Dealership maintained vehicles

[The Critic]

Dealerships tend to prescribe more service and many people who use them get items done earlier than Indy mechanics and self.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Dealership techs are familiar with the vehicles and are familiar with their issues, so they tend to recommend repair or maintenance of items at the earliest opportunity (even if it is not to the owner's benefit). As a result, those vehicles tend to be better maintained assuming the owner purchases all of the recommended work.

 

[Leo99]

Some of us value our free time away from the stress of the jobs that enable us to pay $100 or more an hour to have the maintenance and repairs done on our vehicles.

I went through 3 phases in my life. I hope to have a 4th phase. First phase I was poor and wanted to learn car repair and maintenance so I did it myself. Then I got some money and decided to pay for it. Then I realized I liked doing it and they charge so much and I feel huge sense of satisfaction doing it myself. Hopefully, I live long enough to get a 4th phase where I'm too old to do it. I'm 58 now and the idea of paying someone replace a water pump is looking pretty good. LOL.

Something that occurred to me this morning is how so many people have ingrained a thought process. Reading about how some folks change their oil every 3000 miles because that's what they've always done or that is what they were taught or learned at a young age. People have a lot of preconceptions. Some won't trust oil in their car longer than what they are comfortable with. Where that comfort zone came from is moot. There is no changing it. Same with people that feel a car with over 100k miles is unreliable. Hence when their car gets close to 100k miles or just over and needs brakes, tires, etc. They ditch it and buy a new car. And the same with this topic. Some folks have it ingrained to take their car to the dealership for service and do whatever service the dealer recommends. They are doing all the recommended PM, taking care of any small problems before they become big problems, and they are doing things on time. And they have it ingrained that car maintenance and repairs are expensive. Their cars last long time and run very well. Nothing magic happens at the dealership.