Originally Posted by BoilerUpXFire
Congrats on the SRT.
Within the last week, another forum member, with much the same attitude as you, came on and told us he had his SRT into a 5 star SRT/Crossfire certified dealer for over a week and they could not figure out the intermittent power losses and it was throwing no codes.
I am not exaggerating - 10 minutes later a member diagnosed his problem (IC Pump) and shot him a link to a website with the part. Dealer quoted him 3-4x, and this is the norm.
I am not advocating wal-mart brake jobs, but many of us that are here and informed will either do the work ourselves, or have a mercedes/euro shop we trust do reapirs.
My local dealer wanted over $500 for my steering stabilizer, I paid $35 and installed in about 20 mins. I am not about to burn money like that....
Good luck out there, I have no doubts you will enjoy the SRT
I remember that exchange and that's why I joined this forum. This car is somewhat rare and there's a lot of knowledge worth mining in Crossfire owners who have no financial interest in my repairs. And I'm not a completely naive noob. I won't get taken to the cleaners very often.
But, on the other hand, I don't mind paying a service tech a decent premium even for stuff I can do myself. I want these guys to be around when the "big one" comes. It's sort of an unspoken contract. They know they get all my service business. Tires (install), brakes, belts, fluids, tuneups, etc. and they generally don't take advantage. And they know they might get my new car business as well.
I don't yell at them when they forget something and I chat them up about cars or the weather or the economy or middle school soccer. I've always had good experience with dealer service shops. I get loaner cars without asking for them. I can get an appointment pretty much any time I ask.
Still, if I thought I was getting screwed, I'd have no problem buying parts like a IC pump and doing it myself or going elsewhere.