Thank you for the responses. Several have questioned whether my car had any misfires etc. No it is running smoothly. Also I had a major service at 37,000 miles at the Subaru dealership and the car now has 44,000 miles on it. I called Subaru (Bill Bryan) to check this out and they said no I didn't need it.

Yes, was told same thing at the tire place behind steak and shake on 466 by the charter school... Had it checked at dealer and was told did not need anything like that. I do not trust them people.

jimbo has the right idea. An easy DIY thing.

Auto Service
 

I agree with Skip. Try Tri-County Automotive Service. They are the most honest people you will ever deal with and the service is great. Since we found them a couple of years ago several of our neighbors have also started to use them.

Second Opinion
 

If you have any doubts about the recommended services, get a second opinion from one of the automotive shops that were mentioned in this forum. This upsell type of recommended services is common place in the business today. You must find a shop that you are comfortable with and even then if services are recommended that you are uncomfortable with, get a second opinion.

I went to the Tire Choice in Spanish Springs (441) a month ago for an oil change and was told I needed the fuel cleaning service also at same price - declined at the time - they just sent me letter stating I should have done as soon as possible.
Scare tactics in full gear!!!!
I did have my battery die a couple of weeks after visit - maybe they should have checked that - may have been able to sell me a battery that I did need. The battery was 4.5 years old.

I remember as a young man taking my car to a similar place as Tire Choice. I went on to work and about an hour later got a call "Sir you really need new shocks on your vehicle..." I told the gentleman no thanks as I had new shocks put on my car just a month ago. In addition, I had a few words with the management when I went to pick my car up. I have never forgot that experience. BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!

I'm in pal. It would be pretty cool to help folks out with their automotive questions, especially if it saves them money and gives them peace of mind.

:a040:

Sounds like a great service to me----providing automotive repaid consulting. Is it going to be FREE! Hey, Tire Choice has to pay for that nice new building and equipment some way. Unfortunately, this is in my opinion the wrong way to get repeat TV customers. I suspect this is a corporate policy and just like "negative ads" it works! :ohdear:

Correct overhead taxes pay roll workmans comp insurance water utilities. I see the same in landscaping. People go with the cheap and sometime the cheap never comes back.

Automotive Service and preventative maintenance is necessary. However NOT POPULAR. Pwoplw will pay 15 k for landscape and not pay for injection service or better synthetic oil or the correct doeefficient of brak pad material vs the cheap pads.

It's all relatative and dollars and cents now a days.

Excellent points. I might stop in and talk to the Service Writers and ask them to re think their sales Pitch. Or it makes for a interesting topic on my Saturday Radio Show.

In defense of Tire Choice at Colony, I went in for the VHA special, oil change, filter, tire rotation and complimentary 17 point inspection for $19.95. When finished, I paid $19.95 (plus tax) with no upselling.

:ho: Good post CarGuys! You are correct especially about preventative maintenace. My father managed a Full-service Standard Oil Station shortly after losing his coal mining job to closure. He taught me a lot about car maintenance. Of course, the vehicles today are so sophisticated that most of us won't touch them with a 10' pole. And rightfully so. PS When is your radio show on?

I have purchased 3 Toyota's from Phillips and have used their service facility for all of them. To my knowledge they have not done any upselling so I am happy with their service department. Just wanted to throw that in here.

John

Here Is Another One
 

I recently took my 2010 Toyota Camry in for an oil change at 30,000 miles. When the service was complete I was told I needed 4 new tires and they can put them on right now for the special price of $950.00. I said no not at this time as I wanted to check on better pricing. The service person did not want to hear that. I also asked the question as to why I can get 60,000 miles on my Ford F-150 tires and only 30,000 on my car. He stated that Toyota users a softer compound in there OEM tires to give a smoother ride. I took the bill to the window and was on my way.

The Camery comes with tire pressure monitor sensors that will tell you if a tire is low in pressure. A few days after the oil change an idiot light comes on telling me a tire is low in pressure. I check all the tires and find that 3 of the 4 are at 30 psi while the other is at 28 psi. This is enough to trigger the idiot light to come on so I just add air and the light goes out.

The real interesting thing is that Toyota recommends the tire pressure to be 34 psi in the tires for this model and size and I had just checked them about 2 weeks before having the oil change and there were checked cold and with a highly accurate gage. At that time all the tires were at 34 psi.

Now it is possible that the tires could lose air but 3 lost to exactly 30 psi and the forth to 28. Not likely. My feeling is that the tech dropped the pressure just enough to cause the light to go on so that I would be back for replacement tires. Not a chance, I will go elsewhere.

I have been driving the car now for over 4 weeks since the oil change and I checked the tires and they are all at exactly 34 psi.

Another attempted rip off.

The crooks always go after the things that are easy to accomplish and charge a bundle. It's usually new tires, shocks, belts, filters, flushes, sensors, batteries, etc. You can perform these task in little time. The fact that they only want to replace the rear shocks is a warning. The front is much harder to replace. I believe most knowledgeable mechanics will tell you to replace all four at the same time. I would never let a tire shop touch my engines.