Holden Servicing.

[lease1]

Ive always done my own servicing. Had a stamp made up and have had some major warranty work done without a problem. BUT, that was the risk I was willing to take and it paid off.

[C4B]

Tell me about it.
Try to provide some balance to an often "touchy" subject on this forum, and to avoid the usual "Davo's always telling people to only go to Holden" crap, and suddenly Apple pops up in the thread to try and discredit Davo's posts...

Do as I say not as I do.... Classic stuff!

[jono0309]

Ive always done my own servicing. Had a stamp made up and have had some major warranty work done without a problem. BUT, that was the risk I was willing to take and it paid off.

haha dodgy sod. Ah well thats your choice. If someone where to check the holden records, pretty sure the cars are on the dealership network? It would show it has never been serviced by them...

[IJ.]

Do as I say not as I do.... Classic stuff!

Ohh the irony

[Plenty]

haha dodgy sod. Ah well thats your choice. If someone where to check the holden records, pretty sure the cars are on the dealership network? It would show it has never been serviced by them...

Doesn't have to be serviced by them, I imagine the stamp is some Made up company. ..

[lease1]

haha dodgy sod. Ah well thats your choice. If someone where to check the holden records, pretty sure the cars are on the dealership network? It would show it has never been serviced by them...

Doesn't need to be serviced by them to get warranty work done

[dgp]

At the risk of upsetting a few of the resident lizards, I'll contribute...

Unknown to many, all new Holden's in the last couple of years require an oil that meets GM spec Dexos 1 or Dexos 2 specification. It depends on application as to which is required, but BOTH are a full synthetic oil. Does your independent option use oil of both this specification AND this cost? There is often a reason a place is cheaper...
So, are people basing their price beliefs on pre capped price servicing costs, and are they comparing like for like (eg this oil alone)?
...

Davo,

That is very interesting about the oil, last year at the Holden dealer they were using Mobil mineral oil in my car, this year it is Valvoline mineral oil. the oil cap does say Dexos 2 as well. I even asked them wah tsort of oil they used and they told me strait up that it was either the Mobil or Valvoline.

Dodgy pricks.

[redvxr8clubby]

And I know many auto elec shops that have dealerships as customers because a factory trained scanner operator can't fix the problem because the scanner can't diagnose an out of the norm repair.

This would be right, I don't think dealers employ auto electricians, so if there are electrical gremlins outside their area of expertise it's logical to get the work done by a specialist.

[jca]

I did many years at different brand dealerships I know all bout up sell and time management etc I left because I was becoming a robot yes they do sublet elect work and other repairs like gearboxs , diffs etc, which is why the techs find it hard to develop all the nessary skills a lot of dealership reply on the experience of the older blokes that have been there for years to diagnose and road test but then 90% of them end up leaving and runing there own shop such as myself then the dealership Lose there experience very poor business sense to me

[LSavvy]

This would be right, I don't think dealers employ auto electricians, so if there are electrical gremlins outside their area of expertise it's logical to get the work done by a specialist.

I thought they employed "technicians" (all rounder repairers as is required in this day and age as ecu's pretty much run all functions in cars) who have all the factory training and are privy to info not available outside the brand. I.e, they have the info but just don't know how to use it.



My neighbour is a technical advisor for VW Aust and he tells me they train their techs to diagnose elec faults at their own training school. Perhaps some brands factory train better than others to diagnose faults and others are happy to charge excessive amounts to change oil and filters and get the car out the door.

[Woodchukka]

Yeah got a mate who does the mechanical and electrical work. From discussions with him it appears that it is only a select few that get more heavily into the electrical side of things. He is a mechanic by trade however trained for electrical and mechanical work in the courses for the vehicles.

[Ausmartin1]

Yeah got a mate who does the mechanical and electrical work. From discussions with him it appears that it is only a select few that get more heavily into the electrical side of things. He is a mechanic by trade however trained for electrical and mechanical work in the courses for the vehicles.

I wish Holden would have their mechanics trained the same way, as Mechanics and electronics are nearly one these days.

Holden should:

1) Encourage the dealers to cross train more of their mechanics (Save them in unnecessary parts swap outs & have happier customers sooner) Fix it right the first time - US Moto.
2) Provide financial support so dealers can have diagnostic / programming tools at "each" work station.
3) Sell service manuals on CD's and provide tech updates, parts order diagrams with the odd bit of engineering data - just like in North America.
(Just because we don't have decent consumer laws doesn't mean Australians should be kept in the dark or held to ransom).
After a well informed consumer is a much happier consumer when it comes to service issues - as there are now so many models in the one brand a technically minded owner should be able to ask politely if the tech has seen document x or solution to issue x out of courtesy.

As a consumer who recently bought a new Imported US made Holden - I can clearly see differences between what US customers are privileged to and what we Australians receive & I am not impressed with Holden Australia's efforts one bit.

Starting with Holden head office advisors that are actually subcontracted by Holden as some sort of service information marketing placebo.
You think you are talking to Holden head office (But you are not) Enthusiast forums like LS1 beet them every time.

Waiting 2 months for a Trim warranty trim replacement (While US dealers had them in stock) mines on a slow boat from China?

Parts costs - Holden logo ones can be up to 4 times the price vs equivalent Chevy branded ones (I could go into detail but you would all be bored)

A positive solution if Holden did number 1 & 2 above is that they could then link in to the GM network for every car even on a minor service and the tech could get detailed updates / critical updates update their status.
This catch issues before they develop and that would mean more HAPPY REPEAT CUSTOMERS!

Holden should have a strike audit teams with carrot & stick approach to dealers (I don't mean signage, show rooms & customer lounges and other BS PR initiatives)
I'm talking service departments tools AND REGULAR SERVICE ITEMS ON HAND WITH GM FLUIDS.

For God sakes how is a tech supposed to service a Car if the required standard service parts or fluids are NOT IN STOCK. (I have to go back when they are ~ sigh)

Dealers have 3 holy grails for exceptional service: Sales / Service / Parts. Disregarding brands, most typical dealers have 1 or 2 of these, but I'm yet to find one with all three!

Hence brands should monitor the total customer experience (Behind the scenes that the customer is not privileged to witness) - as it does impact the customer experience who will then judge if they should go back for a service or what brand of new car.

Why is this so hard these days ?

[dazzrael]

I dont know anything about manufacturer servicing and service standards, but i dont imagine it would be much different to the hotel industry (run by multinational corportations) and the hotel industry is no longer about service, its about revenue - pure and simple. service doesnt matter anymore, not really, they may say (publically) that it does, but it doesnt really.

Its all about bums on seats, in beds, and in cars and thats all that matters. Holden know that people will keep buying thier cars, and that a certain percentage of them will continue to bring them to dealers for service and that others wont. Its all just numbers to them and people dont matter anymore, thats just the way the world is these days unfortunately.

[CLUBRED]

I must be the only one who seems to be happy with what my dealer charges, although they seem to be stumped on how to fix my handbrake squeal on my VY wagon (they almost got it, but no cigar, it has to go back). My last service including a wheel alignment which I asked for was $258. I think I've paid over $400 once, thats when they stung me for new wiper blades (which I asked for) on my VE.

[LSavvy]

It's not so much the price it's the quality of service and knowledge that is lacking. If they can't fix a simple issue like the park brake what hope is there for anything more complex than that.