Hi guys,

I just had my girlfriend take her Lancer to the local stealership, Puente Hills Mitsubishi, for the 7500 mile service.

They had a special coupon for a full Synthetic Oil Change Service for $49.88 + Tax + Hazard Waste so I figured it's a great deal, given that they normally charge about $32-$38 just for dino oil and I'm sure the engine would appreciate the synthetic in the sizzling summer months in SoCal.

What I didn't know was that they charge freaking $35 for a simple tire rotation!

I guess now I know where I would get the tires rotated! .............................. NOT!

Think about it though, if they would overinflate the price just a little bit, like even $20, despite the fact most shops do it either free or for $10 at most, I would still do it there for the convinience, but at $35? Absolutely not. So at the end they might have got us this time but it'll be first and last time. Very bad business sense in my opinion.

They also refused to follow the TSB on the hard start issue. My girlfriend didn't mention the TSB but told them we have had several occasions of hard start when it's colder outside and they apparently just told her, they've done a 24 point inspection and all is fine! We got the original faulty black relays so at next service I intend to confront them with the TSB in hand and make them change the relays.



EDIT: Please read through the thread, it turns out the dealer actually didn't charge that high of a price as our tires are TPMS enabled and apparently this makes any work on tires a lot more expensive than ordinary tires. In light of this I think I will stick to my dealer for my future maintenance needs and hopefully I will be able to get them to replace the faulty relays when I confront them with the TSB in hand next time.

Dealerships suck... thats why I do my own services and tire rotations. They never get to see my car unless something breaks under warrenty. You need to find another dealership to go to if they are going to fix your hard start issue.

I bought the pre-paid maintenance package (dumb I know) from my dealership and I used my first coupon on my 5000 mile oil change......on the invoice it said 4.5 quarts of oil was $11 (how is this even possible?!?!?) and the tire rotation was $12.....the total bill was $34 with the oil filter and gasket and rotation...the coupon covered, but i thought that was insanely cheap....they also got oil on my engine cover...jerks

do you think they used the worst oil ever made or what?

are you totally daft?
35 bucks? do it yourself if its that easy. thats charging about .4 of an hour, and 35 bucks is MORE than reasonable.

Just as a crude example, Walmart Tire Center charges $1.50 per tire for that exact same job! That's $6 to the Mitsu dealer's $35! And of course then there is Pep Boys where they regularly feature coupons for free tire rotation with oil changes which are either at par or cheaper than Mitsu's oil changes.

It's not a matter of something being "easy" or not! My time is worth a lot more than to spend it on rotating tires but that's besides the point. The question is why should the Mitsu dealer overinflate by so much for simple maintenance work! I'd love to give my business to the dealer IF they were just a little more reasonable in their pricing.

think about what you said.

"wal-mart charges 1.50 per tire". Wal-mart. one of the (if not THE) biggest exploiters of cheap labor on the planet.

you get what you pay for. Wal-mart labor is not what I would ever call "well trained".
it would scare the hell out of me to even let one of their employees drive my car, much less work on it.

My husband worked at walmart part time during college.... you couldn't pay me to take my car there. The stories are horrible! They don't know jack about cars, like manybrews says, you get what you pay for!
And while dealership may be expensive, they at least know what their talking about. But then again you live in california.... everything is more expensive there.

I checked Walmart prices again and in all honesty they charge $6.50 / tire for TPMS enabled tires! Not sure why so much more than regular tires but whatever! That's $26 for four so in all honesty the $35 at the dealer doesn't feel all that bad at all!

:)

Yeah I think Wal-Mart actually forgot to add oil once during a change I did on an old winter beater. I constantly had issues with them installing unserviceable tires and once they friggen broke my headlamp housing brackets and didn't say anything until I got home and my headlamp fell out, lol. They ended up buying me two new headlamps, but man what a joke.

I don't even think there's a certified mechanic onsite, lol.

Heh heh.. You know what i paid for my 3k/3mo first service? 90 Bucks. For what? An oil change? and what else? no idea, they did not explain to me what they actually did to my car, i didnt get a receipt or no one explained to me how my car was doing. heh, and oh yea, my fast key broke and i brought it to them, they didnt fix it, just ignored it.

Does anyone know how to update the dashboard "Periodic Inspection" so that i can just do service myself.

SURE thats what happened.

it wasnt something like you shattered your 300 dollar key, and expect mitsu to pay for it, now, is it?

yeah I paid $12ish for my first oil change at 1k. Did it myself, there just is no subsitution for manual labor done your way. At least I know I put the oil in :laughing:

Turn off the car and press the info button until you see the service section (should be all ---'s), then just hold the info button. It will add 5000 miles and 6 months each time.

Oddly enough, I had the same problem... amazing what you can find in the manual :clap:

$12? I paid that much for the oil filter... curse you K&N and your high quality products! YARGH!

hehehe shattered my key!? The key itself just doesnt stick into the remote slot anymore. A spring and plastic piece kind of just blew up one day when i pulled it out THE CORRECT way when going to a car wash.

Settle down all you hot heads.

First off not all dealers are the same. Lots are in it for the money and are bad.

I have a good relationship with my dealer. I don't go in saying "you must find and fix this." I say "I noticed this please try to find it." I go and buy them ice cream or beers on a hot day (trust me as a mechanic you appreciate and remember that vehicle.) I don't give a s"it if they can't find what I said. I will just wait for it to happen more frequently and then show them.

For a 35$ rotation, it is charged per hour. This is reasonable for a dealer. Take it to a tire shop if you want it cheaper. Wal-mart will torque your tire wrong and most likely and warp rotors.

If there is no codes to print for a no start issue, then most dealers cannot claim warranty. So don't get mad when it happens every two months in the winter and will start after 5 mins. We have a huge warranty, they may catch it next winter.

I work at a heavy truck dealership and see this all the time. We, as trained technicians try to find the fault but sometimes info is not passed on correctly or it just won't fault for us and warranty won't pay for 4 hours searching for a "click" or whatnot.

Please give the dealers a break.

thank you.

if you go in thinking you're gonna get ripped off with a chip on your shoulder and an attitude, it shows.
no one will wanna help you. thats true for all aspects of life, not just visiting a car dealership.