Katshot
Well-Known LVC Member
Did you know?
Have you ever heard of “Service Bulletins”? Most people have. They are basically memos from the OEM to their dealerships for the purpose of making them aware of certain operational idiosyncrasies of vehicles in their model lineup. They usually describe the “issue”, what vehicles are affected by it, and what the dealer should do to repair the problem. Sounds like a great idea huh? Well, it “could” be. That is if a list of these “issues” were made public so individual vehicle owners could take advantage of them and then have their vehicles repaired. Or if the dealership automatically checked all vehicles as they come in for these “issues” as thoroughly as they do for other “Customer Pay” items. I mean, how would you like to know that the weird noise you hear in your new Ford, GM, or whatever, is actually something that can be easily fixed and NOT just another idiosyncrasy that you must “live with”?
Ok, so THAT will never happen but, there IS something you can do that’s almost as good. When you go to the dealership, make sure to mention ALL the little issues you have noticed, you just might be surprised at how many are “known issues” and can easily be repaired. You can also pay for a list of the actual bulletins from a service like http://www.alldata.com/ if you want, or maybe even do a free search on http://nhtsa.gov/ if you like. It’s less comprehensive but it IS FREE !!
Have you ever heard of “Service Bulletins”? Most people have. They are basically memos from the OEM to their dealerships for the purpose of making them aware of certain operational idiosyncrasies of vehicles in their model lineup. They usually describe the “issue”, what vehicles are affected by it, and what the dealer should do to repair the problem. Sounds like a great idea huh? Well, it “could” be. That is if a list of these “issues” were made public so individual vehicle owners could take advantage of them and then have their vehicles repaired. Or if the dealership automatically checked all vehicles as they come in for these “issues” as thoroughly as they do for other “Customer Pay” items. I mean, how would you like to know that the weird noise you hear in your new Ford, GM, or whatever, is actually something that can be easily fixed and NOT just another idiosyncrasy that you must “live with”?
Ok, so THAT will never happen but, there IS something you can do that’s almost as good. When you go to the dealership, make sure to mention ALL the little issues you have noticed, you just might be surprised at how many are “known issues” and can easily be repaired. You can also pay for a list of the actual bulletins from a service like http://www.alldata.com/ if you want, or maybe even do a free search on http://nhtsa.gov/ if you like. It’s less comprehensive but it IS FREE !!
