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I think Mark is making reasonable points. The dealer (mine, anyway), DOES offer FREE loaner cars, FREE shuttle service, an on-site inventory of all the right parts, a warranty, emergency service, and mechanics who can not only do the easy stuff but are also trained to do the ridiculously involved stuff (like taking the 850 dashboard out to replace the evaporator). All that is worth something.
There are some simple jobs that I just can't see my way to paying a dealer to do: rear pads and rotors, $450 at the dealer (but note its the same at the local Firestone alignment shop, with wildcat parts!), or $125 with OEM parts in my driveway. Or an O2 sensor. There are others I would *only* have a dealer do, such as replacing the drivers door hinge on my old 240, which every indy I visited refused to do, and which the dealer happily and expertly did for $125. Whether to do it yourself or pay the dealer depends on circumstances, but there's no truth in calling dealer shops *thieves*. My only complaint about the dealer is that its hard to get past the smooth talking "service advisor" and speak with the mechanic who actually inspected and worked on my car.
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