Cadillac Owners Forum banner

SATX - Ken Batchelor Cadillac IH-10 / Huebner

4K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  bonson 
#1 ·
Anyone here have any experience with Batchelor? I am speaking service. The head of Sales was not pleasant to deal with so I did not buy from them, but I have been using them for service since I bought a new 06 escalade and have had mixed results and emotions.
The last time started off badly as I made an appt almost 2 weeks in advance - they made me do that to be sure they would have a rental car waiting for me when I arrived for my warranty work. I got there and they had no loaner/ rental cars at all.
I live almost an hour away so I was not happy! I had to turn around and go back home with their promise a flat bed would deliver a loaner car to me and haul my vehicle in from my home; all within 1 to 2 days - that never happend either. In the end a couple of thier guys came and met me half way (a week later!) and they drove my Escalade who knows where or how on the way to the dealer. There is a lot more to the story of my great inconvenience I endured over a longer period of time throughout the whole frickin mess.

You can see I have to tolerate a lot of crap, but one mistake I guess I made was buying a Cadi with no Cadi dealer near me to service / warranty it.

I can say the work has been "pretty good", its expenive of course for non-warranty stuff, but they dont cause too much commotion about doing the warranty work (and there has been enough to know).

Lack of competition creates bad customer service. Luckily there are 2 other Cadi dealers about the same distance from me if needed, just maybe not as convenient. Maybe a 4th dealer south of Austin area - not sure??
 
See less See more
#2 ·
NO! never use them. Cavender all the way.
Batchelor once scratched 2 of my wheels during a service visit that had nothing to do with wheels...then said it was me who did it.
and the smelly loaner buicks are really cool :rolleyes:

Cavender takes care of you and the car, has nice Cadillac loaners, and if they screw up FIX IT. I know some people who know the Cavenders, but luckily they've always done a great job so I've never needed to whip out my ace in the hole haha.

__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the heads up. I think I will try Cavender - I think they are the one downtown I have been talking about trying anyway. I almost need a oil change, the frt license plate cover falls down, and I have a permanently fogged up fog light lense (no joke) needs replacing.
One other weird thing with Bathcelor was they said that someone backed into my bumper while it was under their care, and they would fix it all for me, but delayed me yet another day. When I got down there the next day they said that there was no damage and the service guy was mistaken about that. It was very strange and suspicious, but I couldn't see any visible damage so I had to let it go.
And, another thing, now that you mention it is I never get a Cadillac loaner vehicle, even though I bought a new Cadillac and didnt expect a Chevy or a dinky H3 to drive.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Currently both of my vehicles are from KB - my wife's '03 H2 and my '04 Escalade. I've always had good luck with KB and the KB loaners, but I also schedule my appointments ahead of time with KB. My wife, however, only gets a decent loaner about 50:50. Back in 2004-2005, I used to see a TON of Cavender vehicles at KB that made me think they were doing things right at KB.

Lately though I've noticed that since that huge remodel of their facilities and a bunch of personel changes, the customer and vehicle service has changed for the worse. Andre is the only decent service guy there now, the others simply don't care enough to keep you happy and just do the bare minimum. I've had my truck damaged twice and nothing is said until I notice. Once they even tried to cover it up by using white TOUCHUP on my white diamond paint! (I made them replace that part.) Service appointments are hit-or-miss. I've had more than a few times where my appointment was on a thursday and by monday they haven't even LOOKED at it yet. Also, they don't even listen half the time I ask for something to be looked at and the courtesy washes may as well not even be done - they leave tons of dirt in the crevaces. I think I'll be trying Cavender for my next few services. If they treat me well with a vehicle on the extended warranty, they'll earn my business for my next purchase.

-disgruntled
 
#5 ·
A guy we know in our neighborhood has an H2 and an Escalade all of similar years. I guess we all like visiting the gas pumps a lot, and for 93 octane.

Well it makes me wonder about our Escalade. They said they hit the bumper, but then they said they didn't and I couldnt tell. My front lic plate cover plate thing keeps falling down so I hope that is covered under warranty.
(makes me wonder if they hit it and threw the bumper off kilter or something)

We have over 27K miles since new in Sept 06. It has 5 yr/ 100K bumper to bumper gold warranty or whatever its called, but w/ a $200 ded after 50K. My impression is any dealer will cover that as the same the first 50K miles warranty?

One funny thing after we bought it new (located online up in Chicago, flew up & drove home - it had a $610 upcharge w/ Lifetime warranty gold on the emblems - no choice - it was on the car), in a few days the gold emblem's gold were all fading. I emailed pics to Chicago - they sd no problem we'll pay for it all to be redone. I went to Batchelor and after the red tape w/ Batchelor, they put new ones on - except they only did part of the emblems, I was puzzled. After more red tape with the confused batchelors it was all done. They charged the Chicago dealer $1100.
THEN within several weeks a couple emblems had faded gold again!
I bawked at Batchelor, they replaced the faded ones and asked me for $35, which was weird. I had the service mgr come out and he wrote it off. (We have a 4Runner with gold emblems in pretty bad shape too.)
I guess the moral of the story is I should pass on gold plating.
 
#6 ·
Gold plating is notorious for either corroding or flaking. I'm not a huge fan.

Regarding octane... at least for the older models (I've got an '04) you can use 87 in the 5.3 liter and the 6 liter HO to save some cash (I fill up at least weekly.) Your off-the-line speeds may suffer a bit, but I've never noticed it much or a significant difference in miles/gal or had any problems with knocking and pinging. I'm not sure of the newer models, but this is straight from the manual...

"If your vehicle has the 6.0L HO engine (VIN Code N), use premium unleaded gasoline with a posted octane of 91 or higher for best performance. You may also use middle grade or regular unleaded gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher, but your vehicle’s acceleration may be slightly reduced. If the octane is less than 87, you may get a heavy knocking noise when you drive. If this occurs, use a gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher as soon as possible. Otherwise, you might damage your engine."
 
#7 ·
Re: octane

the 06 says use 87 unless towing or going up hills or mts. or hearing pinging.

well I fully intended to use 87 until I kept getting pinging noises on the freeway. I asked a guy in my neighborhood I think his is an 05 and he sd he has to use 93 as the 87 causes issues for him. I didn't ask him about his H2.

I think that it may be more when its hot that it would ping. I actually thought of using both depending on tempatures. I drove it home from Chicago in Sept 06 in mostly cold weather on 87 gas with no problems. It was just here locally that we had pinging, often on the freeway when accelerating. I drove it to FL in Dec 06 for well over a week and was using hi octane not to take any chances and just kept using it since.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top