Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Opinions... unfiltered and unencumbered by logic... are not really a good thing to express. That said, let me tell you what I happen to think about car dealerships.

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So VW, maker of my newest used car - a 2003 VW Passat Wagon, has this anti-theft component in its late-model vehicles whereby if the little chip in the keyless entry fob isn't synched to the car, the car will die immediately after it starts. Also, you cannot use the keyless lock/unlock functions. Well, OK.
There are lots of ways to program a key fob to a car... but the one VW picked involves connecting the car to the a centralized VW computer system. And only dealers can do this. And they apparently have to have someone sitting on the machine while my car is plugged in to it.
One would think, that they could plug in the car (15 to 30 seconds) and then walk back to what they are doing... and upon completion, unplug the car (15 or 30 seconds).
No, apparently there's no multi-tasking at a car dealership (there's a comment in here about men and their inability to multi-task and the fact that car dealerships are havens of testosterone, but you don't need me to throw you off a cliff... you're already there, right?). So, they are going to charge me 30 minutes of shop time at $124 an hour to plug in and then unplug my car.
I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever letting them do anything to my car again.
Oh, and by the way...
There are four little holes in my car's stereo. Into these holes, you insert four little shims with hooks at the end. The shims click some tabs and once clicked, those allow the radio to slip out of the hole it occupies in the dash.
They want to charge me 30 minutes of shop time to complete this task as well.
Bastards.

1 comment:

The Curator said...

Sandor's Overseas Auto Repair. Run by Sandor and his son Attila. They are honest as the day is long. 972-669-0100