fastdoc71

So last weekend, I came out to my garage and couldn't get into my 08 C6. I figured the original battery finally gave out, being 5 years old and all, so dropped in an Optima Red Top, which fired up great all day, but was dead as a doornail the next morning. I did not leave any lights on or anything else. I did a draw test and was seeing over 10 amps! At that point, I decided to take it to my local dealer since I have a crazy schedule at times. I felt comfortable that they reportedly have 4 certified Corvette techs there.

Tuesday the service adviser called me and told me his tech spent 5 hours on it, traced it to the power seat, and that it would be another 2 hours to take the seat out to find out what was going on.

Yesterday they called my house (apparently they wrote down my wrong cell) and got my wife. They told her that it would need a new switch and adjuster (almost $800 in parts!), and that it needed to be fixed or the seat motor may end up causing a fire. When he told her that it would be over $1800 to fix, she had a cow, but was told that it's a Vette, things are more expensive.

Today, I picked it up, but the adviser who handled my case was already gone for the day, so I figured I would just pay the $1861.77 bill and talk to the adviser and/or service mgr tomorrow. Does anyone think I was taken for a ride (no pun intended) with 10.5 hours of labor and diagnostics for what ended up probably being a stuck switch causing the seat motor to overheat? I mean, 5 hours to diagnose that from a Corvette "specialist", and 5.5 hours to remove and reinstall parts and seat? Really?? All opinions are welcome.

01VETTECOP

He could of at least used lube before he put in your rear !

BettermostCorvette

Did you have any sort of prior issue with that seat? I would think if there were a short of some kind or even if the seat motor were to be left open and stuck it would just blow a fuse or relay thats why we have fuses in the first place.

DocHorton

Dealers don't charge based on how much time they spend on the car, the charge based off a book value. It's likely they only spent a couple hours but charge you for whatever it says in their "repair book".

I got screwed on this before....watched them spend about 45 minutes of work and they wanted to charge me 1.5 hours of labor because that was the "book time". I argued and argued and talked to the manager and no luck. I had to pay it because they had my keys.

martinf55

If he said that the seat motor could cause a fire then that is a safety issue that maybe other vettes have and may be a recall issue. If you have on paper that this is what they found then I would have said to fix it for free or let the car catch fire then sue the pants off of them.

glenB

The last time I looked I didn't see a 'magic wand' on a tool truck. While 5 hours diagnosis time may seem extreme, we really don't know how long it took the tech. There are methods to track down a draw and while in hind sight it may seem easy, when you are dealing with multiple circuits off of one lead, it can be time consuming.

As for paying book time.... that's how a tech gets paid, beating the book is how a tech gets paid better.

billyboy47

so, does it really pay to take your vette to the dealer just because they have "corvettetechs"? i've heard some horror stories about some of those special corvette techs. but then again, are there any other options?

fastdoc71

No prior issues with the seat. As a matter of fact, I can't even recall the last time I adjusted it, since I'm the only one who drives it in my house.

GlenB, I hear what you're saying, but even before they start pulling fuses and whatnot, doesn't it make sense to maybe check the easy things first that will draw lots of power--like making sure the customer didn't leave any lights on, the CD player isn't running, or that the power seats work properly? Of course, when you're working based on an hourly rate, I guess it makes sense not to do that.

phileaglesfan

If they spent 5 hours to find a seat that could catch on fire then I wouldn't be taking my car there. The book labor is a joke, most mechanics have the task done in 1/4 to 1/3rd of the time. I worked for a govt contractor and they gave us a 10 hour task every night, that usually took us 3 hours. We had mandatory overtime. I couldn't work that slow.

Parts prices are probably steep. I had a bad traction control switch on my 11 GS Vert after I traded it in (I was removing DSV parts that was part of the deal). I ordered the switch and it was $26. I asked how much to put it in and the service adviser quoted me at $160, about $100 in labor. Now all the sudden the part costs $60. Well I worked it in to the trade anyway so I just paid $26 for the broken switch. These reasons are why a lot of dealers don't see many repeat customers.

hawkandersonjr

Sorry you got taken. I took my seat out in 20 minutes and it took 10 minutes of that 20 for me to figure out how to do it. I had a dead battery in mine a while back. Did not do a load test to see if it was really dead just went and bought one. Well two days later car wouldn't start. Took battery back they put a full charge on it no more problems. I did buy me a $19.95 battery tender and when I don't drive her more than three days I hook the tender up to her. Never had any more battery problems. I would advise you to do the same. For that power drain from the seat . Next time hop on the forum these guys on here are great. Saved me a bunch of $$.

fastdoc71

[QUOTE=phileaglesfan;1584385559 These reasons are why a lot of dealers don't see many repeat customers.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. Sadly, I'll probably end up having to eat this one. The ridiculous thing is that this repair cost me more than my cam install/tune earlier this year.

RULOOKIN

My vette is under warranty and I will not let dealerships touch my car only to do oil changes because they have a pit ( not a hoist ) I prefer less in the air time !!! I take my car to a corvette specialist here in Canada for any work and I never worry about the bill or my rockers being hit by a hoist as GM mechanics do all the time trust me I have seen it a million times I used to work at GM !!!

sevinn

Have you done the draw test again to make sure that the issue was at least fixed? I could see the diagnostic time being legit, but definitely nothing on the seat that would take 2 hours to do unless they have to remove/reapply any leather (they don't).

lordofwar

this is why I buy new cars with a warrenty,and when the warrenty goes I trade the car.

child_of_fire

i've been doing fixes on my own since new. the dealer is not trained any more than a regular mechanic. in fact i think they are worse. and on top of the over-charging they do. they dont care about your car.

i would have attempted this fix yourself. i traced a loose wire to my horn which became non-functional. all i had to do was simply plug it back in. i went through the scenario if i had brought it to the dealer. they could have easily told me that after hours of tech work they determined that the horn unit was faulty and it was going to be $500 or more for parts and labor.

corvette tax my ***. this is america. domestic products should not be this high. and we wonder why our country is being bought by china.

phileaglesfan

I would ask to see the bad parts and have them guarantee the repair.

ParisTNDude

When you leave it with them and tell them to fix it, you just wrote the check. I always tell them that if it will exceed $XX dollars call me for approval to proceed. That seems hellatiously high in my opinion.

MikeERWNC

That sucks!
I have been watching a pair of seats on Ebay... Both are only 1500 make offer.

I always try to do my own work for this reason.
However, I do love Jacky Jones Chevrolet in Murphy, NC - Shameless plug.

Pinky...

Tell that to some of the A techs that do good work in dealerships across the country and they'll laugh you out of the building.

85scott

When I worked at a GM dealership back in the 1990's, the parts markup was 100%. And you could get most parts for 50% off as an employee.

So that's one reason factory autoparts always seem so high.