I have been taking my Cadillac Escalade to Wagner for several years now and have had great experiences there. I always felt taken care of and never had a question about them not being able to service my vehicle. I have no misconceptions about dealership service centers. You are charged 50% and more over the same service at a regular car shop in town. I have always known this but never bothered to take it somewhere other than Wagner because my car was under warranty and so it wasn’t costing me anything to have them take care of me.
Since the Wagner dealership was sold some of the crew in the shop has changed and I no longer deal with the same people anymore. The last time we brought the car into Wagner was 4,000 miles ago and we asked them to check on why the car was shaking so much and to adjust the tire air measurements. The Escalade has a device that displays the tire pressure reading on the dash but often when doing something with the tires the devices need to be set back to provide the correct reading. What has happened on two different occasions is that we would bring the car into Wagner and leave it there for several hours. They would get the tire pressure gauge set back up but it would be setup incorrectly for the smaller version of tires. The last time there my wife waited 3 hours for them to get this setup only to find out later they did not do it right.
Now to get these tire pressure things working right you have to work in the wheel area of the car so you will get direct access to see if the brakes and wheel rotors are okay or not. The dealership did not say anything about our brakes needing replacement or that the rotors were beginning to wear. 4,000 miles ago there was likely no indication of wear on the rotors but the brake pads would have all started to look a little worn down. My wife left the shop with the tire pressure issue unknown to her still a problem and the techs at the shop never having mentioned any brake pad wear or need for replacement.
A week ago the car started to squeak and the following day grinding could be heard. My wife brought the car home and called me to ask me what to do. I told her to bring the car into Wagner as it may still be under warranty and I also wanted to figure out if it was a brake problem why this was not found on the frequent stops we make to their service department for various issues. We left it with Wagner and around 4:00 on Friday they called and told me it would cost about $650 to replace the two front rotors, spin the back ones, and replace all brake pads.
I told the dealership that I would have to get some more quotes and if they had the best price I would consider them. I asked the technician on the phone why they did not catch that the car needed brakes on the many times we have brought it in. He explained to me that it is a gradual thing and that it happens over time. The problem with his explanation is that they had access to this car 4,000 miles ago and were working with all four wheels during that time. I asked the service department manager the same question and he said basically the same thing.
I took the car over to A&B Brake and Alignment and they had a quote and had the car fixed in about 2 hours the same day. It cost me around $280 at A&B and it would have cost me $650 at Wagner. I understand dealerships routinely overcharge and I am aware of this and understand this as basically normal business practice so I am not faulting them for the high price. What I am faulting them for is an incompetent service department that let bad brakes get worse when they had a chance to easily tell me about it.
To make matters even worse, I explained to them why their service department was incompetent as brakes don’t go from great to grinding the rotors in 4,000 miles. They still asked me to pay them $60 for the brake check they performed when we brought the car in for investigation. Wagner service is not the same place it once was and it seemed to me they did everything they could to make me never want to buy another GM made car or bring my car into their shop again.
Wagner Cadillac
4100 South Broadway Avenue Tyler, TX 75701-8719
(903) 561-1212