RE: I’m here to help with your car problems
Hi socky. I am hoping you can help me. I hadn't serviced my car and I know it's my fault but it wasn't my fault that I didn't have the money for a service at the time. I moved to another town was homeless and living in my car and people did not pay me back what they owed me. To me that's a valid excuse to not service. I took my hyundai i30 2017 model car in for a check up at the dealership today. All I did was take it in to see what's wrong with it and get a quote. They said upfront it would be $140. It ended up being $195.80. This was on the invoice, topped up oil with 3 litres. They said the engine is burning oil -timing was incorrect. Recommended replacing the engine because between about January to July this year, the car was smoking white smoke and I called RACQ to help me. I then brought it into THIS dealership back then and I left it with them. They ended up charging me $330 odd dollars and said that they don't have any parts but it should be fine til the next service. I thought they gave me a service but they didn't. 2 months later the car was smoking white. I booked it into a different mechanics shop who cleared out the oil sump which cost my bro $600 odd dollars and told me to check the oil every week and that it would cost big money to replace the engine. Back at the dealership today, they wrote could replace cam phases and oil actuators but engine may still burn oil. They quoted $2860.00 Labour, Engine $11,344.06 And oil $120 totalling $14,324.06. Part Number 3374636 magnetic prof A5 5W-30 205L. Is this correct? Because I briefly worked at a mechanic before and my boss (mechanic) told me that dealerships are a rip off. Thanks Heaps for your help. I am hoping there would be a cheaper solution than $11,344.06 bcoz I don't trust them and the RACQ man at the dealership has a bad attitude.
Sorry to hear about your issue and not being able to pay for service.
It has been my experience that dealerships are a rip off, however, I don't have experience with dealerships in Australia. The dealerships that I have experience with make much of their money on service. They will try to upsell every customer with things that they don't need even when it comes to oil services. For instance, there was a TV show that investigated dealerships recently. New cars these days have the oil maintenance interval pre-programmed to remind the drivers when to change the oil. It has been proven that oil maintenance interval set by the manufacturer is perfect for the vehicle and more frequent oil changes don't make any improvements. The result of the investigation was that the dealerships all say that the vehicles that they sell have oil change intervals that are wrong and will attempt to upsell their customers with oil changes that they don't need. (Keep in mind that the dealership is not the same company that manufactures the vehicle). My experience is that the dealership will cost much more than an independent mechanic. My advice is to get more quotes from other shops. By the way, your owners manual will list the specified oil for your vehicle. The bottle of oil you purchase will list the specifications on the back. You just verify that the specification found in the owner's manual is listed on the oil bottle. The auto parts store where you buy oil can determine which oils meet the specifications for your vehicle so you don't need to verify it yourself. They can also be a good source for mechanic or auto shop referral.
Finally, if you have a 2017 Hyundai, that car should be under warranty. Hyundai warranties are the best. You should make every possible effort to get the engine replaced under warranty. Check to see if there has been any recall notices on your specific motor or if there has been excessive engine failures on your model. Sometimes certain batches of motors had defective parts that weren't realized until after the vehicles were sold. If that is the case, your engine could be warrantied even after the warranty is over. The engine should last more than 2 years. Read your warranty to make sure you understand it. Talk to the dealership manager to get the car repaired under warranty. Make sure to thank him/her for their time and help and be especially polite. Be friendly and do not get angry or defensive. It will go a long way towards getting a favorable outcome. If you don't have success, try another dealership.
Wow! That's very interesting about what the tv documentary said. Thanks Heaps for letting me know and caring. I shall follow up on the warranty as it sounds promising. Stay blessed!