Since more of us are getting close to this friendly service point, here's another "looky me!" thread. Stopped by the dealership where I bought the 'Maru two years ago, and they quoted $400/3 hours, using my oil and filter. Yeah, right. Today during my lunch break, I shot off emails to four other dealerships asking for quotes: Marysville and Roush in Columbus, Jay and Sunnyside in Cleveland. The results:

Marysville: The service manager himself had a quote of $208/2hr to me in less than half an hour.
Roush: Nuthin'
Jay: An autoresponse came in, but that's been it.
Sunnyside: Got an email quote of $241+tax to me about four hours later, but advised they did not have the engine air filter in stock. In their defense, a voicemail was on my machine when I got home, but I haven't reset the clock on it since the last power outage.

Marysville: Got my business both on cost and closeness. Jeff Pister, the service manager, had already told Brad Lohr (a supervisor of some sort, maybe?) to keep an eye out for me, and he was right there ready when I pulled in. Time between getting in and getting out was actually a little under two hours, another nice plus, not to mention coming in $5 under quote. These guys are close enough that using them for other services now has a high probability

Roush: Your website and contact tools for service need some work. I still don't know if my RFQ actually got anywhere.

Jay: Autoresponders are nice, but if nobody's paying attention, well....

Sunnyside: I would easily have taken the drive up to Cleveland to use them, as I go there often enough to visit friends and family that working a service call into the weekend would not have been inconvenient for me. However, not having an engine air filter in stock is a little disconcerting. Still, the same-day response is good, and if I ever have trouble up north, I know where I'm going.

Immke: $400? Suck my nuts. Just because I live in Dublin doesn't mean I'm rich. Your finance guy ticked me off by not advising that the 4% financing I did the paperwork for required delivery before the end of the month (and the car didn't arrive in time), so continuing to dig isn't in your best interests.

Observations so far? Well, already the transmission feels smoother as I pull out, the new oil has reduced engine noise to a soft hum, and at just under 26k miles, my brakes are still 80% front, and 75% rear. Tires are 6/32 all around, and the elevated pressure and attention to alignment (5yr program at NTB, checking once in spring, once in fall) has kept tread wear remarkably even. Have I mentioned how much I love my car?

 

Thanks. And timely, too!
I'm at 40% now, so I've got another 2 months probably. 24K on car now, so my next service will likely be the A123 too.
I'll try to remember to post my Dallas-area results then.

 

thanks. This is a great thing to post. I wish someone would do this for the san diego area. I guess I will be doing it when the time comes