The manufacturers make entirely too many decisions like this that dealership employees suffer for. They aren't the ones who have to deal with the irate customer, so why would they care? The kicker is, if a dealer decides to start making mechanically sound, but not by the bok repairs, manufacturers yank back a lot of money from them, as this is a violation of the franchise agreement. Our Audi shop got charged back $1,600,000 this past march for sending out a few thousand happy customers with non standard repairs. It sucks for everyone except the manufacturer.

But why don't the manufacturers understand that I am much more likely to buy another brand of car next-go-round because I feel like they shipped a purposely inferior product? I mean, I understand that they don't want to make a car that will last for 25 years and 500,000 miles, but come on... It's that kind of attitude from corporate giants that makes me nauseous.

I've become of the opinion that dealership repair shops are only good for one thing. Getting an EXTREMELY high estimate on fixing something to give your insurance company, so you can pocket half the check plus the deductable when you take it to a body shop instead to get it repaired. Not to mention that a body shop owned and run by some guy is much more interested in making you happy than any dealership repair shop ever is.

I once got into a head on colision in a jeep cherokee sport. Took it to the dealership to let them fight it out with my insurance company. After 2 months and $12.5k of the insurance company's money, I got my $14k Jeep back. I was told that they drove it around for a week-end to make sure everything was working OK. They give me the keys, I hop in, and I try to put the seat back. It was bent to an 80º angle TOWARD the steering wheel, leaned all the way back. Put the seat forward, and it was more like 45º. There was no WAY they had driven it even around the block. I call attention to it and the service manager said, and I quote, "Oops". He then jumped in the back seat while I was watching, wrapped both hands around the front seat, and proceeded to yank it back into some semblance of the correct angle. Let's just say I was not getting warm fuzzies all over. Tthe car never acted properly again. All told, they spent close to $15k to fix a $14k car, plus they rented me a car for 2.5 mos. Why they didn't just total it from the start I'll never understand.