How often does your Ford dealer try and rip you off on maintenance?

[Crowd.Slayer]

I got this in an email from my last trip while having it in for a factory recall item. This got me to thinking of how much they try and get you to do any service at any cost and at any point in time to open your wallet. So I consulted the manual. I'm about to hit 57k miles. The manual says a coolant flush isn't needed until 100k miles, yet there it is on the recommendation list. Same with my trans fluid, they are suggesting a flush yet once again, the manual states recommended (6R80) at 150k miles. Barely even a third of the way there! Battery service for 50 clams? That's them literally popping the hood and looking at it for 2 seconds.

It is completely absurd. I'm sure it varies from location to location, but most of these recommendations are flat out not even needed at this point. I am no wizard when it comes to fixing shit, but this seems insane.

Do any of you guys get these fear-mongering emails after any visit, trying to get anyone to bite on their fear of over-preventative maintenance?

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[ice445]

I don't go to the dealer in the first place, so they can't even tell me what they think I need

 

[Skye]

I believe these e-mails and suggestions will become more common as systems become more automated. And it's unfortunate some who don't know could be duped into getting service too often or too soon.

Within the last year, I put my truck at Toyota, for a coolant and brake fluid flush.

As I do much of the general maintenance myself, when they reviewed my service history, it had a lot of blanks.

While in service, I received an e-mail akin to, "Your truck is going to fall apart at any moment! You've been neglecting the following service!" I was then gifted a list of items totaling $3000.

There's no way the service tech actually inspected the items listed; if he actually had, he would have seen they were fine. Toyota auto-generated the list based on past service history.

Fortunately, I was able to de-select all the additional items and not delay things further.

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