DePaula Chevrolet

This is a letter I sent to the dealership management team, my local politician and the attorney general. I believe that some dealerships are NOT honest. On August 5, 2019, I dropped my 2012 Equinox LTZ off for service. I was hearing a thumping sound in the passenger side rear wheel. It was more pronounced when there was pressure on that wheel (turning left). I also heard and felt a thumping in the front end when lightly touching the brake pedal. The service department called me to let me know the diagnosis on Wednesday morning. The tech said I need a new left front wheel bearing/hub assembly. It was bent and causing the thumping sound in the front end. He also said I need to replace that same rotor as the bad bearing warped the rotor. The diagnosis for the rear was that I needed to replace the rotors as they were delaminating. Finally, there was a problem with one of my tires. The tech said that a steel belt had slipped and was making a noize like there was something broken off in the tire. Finally, I should have them service the brake slides. I asked that they replace the wheel bearing and wait on the rest until I start getting paychecks again in September. I am a teacher and don’t get paid during the summer. I picked up the car on Thursday afternoon at about 5 pm. The front-end thumping was gone, so it looks like the front wheel bearing was the problem. The shimmy in the steering wheel was also gone. On a whim, I decided to research these items online. I removed one of the rear rotors (the one that looked the worst to me). I took the rotor to 2 auto parts stores near me and both of them said there is no reason to replace it. One identified a minuscule amount of delamination on the outer edge, about ⅛ inch. No need to replace the 2 rear rotors. I removed the so-called warped rotor and put a straight edge to it and it was as true as can be. No warpage. When removing this front rotor, I found I needed to use a pipe on the end of my socket to break the bolts that hold the brake caliper to the hub. The tech had obviously tightened the bolts way beyond the recommended torque. Another item on the list was to service the brake caliper slides. The estimate was 2.1 hrs labor for this job. This is absurd since the calipers would have already been off the rotors if we were replacing all 4 rotors. I purchased a tube of grease and anti-cease and serviced them myself. It took me 1.5 hrs to complete the job and that was lifting one wheel at a time with my jack. One of the 2 slides on this caliper was ceased and I ended up replacing this caliper myself. I was surprised that the tech had not identified this in his diagnosis. I removed all 4 tires to check for bulges. Every article/video online regarding a slipped belt in a tire says that the tire will bulge where the belt slipped since there was a lack of support in this spot. ALL of my tires were perfect, there was no bulge nor was there any noise like the tech had said. They all rolled true. I have always had the feeling that when you bring your car to a dealer, they “find” things to repair. This confirms my suspicion. Be assured that I will never bring my car to Depaula Chevrolet again. Furthermore, I will never do business with Depaula again either. I cannot trust your dealership, so I will not be back for service or any future purchases. It is appalling that your techs would take advantage of people like this. I feel sorry for the elderly who don’t know any better and just say go ahead. The amount of labor assigned to changing my wheel bearing was ridiculous. Maybe you need to hire better technicians. I know you are going to cry “book pricing”. I don’t care what any book says. Charging people for 3 hours of work when you are only working on their car for 2 hours is NO DIFFERENT than working for 3 hours and only paying for 2. Both are immoral. Shame on you!