Car service at a dealer or independent business?

We're roaming from the "weather" topic again today, but it's one of those practical discoveries that's worth sharing.

I notice that one regional business is running TV commercials that say something along the lines of "don't spend too much money at your car dealership, let us do the work cheaper and better".

I had some experience with that over the past few days.

My wife is getting ready to make a 600 mile trip in her SUV, so we've been getting this and that tweaked in preparation. New battery? check, tires topped up with nitrogen? check, oil change?....well, now we get to the heart of the matter.

When I bought her car, I added on an extended warranty that included oil changes, so for the past 5 years, we've been going to the dealership to get them taken care of. Initially they were great, in fact it's an American company that has been famous for its' service...but over the past year or so, it's really been slipping. Initially, we thought it was just the Chapel Hills service department, so we took it to the one in Motor City, which turned out to be slow, inefficient, and semi-hostile as well.

Usually, my wife takes the car in (while I teach, broadcast, write blogs, etc.), but this time, it was my turn...after all, it was only an oil change...how intense could it be?

Arrived at 3 PM, as per appointment...check...got right in...check...sat down in the waiting room and waited....and waited....and waited....and waited...got hustled by a new car sales person, watched a hostile client fight with a service rep, and waited some more. Over an hour later, the service rep told me most things looked good, but I needed an air filter (it took them an hour to figure that out?), and should also have a fuel injector service....which wasn't out of the question, because the car had over 50, 000 miles on it...and they'd be willing to do it for just a little over $100.

Now, keep in mind that I'd been sitting there for over an hour while these folks changed the oil (which my local Grease Monkey franchise can do in 10 minutes), so first of all, I wasn't going to spend my whole day there while they hooked up the injector cleaning machine (possibly becoming eligible for Social Security and Medicare before it was over), so I asked them to finish up and I'd be on my way.

I did, though, think that the "get the fuel injectors cleaned" idea was a good one though, because the love of my life was about to take the car far from civilization...so I did just what the commercial said...I called the "we do it faster and better" guys.

Yes, they do injector cleanings (using the same machine and products as the dealership), no problem getting me in the next morning, and for about 1/2 the price I'd been quoted.

This morning, I showed up at 8 AM, got it right in, sat down and fired up my ipod Touch in their wifi equipped waiting room, and was just getting into seriously surfing the Web when they came to tell me it was done....about 30 minutes.

Good job...too. So the moral to the story is...
1) I will NEVER buy a service contract that obligates me to go to a dealer again
2) I will NEVER allow a dealer to perform any service that isn't already paid for on any car I own.
3) I'm sticking with the independent specialty shops from this point on. They're more efficient, less expensive and make it a MUCH more pleasant experience.

Just for the record, I've had very good experiences with both Grease Monkey and Brakes Plus to this point.