And one more thing...that friendly person who greets you at the dealership service lane, the one who writes up your order and pretends to be your "friend" is most likely on commission, just like the scum bag that sold you the car in the first place. Only reason I take any of my cars back to a dealer is for a recall. And I now have two cars (2003 Mitsubishi and 1998 New Beetle) both with air bag lights on, which now won't pass Virginia safety inspection. Second time in a year the air bag light has been on with the New Beetle. I'll just keep the old low tech Vanagon!    Jeff 

Jeff Stewart 

----- "Don Hanson" <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote: 

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote: 

> Michael, for a dealership not to work on older vehicles is common.  For a 
> dealership that does work on older vehicles, it may not work on Vanagons. 
>  My local VW dealership long ago stopped servicing them, but given its 
> reputation for poor service and disdain for customers, that's no loss. 
> 

  Having your VW dealership tell you they won't work on your Vanagon....that 
is good.  You now won't ever be tempted to "just take it to the dealer...get 
the problem fixed..don't care how much they charge..Need the van fixed.." 

  I've never taken mine to a dealership, but I have done with other 
vehicles.  Once the warranty has expired, and most of the time while it was 
still valid, that has been a BIG mistake. 
 I don't think dealerships, at least the ones I have dealt with, know or 
care very much about what they are actually doing.  They are out of touch 
with their customers on repairs...They seem to be connected to the Parent 
Company and not to the customer. 
 Dealerships almost always seem to charge outrageously high hourly rates and 
to do many service tasks "by rote" rather than with any skill.  The 
underwriter "looks it up, writes it up and tells you what you will pay".. 
The Tech who does the work, he is thinking more about going wake boarding 
next Saturday than fixing your vehicle..and the Cashier down the hall is 
worried about her broken nail and can't be bothered to take your credit card 
right then.. 

  Consider it a good thing that dealership won't do anything to you..You 
won't be "tempted" to 'just take it to the dealer' so you won't be getting 
overcharged and under- repaired by them. 
  Don Hanson