Feldman Chevrolet of Novi

First I want to say that I am very disappointed with most dealerships with service. This is not the first dealership I ran into this situation. How ever this is the first time I found this site and I hope dealerships with service. This is not the first dealership I ran into this situation. How ever this is the first time I found this site and I hope everyone use this site so more people can be more informed and hold these dealerships accountable for their actions. I am sure I am not the only person that feels that they are getting ¡K.. (well you know what I mean) when we take our vehicle in for a repair. Probably one of the reasons most people hate to take their vehicles to dealers is $300 to replace one fog lamp and a side marker¡K (please this was another dealership not Marty Feldman, just stating a point that it only cost you $5 for the bulbs and an extra for each bulb and less than 15 min. Yes I can do this but I am busy so one would think if I drop the car off and just have the dealer swap few bulbs and I just pick up the car after work and pay them $30 for it¡K but wishful thinking) Sadly I have yet found a decent dealership that I can trust. Well the reason I took my car in for a repair is there is some noise issue coming from the serpentine belt. I don¡¦t know what part was the problem, but I had some idea. I work for an automotive company and have some knowledge on vehicles. I wish I had room, tools and time to work on the car myself, but unfortunately I can¡¦t. I don¡¦t mind taking my car in for a repair as long as it¡¦s reasonable. I understand we all have to make money. I dropped off my car at the dealer the night before. Got the call next day from the service and told me the problem was a Harmonic Balancer was wearing out the belts and possibly the tensioner pulley. So to replace everything the initial price is some where around $1200. First being that this vehicle is 1999 model year and that the serpentine belts on these vehicles are pretty much lifetime. Even with little wear they can go almost over 200k miles. So really don¡¦t need to replace the belt. So after a little discussing with the service advisor he said well let me check and call you back how much just to change the harmonic balancer. They are putting it down for 8hr labor service and $238 dollars for the harmonic balancer. I check the part service site and the retail price for the part is $162 and about 4.3hr is the standard work. The service adviser says that he has a sheet showing him that they need to drop the cradle, remove this and that. I look at the service manual it says nothing about dropping the cradle and the only big thing they need to remove is the power steering gear and the starter so they can have room to remove the Harmonic Balancer. At the end they come back to me with $760+ price tag for everything. This is the latest occurrence, last time they wanted to charge me $700+ for changing brake pads and sand down the rotors. The only reason I went back to them was I had another car that was under warrantee and they seem to be very nice. But I guess when it comes to your car out of warrantee it¡¦s a whole different world. I can¡¦t help but to wonder if even the Harmonic Balancer is really the problem. I am no expert but I do know some stuff about cars, now I just have to wonder how many people they try pull a fast one on who¡¦s car is out of warrantee. In fact now I am not even sure if I really need to change the Harmonic Balancer. More