Why Choose Us?

Independent Shops vs. Dealership Service Department

By Mike Hewlett

Ever since cars began rolling off assembly lines, there’s been a need for regular vehicle maintenance and repair. Traditionally - Most consumers naturally and easily patronize the local dealer for their brand of car during the factory warranty period. After the vehicle warranty expires many will gravitate towards an independent shop seeking a better deal due to a common misconception that dealerships are just too expensive for customer pay repairs.

While I’m obviously a bit biased towards recommending dealership services in most scenarios, I want to try and present a subjective comparison which highlights the advantages of both types of shops.

Perceived Independent Shop Advantages:

Friendly with a more approachable atmosphere. In the past, too many dealerships viewed customers in their service departments as just another source of new car sales leads; the focus was not always on customer service. Consequently, customers could be driven (no pun intended) from the dealership to the independent facility. In most independent shops you will get the chance to interact with the actual owner of the store who might also be the tech who repairs your vehicle.

Shops offer a variety of services on many different makes.  Most independent shops can offer a variety of services on diverse makes and models of vehicles. However, this push to try be all things to all people can lead to less specific knowledge per car line and often results in the independent tech having to ‘relearn’ the proper repair operations.

As a matter of fact because of the wide mixture of vehicles handled by the typical independent shop throughout the week, the content experts in our shops are constantly fielding calls from local independents when they run into sticky diagnostic problems that they just can’t seem to crack.

Independent shops are less costly.  Technicians at independent shops get paid similar to dealership techs: flat rate. The flat rate system uses an industry accepted labor time guide to establish published rates for specific repairs – i.e. diagnose/replace an AC compressor pays the tech 2 labor hours. However, in some cases you might find a shop that has their techs on a guaranteed salary. While this can remove some of the pressure from these technicians to outperform the clock, it can also create a certain amount of insulating financial comfort that can become counterproductive to producing efficient completion times.

Now to be fair, there are a lot of top quality independent repair facilities out there run by conscientious, caring people. As a matter of fact, the best local shops are also great customers of ours, buying all their needed GM and VW parts from our Hewlett Parts Center.

Dealership Advantages:

Nicer facilities, state of the art diagnostic equipment.  In order to maintain their franchises, dealerships must constantly invest in their facilities and equipment. 

Fully trained technician’s specific to a certain car line. Dealerships are constantly training their technicians to keep up with the ever evolving technologies.  Our techs are true content experts when it comes to efficiently and professionally diagnosing and repairing the vehicles sold by our dealership. What this means for you is that for your Chevrolet, Buick or VW vehicle we can usually pinpoint a problem more quickly and accurately.

Market priced repairs.   Like the independent shops, our techs are also paid on the flat rate system. When a job is dispatched to a technician, a clock starts.  Since a dealership tech sees similar vehicles regularly, they have a greater opportunity to become proficient on similar repairs and therefore can complete most jobs more quickly (say one hour) and still get paid for two hours’ worth of ‘clock time’. Conversely, if the tech does this same job and it takes them more than the allowed time, the customer still pays only the two hours quoted. This method of payment holds a standard hourly rate for the customer, and yet still rewards highly skilled technicians.

There are many factors to consider when deciding which route to take. Because of the rapid / constant changes in automotive technology, it’s vital to know that whatever repair shop you associate with is qualified to work on your car. The shop you choose needs to be up to speed on the latest technology, repair methods, training and necessary equipment.

Take the time to do your homework and ask questions. Check the internet for customer reviews and pay close attention to how they respond to a guest when things don’t go just right on the first visit. Remember, you’re looking to establish a long term service relationship built on trust and transparency and you’ll be paying good money no matter what type of shop you choose.

It’s your choice.

So which type of shop is the better choice for your automotive repair needs? Do you have to sacrifice friendly, personalized service to enjoy nicer facilities, state of the art technologies and technicians specifically trained for your type of car? The answer is no - you don’t have to settle and you can have the best of both worlds by letting the service professionals at the Hewlett Dealerships take care of your vehicle needs. As most of you know, we have invested in the nicest facilities you’ll find anywhere for professional vehicle repair and pampered customer comfort.

Convenience features like

·         free customer shuttles,

·         complimentary new loaner vehicles and

·         our new Xpress Oil Change Plus vehicle maintenance center make it easy to take care of your car and keep your life moving at the same time.

We are certainly proud that since 1971 the Hewlett family has been successfully taking care of our Central Texas neighbors. However, the best measure of our success isn’t found on a spread sheet or a financial statement; it’s found in the loyalty and longevity of two very important groups of people: our employees and our customers. We are proud to have earned the repeat business of thousands of Central Texas families and on any given day when you visit one of our dealerships you will most likely interact with a Hewlett team member who’s been with us for years. Like one of our old radio jingles used to say, ‘General Motors (and VW) make the cars, but Hewlett makes the difference’. Thank you for giving us the chance to earn your business; we look forward to seeing you soon.