What is best Chevy dealership in GA for Corvette service?

[gobmcdeeusa]

What is best Chevy dealership in Atlanta GA for Corvette service?

Okay, I've been reading through this forum for the past year. A 2006 Corvette is on my list of potential new cars along with a BMW Z4. I'm looking to get feedback from members on their Georgia area dealership experiences when servicing their Corvette. Give me the good, bad, and the ugly. Which dealership had the most knowledge of how to correclty service your Vette and treated you with respect and concern? The Corvette would be my first experience with buying American made in the last 20 years and normally drive Hondas so I'm a bit skeptical. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[Ken Anderson]

None

 

[MsSchroder]

You've been lurking for a year!? wow. Welcome to the CAC.
I've had good experience with Tom Jumper in Roswell. They're a bit out of the way (for me), but they are good.

Tammy

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Thanks Tammy I've been over to Tom Jumper before and they did seem to have their act together a bit better than the others. Do you mind my asking how much they charge you for basic maintenance items like oil change?

Brad

 

[JRMaroon]

Brad,

The price may vary by generation but an oil change for my '94 is usually $55 at Tom Jumper.

Jeff

 

[MsSchroder]

Thanks Tammy I've been over to Tom Jumper before and they did seem to have their act together a bit better than the others. Do you mind my asking how much they charge you for basic maintenance items like oil change?

Brad

I've had them change the oil once (usually I just change it myself). It was $12.61 for labor, $6.64 for the filter, and $47 for the oil (mobil 1) for a total of $66 and change. I don't know if this is true, but I have read reports on other forums that say if you bring your own oil and filter, they'll charge you just the labor amount.

I had the rear differential serviced and fluid replaced for $114.

I had them install a column lock bypass unit- the labor was $40.

They've done a number of other little things which were under warranty.

They occasionally send me $25 off certificates for any "service". That helps a lot.

Tammy

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Tammy,

Surprising that I don't recall any info on this but does a corvette indicate when service is required or do you just follow a mainenance schedule? Tom Jumper is a bit out of the way for me as well and Roswell Road has the worst traffic. You look quite spiffy next to your Yellow Vette. I am so afraid of getting a lemon or having a bad experience from the dealership even though the car is great. I would be buying a whole GM experience not just the car in my mind. Looks like maintenance would be about double what I pay now on my Prelude. Maybe not as frequent but not sure. Thanks for the info.

Brad

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Jeff,

How has you experience with Tom Jumper been in general?

Brad

 

[MsSchroder]

Tammy,

Surprising that I don't recall any info on this but does a corvette indicate when service is required or do you just follow a mainenance schedule? Tom Jumper is a bit out of the way for me as well and Roswell Road has the worst traffic. You look quite spiffy next to your Yellow Vette. I am so afraid of getting a lemon or having a bad experience from the dealership even though the car is great. I would be buying a whole GM experience not just the car in my mind. Looks like maintenance would be about double what I pay now on my Prelude. Maybe not as frequent but not sure. Thanks for the info.

Brad

The Driver Information Center (aka the DIC) will tell you what your remaining oil life is. When it gets down to 20% I start planning the next oil change. It varies according to how you drive the car. I usually end up changing my oil somewhere in the 5-7k mile range.

I changed the diff fluid because C4C5Specialist recommended changing it after 7k miles, and then every 15k thereafter. That wasn't in the manual.

There isn't much other maintenance up to the 100k mile point. Just check the air filter and/or replace it. Check the fluids, etc. Keep the leather and weatherstripping maintained. Just little stuff you can do yourself.

I have found both the sales staff and the service staff to be very courteous and professional there.

Tammy

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Tammy,

I havent' been able to find anywhere on GM's website if road hazard insurance is available. Corvette tires are expensive!!

Brad

 

[MsSchroder]

Yes, they are definitely expensive!
I've still got the original tires on it, but they need to be replaced soon.
I figured the ones that came with it don't have the road hazard warranty, but when I get new ones, I will definitely go for that.

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Well I finally drove over to Tom Jumper and drove several of their Corvettes-base, MSRC, and Z51. Actually the sales lady, Libba drove the Z51 as it was a manual and I don't do manual tranmissions. I think my choice would be 1SA with base suspension and performance axle. Not sure how not having 1SB would affect resale value. Any ideas? I decided I must not be an audiophile because I thought the base cars stereo was satisfactory, not great, but not horrible either. With the way everyone talks in the forum I was expecting transistor radio quality. I didn't think that was the case. The sales woman, Libba, I was dealing with was very helpful and courteous. On the other hand, the supposed top Corvette sales guy, Reggie Stagmaier I didn't get as much a warm fuzzy feeling for. He tried to convince me that the basic GM warranty would cover road hazards on the Corvette tires. He even went out of his way to contact someone over the phone to state that they had had a flat tire due to nail and that it was repaired by GM and NO COST. I later contacted GM Cusomer Service and of course that was untrue and misleading. I don't think I'll want to deal with mister slick anymore. Don't these sales people know that these forums exist and that any information they say can be verified. Geeze!! The service department seemed okay. I drove by just as they were closing up and I inquired with the mechanice who was apparently leaving for the day as to their hours and all he tried to do was shoe me off the lot. I think he was russian. Not quite as professional as I would hope.

I then went out to Loganville to Maxi Price. They have a beautiful facility. They say they have the top dealership for service. We'll see. They seem to be very dedicated to Corvette sales though as they had many on the lot and an very early model on display in the show room. It's an hours drive for me, but from my first impressions I would make the trip and go out there for maintenance.

I called GM Customer Service later because I was getting conflicting information about the MP3 playback capabilities of the stock audio system compared to the Bose system. The stock stereo has MP3 capabilities but Customer service nor the sales guy at Maxi Price knew that. At least the guy at Maxi Price said he didn't really know for sure instead of trying to persuade me I needed the Bose system to get MP3 playback. I can see this is going to be an adventrue. I just hope that my dealership/sales experience doesn't go any further down hill as I think I really want a Corvette. But I will take a Z4 if I get too much zoomin goin on.

 

[MsSchroder]

It sounds like you're really doing your homework.
As for the salesmen, I'm only familiar with Ed Drake- not the guy you mentioned. Ed was very straightforward. I would definitely ask for him next time. (hmmm, I seem to have crossed some subconcious line by using the words "next time" )

I would be pretty annoyed, too, at that BS that they tried to feed you regarding the tire warranty. Sometimes "top salesman" does not always translate to the guy you want to buy your car from

I've also dealt with the "Russian" guy a few times. No problems to report with him. My last experience was with "John" (I regret that I don't remember his last name), who was very knowledgeable, and has had several heavily-modded C5's that he enjoyed discussing.

I always thought the bose speakers in the C5's are pretty good. Not outstanding, but pretty good as far as stock sound systems go.

As for the 1SA vs 1SB, and resale value: The 1SB package will definitely help resale. People really like the HUD (I have heard good things about the 2nd generation version in the C6's), the memory & heated seats, and the auto dimming mirrors. Those are all very nice features, but quite expensive (almost $3000, or $4300, depending on whether you're talking about a coupe or a vert). I'm not sure you would recoup all of that in resale value, but they would definitely make the car more attractive for a quicker sale.

When I purchased my '02, I shopped at Maxie but didn't go with them for a couple of reasons (the main one being they didn't have Mil. Yellow on the lot). At the time, they did not have any service facilities, which was definitely a down side at the time. I haven't heard anything about them since they've built their new facility.

Tammy

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Well I finally drove over to Tom Jumper and drove several of their Corvettes-base, MSRC, and Z51. Actually the sales lady, Libba drove the Z51 as it was a manual and I don't do manual tranmissions. I think my choice would be 1SA with base suspension and performance axle. Not sure how not having 1SB would affect resale value. Any ideas? I decided I must not be an audiophile because I thought the base cars stereo was satisfactory, not great, but not horrible either. With the way everyone talks in the forum I was expecting transistor radio quality. I didn't think that was the case. The sales woman, Libba, I was dealing with was very helpful and courteous. On the other hand, the supposed top Corvette sales guy, Reggie Stagmaier I didn't get as much a warm fuzzy feeling for. He tried to convince me that the basic GM warranty would cover road hazards on the Corvette tires. He even went out of his way to contact someone over the phone to state that they had had a flat tire due to nail and that it was repaired by GM and NO COST. I later contacted GM Cusomer Service and of course that was untrue and misleading. I don't think I'll want to deal with mister slick anymore. Don't these sales people know that these forums exist and that any information they say can be verified. Geeze!! The service department seemed okay. I drove by just as they were closing up and I inquired with the mechanice who was apparently leaving for the day as to their hours and all he tried to do was shoe me off the lot. I think he was russian. Not quite as professional as I would hope.

I then went out to Loganville to Maxi Price. They have a beautiful facility. They say they have the top dealership for service. We'll see. They seem to be very dedicated to Corvette sales though as they had many on the lot and an very early model on display in the show room. It's an hours drive for me, but from my first impressions I would make the trip and go out there for maintenance.

I called GM Customer Service later because I was getting conflicting information about the MP3 playback capabilities of the stock audio system compared to the Bose system. The stock stereo has MP3 capabilities but Customer service nor the sales guy at Maxi Price knew that. At least the guy at Maxi Price said he didn't really know for sure instead of trying to persuade me I needed the Bose system to get MP3 playback. I can see this is going to be an adventrue. I just hope that my dealership/sales experience doesn't go any further down hill as I think I really want a Corvette. But I will take a Z4 if I get too much zoomin goin on.

I would have to say that the sales guy at Tom Jumper, Reggie Stagmaier, was correct in stating that auto insurance would NOT be and different whether purchasing base suspension or Z51 suspension. I was surprised but he was correct. He was not correct, at least with my insurance company, in stating that a discount would be applied for having OnStar.

Tammy, It's surprising that Maxi Price didn't have a service facilitiy at all in 2002. It sure is nice now. It reminded me of Honda service department-spic and span. Give it a few more years It would take me an hour to get out there though but it is a little closer to work. I would really prefer going to Jim Ellis in Chamblee as they are much closer, but I need to find out if they have any service technicians that can work on vettes. I think I'm in love with LeMans Blue.

 

[Marlar]

Maxie Price in Loganville, GA

When I received my 05 C6 MY Coupe last fall, Maxie Price himself insisted that I tour the new repair shop. He was obviously very proud of it. It is the only repair shop I personally have ever seen that was air conditioned. His logic was that the best techs will stay at the best facility. The saleman I dealt with, Steve, had over forty years experience with Vettes and was very knowledgeable and helpful. The only hands on experience I have had thus far was getting my chromed rims installed because nothing has yet broken on my 2700 mile car (thank goodness). The rims by the way are awesome with zero flaws.

They quoted e a price of $75 for an oil change. I was told it takes a while because they take an extended time to drain the old oil. Jiffy Lube it ain't!

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

75$ Yikes!! I guess they need to pay for that fancy service facility. The max for an oil change that I've heard from other dealerships in Atlanta is 40$. Probably is BS though. I'm thinking I may wait for an '07 now since I don't think it would be a good idea to get the '06 automatic. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Marlar]

As I recall, the C6 takes 7 quarts of synthetic oil. I don't think you can buy that for $40. :ugh

 

[Pseudomind]

OIl change

Just had one done, yep seven quarts @$8.64 per quart, $86.00 total

 

[gobmcdeeusa]

Just as I suspected. Most Chevy salesmen are liars.

 

[MsSchroder]

I don't think Chevy necessarily has the market cornered on shady salesmen