OT: new car advice

[Kurt Granroth]

On Nov 22, 2005, at 5:57 PM, Frank Davenport wrote:
> This is excellent fiscal advice.
>
> In addition, all dealer services are going to be extremely expensive
> regardless of the make of vehicle you purchase.  The last place I  
> would
> go for service is the dealer.

It's hard to argue that coming from a strictly cost point of view.   
Lately, though, I've been taking all of our cars to the dealer and  
absorbing the extra cost.  Why?  Because when I bring it to the  
dealer, the work gets done right.  I have maybe a 50% success rate  
with 3rd party shops.  And in some of those cases, the cost is  
significantly higher than if I had just brought it to the dealer when  
you factor in the multiple trips needed to fix what the shop screwed  
up the first time.

YMMV, of course, but the only time my cars don't go to the dealer is  
for oil changes.

Kurt