Maintenance Items

[MBailey]

Happy Holidays To All!

Recently we have been receiving alot of skepticism from our customers regarding certain items that we recommend as part of our 30,000 mile scheduled maintenance packages, such as the transmission fluid and coolant change at 30,000 miles. Our carline (High-line Asian) only specifies an "Inspection" of the coolant and trans fluid at 30,000 miles. We are in Houston where the driving conditions are brutal and leaving coolant/tranny fluid in for 60K miles is asking for trouble. The vehicles are not equipped from the factory with extended life fluids. Does anyone out there know of any websites where I can get some technical data to back up our recommendations? Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Mark W. Bailey

[TC]

Mark, I don't have an answer to your specific question but I would sugest you visit www.carcarecouncil.org. I have found a bunch of useful information that I have passed along to my customers (service departments) over the years.

Tom Collins

[moonmo]

It's difficult to point your finger at the engineers who designed the components you discussed. However, we have 11 different car lines and have not found the first manufacturer who will hold the customer's hand if the trans burns up with bad fluid in it outside of the warranty period. We've been able to get alot of our customers to buy-in on the concept that it is them, alone by themself that bear all of the risk here. In addition, there are some after-market suppliers of chemicals that have warranty programs that will extend the powertrain warranty out for up to 7 years/120,000 miles. We happen to use Wynn's Chemicals and their warranties on transmissions, engines, and engine cooling systems have been perceived by our customers as having value. This is usually a value that the customer cannot receive unless they start doing these types of maintenances earlier than what the manufacturer recommends. If Wynn's isn't available in your area maybe BG or another supplier is and has something similar to offer. Good luck.

[dbrown]

Mark we are up against the same problem at our stores, last year we started using BG products and they have "dab tray" that really works, I was very skeptical ar first but done right it really works, in the service drive the cars fluids are checked and compared to new fluids, when the customer sees the difference they buy in to the need for proper maintenance, many times they ask for the service before the advisor even presents it, this approach sells on the need not a recommendation. it really works well for us.