Two days ago i was an emotional wreck. I brought our van in to the dealership for a diagnostic on my AC as it hasn't worked since last summer. We knew an actuator needed to be replaced but didn't know which one. My normal garage had said to find out which one and bring it back to them and they'd do the work.
So the dealership comes back saying it needed over $5000 to fix everything (some things not ac related). That did not include the tires that i knew i needed to get. I only owe $4300 on the van. We didn't have $5000+ to drop of fixing everything and although we could have swung it if needed trading in the van and having a higher car payment to get something new would have made us tight. On top of that my garage that has been working on my van for YEARS comes back and says they no longer are working on AC's so we were out of luck bringing it there to see if they can do it cheaper.
I had the dealership print out the list of what they said was up and brought it to another garage that has done a lot of work on our other car and have been amazing! They went through it and came back saying there was nothing wrong with the ac lines that i had been told were rusted and leaking and $2400 to replace. The actuator (although noisy for a couple mins) was allowing the vents to open and i did have cold air coming out. There was no sign that the dealership ever ran a dye test like they said they did. The mechanic looking at it was livid and wanted to chew out the dealership. We ended up paying $1100 for them to do the dye test, change all of my fluids (they were long overdue), put on new tires, and do an alignment.
I was quoted for so much work that my van didnt need putting me almost into a full anxiety attack when it didn't need over half the stuff i was told. I will never be bringing my van back to the dealership. I really only bring it there for diagnostics when needed but i won't even be doing that anymore.
Like I said, it SUCKS. The only thing we go to the dealership for is oil changes and occasionally tires lol.