I see new cars have like two years of free oil changes etc… Has anyone ever tried showing up at the dealership with your car, showed the odometer, asked for you free oil, filter crush washer and drove away, or will they not let you do that? Meaning the maintenance is only free at the dealership on new cars if dealership techs perform the maintenance?
Just wondering here.
That’s a very interesting question. My Corolla came w/a one-year (IIRC) “bumper to bumper” warranty, which covered things not usually covered, like light bulbs. The dealership was pretty good about that. I did have to buy one interior bulb myself, at a different vendor, b/c for some reason all of the ones installed by the dealership would fail within months. Thy must have got a stock of bad parts.
Yea I wonder if they “had to” install the bulb and can’t simply just hand you the bulb
My wife’s Saab had free oil changes for 3 years. I used to send 5 quarts of full synthetic in with the car because they used synthetic blend.
The manufacturer offers this service for a couple of reasons. 1) To make sure the oil gets changed on time to get the car past the warranty period. And 2) To allow the dealer to install any firmware updates to the car without inconviencing the owner with a seperate trip.
So you are not getting the free parts… that is a hard No
Seriously . the dealer has to do the free oil changes and document the work . date and mileage . If they gave you the oil and filter that will void the warranty .
The dealer must perform the services in order to get paid from the manufacture.
If the dealer did give you two free oil filters, what would stop you from going to the next dealer and asking for free oil filters, then driving to a third dealer and redeeming the manufacture provided maintenance?
Ask your salesperson for two oil filters at the time of sale, they will only cost the sales department $5 each and won’t void the warranty.
I always bought my cars used, except for the rav4, and the dealer always agreed to my request for 2 year free oil change as part of the deal.
However, in order for them to honor me this deal, I must bring the car to them for the free oil change ( to that specific dealership).
They would give me a new bulb if that’s what I wanted. Otherwise they’d install it for me too. Either way, the new bulb would stop working in short order. Decided later to just ask for the bulb, b/c the tech’s uniform was a little greasy.
Times have changed in the last 30 years since you had a new car warranty, on anything…
I’ll add 3) so they can up-sell you on other things that you “need.”
And that.
That’s a good point, but even then, dealerships weren’t handing free parts over their counters. I’m not completely sure at this point which of my cars this pertained to, but I’m pretty sure that it was my '92 Accord, which needed to have a bulb replaced during the warranty period. I asked for a free replacement bulb at the parts counter, and I was informed that I had to go to the service desk in order to have them replace the bulb.
While they did the bulb replacement while I waited, it still took a lot more waiting time in their “lounge” than it would have taken for me to do it myself.
No dealer will let you do that.