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Issues like this are why I find it very hard to trust anyone else to work on my car. I do take my car to get detailed by an excellent businessman/owner here in Knoxville, TN. He does all of the work himself and does an excellent job, loves what he does and isn't afraid to let you watch him do it. Everything else I'll learn to do myself. I'll purchase self teaching books, manuals, watch videos on line and even work as an unpaid intern to learn as much as possible. I've had too many bad experiences by dealerships to ever trust them again. I took a 2002 Audi A6 2.7tt to the Volks/Audi dealership and told them to go through the car and let me know what they find that needs to be repaired to make it as safe as possible as I had purchased it for my son for his 18th bday 6 years ago. I specifically told them what ever it needed that I wanted to try to keep it under $7500. I made sure that they wrote it down and that I wanted them to replace both outboard cv joints on the front, as it was a Quattro, to replace inner and outer wheel bearings on the rear wheels because the right back was roaring and to replace the auxiliary water pump for the turbos. They quoted me $7392.00 for everything including a few interior pieces that had scratches on them. When I picked the car up everything was listed as being replaced and tuned up with quite a few other pieces replaced as well.
When I drove the car off of the lot I noticed the roar in the back was still there. I immediately took it back and was told that they had replaced the bearings but my tires were worn and they was causing the noise. I new better but to prove my point, I drove straight down the street and had the tires replaced and had an alignment done. Took the car back to the dealership and showed them so they agreed to look at it. They said that they had to replace the right rear outer bearing "again" as the one they had installed was bad. I had asked for the old parts before but was told that they had already gotten rid of everything. While the car was on the lift I looked at the front cv joints and noticed that they had not been changed either. I was told that in fact they were but that new joints don't come with new boots and they had to reuse my old ones. When the car was let down They parked it outside and while they were working up a fresh bill I removed the engine cowling and there was the same old auxiliary water pump. Pink florets still on it. I pointed that out and they told me that they apparently replaced the wrong water pump. They did nothing that they thought wouldn't have been seen from the outside. NOTHING! Two weeks later my left cv joint ripped out. Never again!!! If I can't do it then I'll trade cars and try again. Luckily I am a industrial mechanic so I have the tools or connections for the tools to do any kind of work. I'm still fighting that bill in court. I've paid more in legal fees than the job costed but at this point it's about principle. That's one problem of many I've had with trusting someone else to do the job. I know there are some very good garages out there but it's a toss up sometimes to actually get a mechanic that loves what he does. Therein lies the problem with business ownership. You have to trust the people you hire. If they don't love what they do then it will cost the owners reputation, not theirs. Good luck with your situation. I feel for you.
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