Car dealership ripoff: Hidden-camera investigation

Fasten your seat belts, is your car dealer ripping you off for twelve hundred dollar service? They are recommending none of which was necessary. We are undercover. You are missing everything. Tire rotation. Insider secrets, you have to sell them more, they're coming in for an oil change, you're upselling someone. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of why you are recommending a service that is not necessary on the vehicle. This is your market at some point. I want to drop my car off, but when you take it to the

dealership

to get it checked first, I was coming here, yeah, I just got it, how do you know what they recommend?

Well, that's what it really takes to find out. We're recruiting Jessica Selsey. You really don't know who to trust when it comes to fixing your car with your newly purchased 2008 Honda Civic. This is our bait car. We first asked Jessica to bring it to this shop for a pre-inspection. by Licensed Mechanic Mark Whitten Hi, nice to meet you, nice to meet you, have you had any problems with it? Are there lights on? No, nothing, no noise, no, none at all, so it is a completely reliable starter, it is working fine, yes, after carrying it out. a test drive that begins once an instructor Winton is now a vehicle safety advocate the verdict change the wiper blades rotate the tires that should be Jessica is ready to check out what this Toronto Honda dealer recommends well according to my past experience with

dealership

s um you know I have a feeling they are going to try to upsell me and Jessica is not alone.

We're hearing similar concerns about upselling from dealers across the country, including Kathy Knight. Oh, that's the way to the park. Kathy likes to take her grandson Joe with her. Ottawa in her 2011 Ford Fusion, there's the arch she just passed when her car needs to be repaired. She and her husband Craig always take him to the dealership. Why is it important for you to go to the dealer for maintenance? They know the car. The best and I simply have confidence in them. You develop a relationship. You depend on them to give you advice. When they give you advice, you take it last fall.

Kathy needed snow tires put on, so Craig makes an appointment online with her dealership, but get this first. even when inspecting your car you get an email telling you that the factory required maintenance also needs to be done and that you were changing the spark plugs on the intake manifold gasket and changing the transmission fluid, the PCV valve and holy cow, stuff worth 1200 dollars. to put on snow tires and an oil change time to get a second opinion custody absolutely unequivocally requires less service so how do I know when I go to the dealership what maintenance I really need?

Oh, that's easy, you go to your car, yeah, get out. your owner's manual you pull out the owner's manual and here is the required maintenance schedule, it will be exactly what needs to be changed, what exactly needs to be inspected, these people designed and built the car, they are the source of information when try to maintain the car what the manufacturer suggests in the owner's manual for maintenance and what the dealer suggests are two different things in Momo cases yes that's right they will tell you that you need more maintenance than your car really needs In some cases some maintenance procedures your car isn't needed at all, so what's with that list of what Kathy's dealership says she needs?

I wouldn't bother changing it. It is a lifetime product. Now the spark plugs on this car, according to the owner's manual, are good for a few percent. sixty thousand kilometers she's nowhere near that automatic transmission fluid change no, well that's a long list and you just said no to a lot of things, yes, absolutely, so what's happening here is that the service advisor is trying to sell a lot to this woman. more work than he needs in Ottawa Craig decides they will stick to what is recommended in the owner's manual, but the dealer pushes back telling him that the manual describes normal driving conditions.

Here in Ottawa we have special driving conditions due to the owner's harsh climate. The manual says nothing about special conditions in Ottawa or any other particular city, geographic area, or country, and it says nothing about cold weather, but it's too late for Kathy and Craig. Did you make the spark plugs? Finally, several months later, how do you feel about it now that I was stupid and was fooled because this says right here on what's on your car 100,000 miles, yeah, that's another two or three years of driving despite knowing better. ? I still did it because they recommended me and they kind of planted that little seed of doubt and you think, well, maybe they do know what they're talking about.

Dealers in Canada can earn on average only between one thousand and two thousand five hundred dollars per new one. automobile sales, so its service centers have become important money generators. Go again with our undercover test Jessica Selsey checks in at Parkway Honda. I signed you up for a mental inspection. She checks the brakes. Suspension. Exhaust lights. Fluid inspection. Well, a couple of hours later. Jessica arrives. a phone call from an assistant service manager at Parkway Honda I had the tax do an inspection of the car for your peace of mind, it's okay the only thing he wanted me to talk to you about is your brakes, there is a road test on the vehicle and every time you were braking you felt some vibration, the vibration you are duplicating is coming from the brake drums, they are overheated and warped so what I was suggesting is to replace the rear brake drums and brake shoes with parts and labor that could. be about 621 plus tax wow thats something i can think of ok thanks everyone right now 621 dollars to replace your rear brakes they also recommend another 112 dollars for a brake fluid flush if you change them now I would change them a little early, they have 40 left and that could take another six months, it could take a year depending on the way you drive and I didn't notice anything when driving the car.

I didn't notice it either when I removed the battery, everything seemed perfectly normal. For that age, a break, but there is something critical: the dealer does not mention the largest recall in automobile history. Metal fragments from the ammonium nitrate capsule that exploded inside the Takata airbags killed at least 14 people and injured more than 180, including a metal fragment that pierced this woman's face. In 2013, while she was driving her Honda Civic, I took the trash can out of her car and ran it through the Honda system. His car has a passenger side airbag made by Takata that needs to be replaced.

Wow, why wouldn't they have mentioned it? That to me basically said it would do everything but safety, which in my opinion should include an airbag, which is the number one safety issue your car is facing right now, it's not the rear brakes, it's the recall. the airbag, so not for him. mention that it is amazing for me to come back to pick up your car, maybe they will tell you about the recall in person, the same assistant service manager on the phone call are the results of your inspection, but under any pending recall, incredibly, it is verified , No.

Jessica gives him another chance to acknowledge the first three or four times. I asked him if there was anything wrong with the car or if it had any other safety issues besides the brakes, he said no but then without having to look it up he finally said oh yeah I think there is a recall and then he mentioned that he didn't have the spare and that he would have to book me a later date, which makes me sick because now I am driving a car that is unsafe for both me and my passengers, we contacted this assistant service manager for an explanation, but we received no response, why wouldn't a dealership tell a customer this?

The dealership has this business relationship that is special based on the contract with the manufacturing facility in that agreement that they have. getting the job done at a much lower price do you think that ever influences dealerships telling people about recalls? He also influenced Parkway Honda for weeks. We have been asking Parkway Honda to appear on

camera

to explain why they have been recommending Jessica get service. She doesn't need it but don't tell her about the service that if she needs it well they told us that they are going to do an internal

investigation

but they don't talk to us on

camera

that's what they said we are going to chat with them, the service manager, Arapassian, stops me on the door, not allowed with cameras, says private property, ok but do you have an answer as to why they aren't telling you about the recall please?

But still, you know that's not an answer to the question of why they're not telling you about a recall still not an answer the upsell continues a power theory push the direction your direction you know it's probably going to get tighter. that's funny it's like it's totally made up this is your market the real deal at dealerships we We're undercover again testing the advice you get at dealership service centers. Bait car number two, a 2013 Jeep Wrangler, the owner Eric works for us and for months he has been receiving emails telling him to bring the Jeep in for repair so we asked him to make an appointment here in Toronto Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram good morning what will this service advisor recommend check your owner's manual Eric says it can take up to 10,000 miles or 12 months before the oil change message appears there is no message and it has only been eight months Just over two thousand miles since Eric missed his oil change, his evaluation is not over yet, it will take a couple of hours for his technician to perform an inspection.

In the meantime, we want to get some inside information, so we tracked down a former service advisor. willing to share trade secrets when you're your service advisor you're a salesman that's how you make a good living so you have to sell them more they come in for an oil change you're selling more someone Lucas lung worked at six different dealerships we featured him on one way and let them know that this is what you should do if you don't do it what's going to happen I'm a customer coming in, what do you say to me right out of the door?

Hey, so I see you're here for an oil change today. In reality, you have 150,000 miles and are due for a timing belt and coolant flush. You can do it, it's up to you, but if you don't, what happens is the belt can wear out and when it wears out, you know that this could cause the engine to overheat or cause even more problems in the future. Was there ever anything at the dealership that looked different than what the owner's manual said in terms of a schedule? You would have a little dashboard that shows you what to do at what miles, but then there are no things on the side that do recommend, what is suggested, you know, recommended but not necessary, for example, unloading the power steering, Throttle body service, transmission flush. accumulate x amount of numbers each month and get paid based on that, meanwhile Toronto Chrysler inspection is completed once a year for an oil change is not acceptable is not acceptable we show the images to Mark Winton wants you your warranty continue with your transmission you have to keep up with your oil changes if they ever ask you if you have a problem with the transmission they are not going to guarantee the truth of the matter is that you can avoid your warranty if you do not follow the scheduled maintenance Chrysler The advice is not hers.

This person says they know they need to change the oil every three months. No, this goes against what Chrysler says to do with its own product. The service advisor lists his other recommendations. You are missing everything you need for tire rotation brake inspection. brakes she really doesn't know that we are also going to ask Mark Whitten to do his own inspection of the Wrangler, so does she need brakes? I would not do that. I would wait another year or two, given how much this car is driven. there is no noise, the brakes are full power, they are worn, yes they are half worn, but the owner is going to get another one, you know, a year or two after this, no problem, the service advisors are not finished, we need an alignment, okay?

I need to replace your filters, a lot of things you guys need to do. Your air filter should be replaced once a year. I just inspected this car, it does not need an alignment, the air filter does not need to be replaced once a year according to the maintenance schedule again overselling there is a conflict of interest in this business and it is something

hidden

people do not know that they work on commission but they know it I would say 90of these dealers work on commission how much of your salary could end up being on commission more than 50 percent more than 40 percent actually one of the dealers I worked for had 100 commission was it an incentive to sell something that was not necessary or It wasn't necessary at that time yes, I would definitely say it.

Having a commission of 100, I was very nervous like every day because you don't know how much you are going to earn. Some clients may not necessarily need it right away, but they are obligated to because of how I advise them. Just like I put it on the table behind the dealership, your spark plugs or Doom plugs are basically the brain of the vehicle, if something goes wrong the first thing we're going to check is a spark plug, well we check the spark plugs in the owner's manual and it says that Eric's doesn't need to be changed for another 107,000 kilometers or six years plus a flush power steering, your steering you know will probably get tighter because it needs to be washed for that mileage right now, they don't recommend washing it and As for these other things, the steering could be tightened more, that's great, I mean, it's funny, it's like it's totally made up, think about it, okay, just don't Don't wait too long if you have any questions, just call me.

We have questions. We called and emailed but this service advisor is not responding. We also contacted the dealership but getting responses from Toronto Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram has been difficult. part, so we'll pay them a visit, ask general manager Dave Dodds in person, hey, how are you okay, how are you okay? I'm David from CBC Marketplace David. I'm sorry this is private property, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to go. I can go, but I'm just trying to get to the bottom of why you recommend a service that isn't necessary on a vehicle or why you recommend a service more often than the manufacturer.

Do you have any idea why you recommend that service that often makes their service advisors work on commission? Yes, the dealership is owned by Auto Canada based here in Edmonton with 65 franchises nationwide. It is one of the largest automobile dealer groups in the country. Canada we did a little research and discovered that so far this year they have earned more in service than in sales of new and used cars combined, we asked for more information, they will not appear on camera, but the president of autocanada writes to us. and he says that he applauds the manufacturer's maintenance program without explaining why his dealership doesn't use it.

Will the government take strong action if someone is found guilty? The penalty can range from a fine to jail time. Potentially, this is your Market. Get more Market. Subscribe to our. Weekly newsletter on cbc.ca Marketplace this is your Marketplace caught on camera. As I understand it, I was supposed to bring it in for regular maintenance. Aggressive upsell. They are missing everything. How would they not have even mentioned the recall if this happens? Is there someone? protecting you to find out. I am turning to Ontario's watchdog, the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. Hi Harry, this is David from the CDC.

Pleased to meet you. Pleased to meet you. Spokesman Harry Mally. What does the law say about a repair shop that tells you that you need to do it? do something before you need to do it or you don't even need to do it at all repair shops cannot offer services that are not necessary that means it is illegal it could be in violation of consumer protection law so they can't You will be fooled if it is a service that is not necessary, they cannot be like that, it is necessary to repair your car, what is the range of your power to penalize if someone is found guilty?

The penalty can range from a fine to potentially jail time. you can get to that point, yes, a dealership would say this is the work you need to do and then we would go to experts and they would tell us no, you don't need to do it. Your brakes may last months or maybe another year sooner. they need to be changed so in those cases we want those consumers to contact us if there was a violation that we want to know about so we can do something about it and we can find bad actors that may be there so I need help from consumers to make us aware.

I think that when I go to buy a car, I am aware that the seller earns a commission. That's how they make money. I think many people would be surprised to know that there are many service advisors. The people you come and meet also receive a commission and are essentially incentivized to upsell you. We want consumers to be aware that they have those rights and they need to know that when they go to these technicians, whether they get a commission or not. They cannot offer you services you do not need and we can investigate that if they feel some of your rights were violated.

I've worked for brands that really focus on customer service like 100 Customer Service, no it's really not necessary. sell sell sell sell I mean it's good so there are good guys out there yes absolutely I've worked with amazing companies so what can you do to prepare yourself if you go to the dealership before you go look at the mileage on your car? see how many miles it has, then take a look at the owner's manual, go to the maintenance section and see what is required at that mileage or a little before that mileage or months and once you know what it is, go straight to that service advisor and Say I want these things done and what if they push you back?

If they push you back, you walk out the door. A tip Jessica Selsey could use from our first test with the bait car. She has been receiving notices in the mail from Parkway Honda that she needed spark plugs. shocks, things like that even though my car was there and just got inspected but nothing about the Takata airbag, if it wasn't for Marketplace I wouldn't have known there was a recall on my car today she is taking it to a totally different state Honda dealership to finally replace that airbag, finally what a relief having people in my car with passengers stressed me out so much that I didn't realize how much driving in traffic bothered me until now I finally did it .

My car is safe, yes, we are inside the farmers markets, the homegrown ones, are they yours then or is that all? The local people in the market don't know if they are buying that food and they lie to them, are you really buying? Straight from the farm, we followed the trail. Consumers pay a premium for your product because they think you grew it. Are you scamming people?