r/serviceadvisors

Okay, reddit, I need help. I have a 2017 Toyota Tacoma that I bought in December of last year. With it came a Proguard Warranty, specially their P3 package. The truck, unfortunately, is at the shop and they want to run a cylinder combustion test and a compression test to isolate the issue. (Headgasket, cylinder head, engine block, piston rings, valve, valve train, cylinder wall, or timing issues) Is anything on that list actually covered? Or will I have to foot the bill on the repairs? If the testing fails, they want to take apart the whole engine because there is an internal issue on the engine they can't identify from the outside, and I know Proguard will cover up to one hour of diagnostic testing, but I don't want to approve the testing if they won't cover the repairs because I can't afford $20k for a new engine... Does anyone know if they will cover any of that?

Im a warranty admin at a large dealer and I’m trying to convince my dealer to go towards a paperless route with our RO’s (I know there’s mixed feelings) for multiple reasons but 1 being I’m drowning in paperwork and wasting a lot of man hours printing, stapling, just to remove staples and scan it all into a cloud. I’m drowning in paperwork constantly and struggle to keep it all organized. Does anyone have experience with options that work with dealertrack or is it a whole new DMS system to go paperless? Curious everyone’s experience and thoughts

What are the differences in maintenance between the Skoda Octavia and the Skoda Superb?

Sorry if this is ranty but I didn't know where else to put this and tell people who maybe as frustrated as I am.

I've been at my current dealership for over 2 year now and I think it's time I left the industry. My current dealership offers a 3% commission with a possiblity of hitting 6% if you hit above an ELR that's literally impossible to hit and a weekly salary of $650 and weekends off (for me that is). When I took the job I was desperate for a high paying job otherwise I would not have accepted this pay. I asked for a raise about 3 weeks ago and after one of my other advisors was fired, my fixed ops director approached called me into the office to inform me that he was let go and the workload would increase. I asked him about the raise and his response was " I just gave you one. Us raising the labor rate and firing _______ was your raise." and I just sat there in awe of that response. My last dealership responded in a similar way when I approached them about a raise 3 years in. It was just "sell more". Even at my terrible retail jobs we got some sort of raise, even if it was only a few extra cents an hour. Firing a coworker and framing that as a raise is one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard.

Between that, the micromanaging with the new call log NUMA we use micromanaging our response times, shunting more and more work on us as they fire people like the cashiers and warranty admin, and the constant irrationality coming from our customers, I can't stay in the industry anymore.

Customer here so I'm not sure if it's needed to buy a 5 quart of 0W20 just in case the shop/dealership runs out of oil.

I don't have the equipment to change my own oil but I also don't know if shops would be willing to use my own oil.

I am quite early into my PM role (approximately 3 years into the role) but I have a good background in the Service side as I was a service advisor for 5 years. I am thinking of my future in this industry and the next step for me would be the Fixed Ops Manager role.

Is there anyone on here that has taken that step forward? If so, what steps did you take in trying to learn the fixed ops duties/responsibilities? And final question-was the move worth it?

Have a high mileage car that was in for routine maintenance for spark plugs. During the removal the threads came off the plug in are stuck in the cylinder head, we have attempted to extract those threads to no success. We now have to send the cylinder head out to machine shop.

Who should cover these charges. If the customer, how do you explain that to the customer?

Editing because I just wanted to say "I am looking for advice" on the best PROACTIVE way to approach this***** Do I know it's a long shot.... YES... I do not work on cars know anything about cars so I came here for advice.

Looking for advice from service advisors or anyone experienced with Dodge goodwill assistance. I have a 2016 Dodge Journey 2.4L with only 69k miles that now has a blown head gasket after a heater hose failure, and I was quoted about $7k for an engine replacement. I purchased the vehicle brand new and have maintained it over the years. Has anyone had success getting goodwill assistance or partial coverage for a major engine failure like this? Or am I just SOL. Any advice on the best way to approach the dealership or customer care would be appreciated.

Yesterday I talked about notes and documentation as the standard not the extra work.

Today I want to get into the specific thing from that Ford situation that concerned me most.

The extended warranty repairs.

I found multiple open repair orders with extended warranty coverage and no record of the claim ever being called in. No claim number. No authorization code. No note that the call had even been made. Just open repair orders with customers waiting and no way to tell from the paperwork whether the work had been approved to proceed.

For anyone who has dealt with extended warranty companies you already know where this goes.

No documented authorization means the warranty company can deny the claim. The dealership eats the cost or the customer gets a bill for something they paid a warranty contract to cover. That conversation does not go well.

And if the repair had not started yet we had to call back, re-verify everything, hope the authorization window was still open, and restart a process that should have been done and documented during the original call.

All of it from one missing documentation habit.

Extended warranty claims are not something that lives in your memory or on a sticky note. The moment that call ends the repair order gets the claim number, authorization code, rep name, date and time, and approved operations. All of it. Every time.

Tomorrow I am wrapping the week with the full organizational framework and what a properly run operation actually looks like from workstation to WIP to repair order documentation.

Anyone else ever think it’s funny how these (in many cases) huge companies pay several thousand dollar bills through a somewhat sketchy online prepaid card? Almost sounds like a phishing scam yet it’s a legit. Just makes me laugh seeing “Use your $3456.71 prepaid card today!” Straight from a GM warranty.

Im currently a technician, interviewing tomorrow for my first service advising gig! I was hoping for some insight into what type of questions to expect and what I can prepare for with regards to the interview.

Any advice for starting out in the position would also be greatly appreciated!

Curious for all you GM technicians and service advisors. What is the most commonly replaced parts under warranty that pay well. My shop is extremely small with very little experience quick lube. Where should we be looking when trying to find work warranty or customer pay.

Been a service advisor for about 15 years now, have been with the same store for roughly ten. Usually top producer at my store, which is a small mercedes store in the southeast. Last year I did 3.1 million parts and labor sales and 1.8million in gross. I hit csi just about every month was green for the year average. Take home pay was right at 116k? I see all types of posts about pay plans but never any info on what numbers generated the salary people are posting. With the sales numbers I generated am I being under compensated? I have increased my parts and labor sales and gross a couple hundred grand year over year over the past few years with the help of labor rate increases and those things. What should someone with those numbers make? What is a good percentage to ask for? Currently 800 week salary, 2.5% parts and labor gross. With a .5% bump for individual csi, .5% bumper for group csi, .25% if over 2.8 hrs ro and .25% if elr is over 215. Any advice helps thanks guys

Short story about me I worked at 2 different GM dealerships over the past 10 years. Started as a service cashier person and worked my way up to a business development rep, as you know BDC reps where many hats, I worked closely with the loaners, Service manager, parts manager etc…my dept was somewhat small so by default you could call me the manager of the dept. Only about 2 ppl.

Fast forward I separated from the last dealership just about over a year ago and have been looking for new jobs remote. I came across this one that’s fully remote working with GM managing about 20-30 dealerships as a dealer operations specialist! The more I read about the job I understood the level up from Business Development position. I’m onto my 3rd interview and I feel like I’ve been doing so good that this will be my offer day but excited as I am for the offer is getting nervous lol I’m looking for some training videos to watch in the mean while or just something that will knock the jitters away. I’m sure with whatever they provide me with I’ll eventually catch on but I want to get a step ahead while I’m in this waiting period, appreciate any help.

Dealerships today don’t struggle with generating leads... they struggle with handling every customer conversation fast enough before buyers move on to another store.

That’s exactly why Voice AI and Conversational AI are exploding across the automotive industry. Modern car buyers expect instant responses, 24/7 availability, fast appointment booking, inventory answers, trade-in conversations, service scheduling, and real follow ups. Most dealerships simply cannot scale that level of engagement manually.

The next generation of AI for car dealerships is not just “AI answering calls.” It’s Conversational AI that can engage leads naturally, qualify buyers, recover missed calls, schedule appointments, automate recall outreach, follow up across channels, and keep sales + service conversations active at scale.

We’re already seeing dealerships use Voice AI to recover revenue that would normally be lost through missed calls, after-hours leads, slow BDC response times, and inconsistent follow ups.

One interesting case study I came across was Paragon Honda in the US. They implemented Spyne's Conversational AI through and reportedly recovered $314K in revenue within 30 days while achieving a 48% appointment-to-sale rate. Their AI handled inbound conversations, recall outreach, and appointment scheduling automatically, helping the same team manage more pipeline without increasing workload.

That’s where the industry is heading. Voice AI is becoming the digital front desk for dealerships. Conversational AI is becoming the new BDC layer. And AI for car dealerships is quickly moving from “software” to core revenue infrastructure. The dealerships adopting this early are going to operate faster, respond better, and convert more demand than stores still relying only on traditional workflows.

Update from last post in this group. 8 advisors and 1 drive manager.
Now, same drive manager , and of the 8 advisors, only 2 survive! 6 replaced. Crazy!
It’s sad that the GM/dealer group doesn’t see the issue. It’s a reason their csi is down, and sales has to get a perfect score to carry service. Service is also making crazy gross profit month over month, and year over year. I guess it doesn’t really get spread around to service advisors and managers. Just top management . Luckily our techs are paid well, tons of longevity !

Becoming an internal advisor was the best move I’ve done for my career in automotive. I’ve sold cars , did CP as an advisor and now running internals. What a breath of fresh air not having to deal with customers outside of a we owe. Highly recommend this transition