Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 03/07/13 at 15:59:09:I have found that dealer service is no more expensive than Billy Bob's garage.
I like OEM parts, and techs who are properly trained on my car, not dozens of other types where the guy may, or may not know what he's tearing into.
Example - back 20 years ago, my wife thought she heard a noise in her transmission in her '93 BMW 5 series wagon with only 2,000 miles till warranty expired. She took it to dealer, the guy put in it gear on the lift, took a doc's stethoscope on the tranny case and started listening to the tranny.
He heard the noise, told her it'd be about 10 minutes to call BMW and get approval to tear into it.
He came back saying that the factory wouldn't let him get into it - her brand new tranny would be shipped that day - the factory wanted hers shipped back, untouched, so they could autopsy it and figure out what happened.
New tranny was $3500 - all replaced totally under warranty. Would you get that from Billy Bob? Doubtful.
So many things wrong with what you just said. For starters - you didn't find that the dealer was "no more expensive" because dealer bills are sometimes twice as what you'd pay at a chain. This is why chains exist in the first place.
Second - The same guys that work at dealers work at chains. I know this because the vast majority of my friends are mechanics. They all bounce from shop to shop whether it's a dealer or not.
Third - Warranty work. If you have a car that's under warranty - you aren't paying for it in the first place so of course you'd go to the dealer. And as far as getting a transmission for free - do you really think you're getting that anywhere when a car is out of warranty?
Clearly you're talking out of your ass.
*edit* Oh - and "Billy Bob's" would be the cheapest of the three because they don't have huge overhead from franchise fees.