When you go into a car dealership for repairs, does the person at the front desk who writes up the job order get a commission based on how much work or windshield wipers he can talk you into?
During an oil change at a national auto service chain, the mechanic kept asking me if I wanted a new filter for this, if I needed new fluid in that, did I want the extra special additive, etc. He told me that he wasn’t paid commission. Before going in for the change my step-dad (car guy) told me I didn’t need anything other than an oil change, so not to worry about whatever the guy told me.
When I got home I asked my step-dad if the mechanic was telling the truth about not getting commission. He said that it could be true that that mechanic didn’t get commission, but there were probably certain sales goals or quotas that the store needed to reach (which would have an impact on the mechanic’s pay).
My guess is that it varies with each shop and dealership.
Ok, national service centers have goals for their managers and they get ranked and reveiwed based on how they do versus other stores.
Take a muffler type shop that advertises oil changes for $11.95, or free brake pads. These are ways to get you in to sell you more services. It’s not likely you’ll get just an oil change, and free brake pads aren’t worth all that much. They need to get you off the street and into their shop. The manager is driving this behavior.
But no commision in as much as it is the mgmnt team trying to save their asses by boosting sales.
At a dealership, their is no commission, but front liners are encouraged to sell X on top of Y, and then convince them to come back for Z. The position at the desk of dealer service center is manned mostly by ex mechanics and is seen as very desirable by their peers, and they in no way want to go back to being a grease monkey. This alone is all the motivation they need.
There is a certain culture at a dealership or national chain that keeps the manager and desk front liners motivated to keep up revenue and follow any push the senior management team wants: You don’t want to be back in the garage.
I’m asking because my son is a student and doesn’t have a lot of money. He went into the dealership for an oil change and walked out with a bill for $580.00. They told him he needed new tires (which he probably did), a front-end alignment, plus the misc charges, disposal fee, etc. He says he likes the guy there and asked him if he should go somewhere else. He told him it wouldn’t be much less somewhere else. I get tires at Wal-Mart as well as oil changes. I don’t think he needed a front-end alignment because the car only has 56,000 city miles. He has a 2001 Honda Civic. Am I irritated about nothing or was he overcharged?
It depends on the make and type of tire, which are always a bit pricier at dealerships.
As for the alignment, it’s probable that he needed at least a check, if one hadn’t been done yet. City miles are hard miles on an alignment - lots of turning.
I’d chalk it up to a bit of an overcharge on tires plus normal maintenance. You probably paid about $150 too much.
My understanding is that service writers at dealerships are paid at least partly on commission. While some service writers might be former mechanics, the great majority in my experience are not, and are not qualified to work as mechanics. Most mechanics earn significantly more than than service writers, and most do not aspire to become service writers.
At the chains, some mechanics may get a commission on parts they sell, but what’s probably more common is they get a bonus of sorts based on their weekly sales figures. So it’s usually not a direct commission, but they have a personal financial incentive to sell, and sometimes that translates into their pushing customers to buy things that aren’t really needed.
It’s hard to know that an alignment is not needed. Certain tire wear patterns, pulling significantly to one side, or a steering wheel significantly off center generally indicate a need for wheel alignment, but the absence of these symptoms doesn’t prove the alignment is correct. The only way to know for sure is to put the car on the alignment machine and take measurements, at which point you’re halfway there. It’s standard practice to recommend an alignment with new tires, as it’s a relatively inexpensive safeguard against having those new tires get messed up within a few thousand miles from misalignment.
So while the fees at the dealership were probably higher than at Wal-Mart, the repairs mentioned were reasonable assuming the tires were not in very good shape. Generally dealerships offer only high quality parts and have well-qualified personnel, which partly explains their pricing.