Well the Dodge hit 90K miles today, still running strong as ever, but time was due for a little routine maintenance. For starters, I got an oil change and a tire rotation. They keep asking if I want the ‘high mileage’ oil. I figure maybe after 100K I’ll consider it or go Synthetic. Then I see them rotating the tires, they make a point to show me some scratches on one wheel so I don’t blame them. I then notice that they’re installing my unidirectional tires wrong. I point this out and they promptly fix the problem. Then I make sure they haven’t added any air to the tires past 30psi. Anything higher and the tires start to go bald quicker than the first row at a Bingo hall. The tires were still warm from the drive over so they didn’t make any changes. I had also wanted them to do a flush and fill on the transmission, however they don’t swap the filter out when they do that. The service department at Warwick Dodge however will do the flush and fill, as well as swap the filter for a haughty $200 fee. I’ve always dropped the pan, drained the fluid, swapped the filter, and added new fluid. I never considered the full flush/clean/fill where they actually replace all 16 quarts of fluid, but figured ‘why not.’ So 45 minutes turned into an hour, then 1.5 hours. When the guy finally finishes it, after hearing the service department make fun of the mistakes the quick-lube has made (they called it the Spooky-Lube), the guy tells me he added air to my tires, that they were low. He tells me he inflated the tires to 35lbs. I just about flip my shit, tell him “DON’T YOU READ THE DOOR? THE FIELD SERVICE MANUAL?†He lets the air back down to 30lbs after I make it clear that the R/T Intrepid and the ES Intrepid are two entirely different cars. When I first picked this car up, every place I had it serviced put 35lbs in the tires, which resulted in a brand new set of bald Good-Years after 12K miles. Now I watch it religiously as these tires are EXPENSIVE (225 series 17†tires are never cheap) and I don’t feel like swapping them out every 20K miles. I guess you really can’t win, every dealership I go to either makes mistakes or is full of idiots. So far Warwick Dodge has done right by me, but today I left just plain annoyed. Car still runs nice though. Suresky’s is alright, but they act like I have no clue about my car. 6 months ago they told me I needed new brakes because “they were shot.†At 70K miles they told me the car was due for a timing belt (which is due to be changed at 100K miles along with the water pump). Thankfully the guy got used to me bringing my car there for service and realized I wasn’t buying any of the sales pitches. The pinnacle of stupidity still lies with Franklin Sussex Auto Mall who tried to tell me that my screaming power-steering pump ‘was normal.’ Tell that to someone who hasn’t owned 4 different Chrysler’s and maybe they’ll believe it. On top of all that, I walked over to Bagel Time at the Shop Rite Plaza in Warwick, asked for an onion bagel with lochs and cream cheese. They gave me a bagel with lochs flavored cream cheese. I just took my bagel, shook my head, and left. TGIF.
