 was mandated in the us for all 96 and newer vehicals.

As stupid as this experience is, I have to stand up for the techs, as I am one myself.

With the advent of OBD-II, it is easier to diagnose cars, however, just plugging it in and reading the codes is rarely enough. Codes are typically very general, and only point to the affected system, and not the failed system.

That said, there's a difference between plugging the computer in and reading a code, and actually DIAGNOSING a problem. Case in point, this article.

@madanthony:

That's what I tell friends and family with about thier computers except replace 'carburetor' with 'dial-up'.

I've heard (don't know first hand) that the problem with dealership service departments is that they are primarily set up to do warranty work. For warranty work they they get reimbursed based on the number of parts replaced - they don't get reimbursed (or only at a low level) for diagnostic work.

So the dealership approach tends to be : replace part A, replace part B, replace part C, until it works.

@apd09: Well done.

@econobiker: Correct. I was stationed in Fort Rucker, AL for 5 years.

You can't throw a rock in any direction without it skipping off of a payday loan office, and landing on the front step of a pawn shop.

@econobiker: Also, dealerships had a "Soldier loan", (I can't remember the exact name they used) which allowed them to offer loans to those who wouldn't normally qualify, at rates exceeding 18%.

All you need is a paystub, and your military ID card! Hooray!

@apd09: That's never worked with my modem. Its not until they send the signal to reset on their end that it starts working again.

I go through this once every few months and I keep telling the technician all they have to do is send the modem the signal to reset but, hey, what the hell do I know? I'm just some guy who's had the same modem for four years. Why the hell would I know any more about it than they, the "Comcastic experts" do?

@CheritaChen: I was saying that the people who replaced the first sensor, at the marina, should have disconnected the battery. Whenever you add a sensor to the car, you have to "reboot" the system so that it can adjust to the new readings this new sensor is putting out. Some sensors "drift" over time, but the computers can compensate.

See what kind of repair warranty this dealership has going. I've had repair work done at places like that only to bring it to a local mechanic with more experience to get the problem actually corrected. A couple times when I went back to the original place of repair with an invoice showing what work was done to actually correct their issue, I was refunded the cost of the failed repair.

@SacraBos: When I got my Olds, the power locks on the drivers side didn't work. I took the door apart and found the wires off. Connected them again, and tried it out. When I hit lock, the doors unlocked, and vice-versa. Turns out the FACTORY had crossed the wires in the connectors. I wonder what someone would have charged me to figure that out....

It's amazing how hit or miss this can be. My alternator went 200 miles from home. I was towed to a place who was borderline surly in terms of telling me how long it would take to fix. It was towed at 5PM on a Thursday night and was done by 10AM Friday morning. I had a real bad feeling judging from the initial contact but they were great.