British Columbia - Vancouver - Don Dockstaedter

[nelson]

So I bough a 97 850 AWD, it had been neglected for a few years, but it was cheap, and it has low mileage. Brought it to Dockstaedter to have it inspected and serviced. I'd noticed the ride wasn't as smooth as it should be and that the car was occaisonally hesitating on acceleration.

The only thing they found was unbalanced wheels and one bent rim. What they didn't find: Old spark plugs were causing the hesitating (why aren't those checked by default?), one rear shock was broken (took me a few days of driving afterwards to figure out what was broken) and even after fixing that the ride still isn't what it should be and they couldn't tell me why. On top of that the ABS light came on after I left there, don't know what they did to it. It stayed that way for a while but magically fixed itself when I brought it in for the spark plugs. Of course they didn't do anything to it.

So in summary: They were not able to find any of the faults themselves, I basically had to tell them exactly where to look, and they're expensive. I think I'll try some independant places next time.

[project_850]

Mods, please respell dealership name to "Don Docksteader"

The only reason I've ever brought my cars to Don Docksteader was because of convenience. It was close to work, and they had a great courtesy car program, which is now defunct--it used to be that they would loan you a nice newer Volvo while your car was being serviced, with a free full tank of gas. Beyond that, the service, technical know-how, and prices are absolutely ridiculous.

1994 Volvo 854T

Brought this car in because it developed a stalling problem at idle. I spent a week replacing everything from the fuel injector relay, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, and fuel filter before I relented and dropped off my car at the dealership. They assured me that they would be able to trace the problem and fix it. One day later, they told me to come in, handed me a $348 bill for the 4 hours they spent trying to figure it out, and the symptoms were still there. The car still stalled, and it wasn't until I figured out two days later that I had three loose spark plug wires on the cap that the problem finally went away.

1997 Volvo 855R

I get a phonecall from the guys at the dealership while doing a routine oil change and they told me that I have a coolant leak and that the heater core had to be replaced. My service advisor, Nelson, told me that my heater core was leaking. They wanted $1100 for the service, trying to tell me that "the whole dashboard had to come apart". A little bit of research revealed that only one kick panel had to come off, and the $1100 they wanted perplexed me thoroughly. To add insult to injury, I observed that it was a cooler line from the radiator that was leaking coolant--not the heater core! Needless to say, I replaced the radiator and thought to myself just how unscrupulous people can be if they don't think you're mechanically competent.

Two months later I decided to drop off the 850R again for what I thought would be a simple job. The e-brake was sticking, and I paid Don Docksteader $390 to fix the problem. The problem took a completely different turn, however...and my e-brake stopped working altogether! And here's the kicker. You see this dealership uses $10/hr "detailers" to wash customers' cars after their service appointment. As it turns out, my "detailer" decided to wash my windows with tire cleaner, leaving huge streaks of that garbage on my paint. Not only did I have to claybar, wax and polish the car to get it up to its former luster...when I brought the car back to have them re-do the e-brake job they messed up, they wanted $550 to fix it!

NEVER AGAIN.