And another complaint about the thin paint on these trucks.

I left my 1 yr + 9mo old truck at the dealer this morning for an $82 oil change (no coupons and I needed it done today). When I picked it up, as I was walking around to get in the truck, I gave the psgr side the once-over to see if they screwed anything up. Nothing there.

When I got around to the driver side, the attendant had already opened the door for me, so I didn't have a chance to notice the NICE LITTLE PAINT CHIP they put in my door.

Until today, I had gone 22 months without so much as a door ding or paint chip (other than a self-inflicted boo-boo in my tailgate - but that doesn't count because I did it and it was easily covered with a tailgate cap).

It had to happen. It had to lose its virginity sometime. I figured it would happen in a Home Depot parking lot or grocery store. It just ticks me off that it was at the dealer where I just spent a ridiculous amount for a simple oil change. One would think that a dealer would have at least the slightest extra measure of care to protect the paint on the vehicles it services -NOT!

And, I finally got a chance to see what everyone else was saying about this paint - MAN, is it thin? Hopefully this wound won't start spreading.

 

Never really thought of a truck as having a virginity...

 

Nobody loves your truck like you do. It is your baby. To the dealers, your truck is just another piece of iron with which they can make money on.

That is why I change my own oil and service my truck myself.

Last weekend, I spent several hours...changing oil and filter, fuel filter, tranny fluid, transfer case fluid, and front and rear diffs for my 30,000 mile service. I enjoyed every minute of it. And I know it was done right, even if it did take me quite a while to do it.

I don't want to take my truck to the dealer for anything...if I don't have to. But I did go to get my front end realigned after adding new tires and had my pinion factor reset for the larger tires....and I thought they did a good job. I am not knocking dealers.......But the truth is they don't LOVE your truck. ONLY you do.

 

Mine must be real with that 6" tip on it.

I know what you mean about other people and your truck. I don't let too many people near my truck. My wife hates to take the truck into town because we park out in the middle of nowhere so I don't get any door dings. So far I have none.

 

I read an artice this week that Nissan is planning to introduce "scratch resistant" paint on thier truck this year. It supposedly can "self heal" from minor nicks and dings. Guess if it works, cool deal.

On dealers, when I owned a 325i BMW a few years ago, the dealer charged $29.99 for a seven-quart oil change, washed the car & cleaned the windows, vacummed out the interior, and a few times, even gave me a loaner car to drive if they knew it would take over 30 minuites. This, on a nine year old car that I didn't buy from them and with no warranty!

As far as scratches on my truck, I don't set out to put them there, but it is a '96 with 304k on it .. and it's a truck.

 

Are they still in business?

 

My truck was trashed in the Nevada sage brush and mountain mahogany chasing wild mustangs and hunting derr and elk. It earned every scrape and scratch and wears them proudly.
Now she's a broken down old with a blown engine, but theres a lot of good memories in those scratches and Nevada Pinstriping

 

Door dings/scratches bite, but it could be worse............my Mom and Dad had sold their house to go full timing in their new motorhome, it was due for its first oil change before leaving on the 6 month trip in which they were taking before taking posssesion of their new condo. They took it to Ford dealership to get the v10 serviced, they drained the oil, replaced the filter, and drove it about half way around the service shop before the engine seized. This was on a Wednesday, they had to give up possesion of their sold house on the coming Friday, and everything they had kept out of storage was already packed in the motorhome. The only good thing was the way the dealership treated them after, they put them up in a nice hotel, paid for all meals and a rental car, had an engine pulled off the assembly line and sent a driver 250 miles to pick up the engine from the parts warehouse instead of waiting the 3 days for it to be delivered. It took 8 days to make the required repairs and they were on their way, with extra cargo, a funnel, drain pan and a grease gun to do it themselves. For some reason Mom said it was hard to get the dirt out from under her manicure?

 

I feel for ya.

My truck doesn't go anywhere that I don't go.
I had new tires put on the rear of the Dually this past Monday, I pulled it into the bay, stood right beside the guy doing my tires, had him set the tire pressure to my specs, showed him what "Clocking" the rear wheels means
(I was surprised he didn't know, and I feel sorry for all the other owners of dually trucks this guy had worked on.),
and backed it out after watching him re-check the torque on the rear lug nuts.

 

All of these stories make me wonder about purchasing their 600 dollar 7yr\28 oil change package...... Oh well saves me quite a bit of cash and some time I guess....

 

Ditto: I have an old truck but I have a lot of sweat equity in it. When I had to have a valve stem replaced I did not give the local tire guy my key to have his Mexican tire guy drive it into the bay. When the owner saw my truck he said OH now I know why you wont let us drive it. "Nice Truck"

 

Don't feel bad. I had my truck about 5 days and when I took it to dealer for batt. temp sensor issue they dinged it on pass side under mirror. They agreed to have a paintless body guy repair it but after looking at he coul;dn't get his tool in because the existing holes in door jam weren't in the correct loctaions to access ding. he said he could do it but would have to drill a hole in door jam to get his tool in location he wanted. I passed sisnce I didn;t want a hole in door jam, so I still have a small ding in door. Oh well, *&%$ happens!!!!

 

All my work has been performed at the dealer. I have no complaints.

 

...Ok I give up...what is "clocking"??? I can only imagine it's a term for lining up the valve stems.

 

Just where do you think Dakota's and concept trucks come from? You should never leave your truck unattended in a parking lot for long periods of time and you should always park under a light. You just never know what your gonna come out to.