I'm in one of those 'what was I thinking when I brought the car
here?' situations. Back in March
we were bringing our '88 240 DL in for service on the throttle body &
IAC, when the overdrive
stopped working en route. I asked them to check it over, especially the
kickdown cable, relay
(which I said I thought was ok) and wiring. Two days later were told
that 'The overdrive unit has
failed' and that we needed a rebuilt transmission installed for about
$3100.00. Yeah, right. I took
the car home, did some research, and it seemed clear that it was the O/D
*solenoid*, not the actual O/D unit (thanks to those here who helped
with that). I got the part for $80, and brought the car to an
independent Volvo/Saab  shop to have it installed. They did so, and that
solved the problem (along with replacing a frayed length of wiring).
Total cost: slightly under $300.00. That wasn't the end, however...

  The Indie shop found that the left hood hinge was broken, and the
kickdown cable O-ring
was leaking fluid. Since I hadn't opened the hood myself, I brought the
car back to Nemith,
explained the situation, noted the 10X inflated repair estimate, and
asked them to replace the
hinge, O-ring and pan gasket. I offered to pay for the parts. The
service manager wrote down
what was wrong, told me to leave the car, and gave every impression that
they'd fix those two
problems.  We have had services performed there over the last  six
years, including a power flush
last August (minor screwups, but nothing major)  and I really thought
that they were going to make this right.

  Wrong. First I got a message from the same service manager saying
that they would NOT
be performing any "free repairs" on the car, but would give an estimate
if I liked.  His boss
offered to refund the $39.50 we had been charged for the estimate, but
said that they wouldn't
even have looked at the lower cable end, or the transmission at all.
Apparently $39.50 gets you a quick look at the throttle cable
connection, and they click the O/D button a few times, nothing more, but
on this they said I needed a $3100 rebuilt transmission. Or they DID
look at the cable, and managed to bend it enough to make the O-ring
fail. HIS boss backed him up.
He further said that when they gave a diagnosis, I could choose whether
or not to have the
repair made, and they had no responsibility for the accuracy.  At one
point in our increasingly
heated conversation he stated that 'It might be more fun to let you sue
us' to get the estimate
refund.

  So, after nearly causing us to give the car to charity because of a
misdiagnosed transmission
'failure', Nemith would rather have complaints filed against them with
the state Attorney General
and Better Business Bureau than do work that would cost them about $100
in actual labor. I got
the impression that this won't be the first complaint filed against
them, and they essentially don't
care. Let my misfortune be a warning to other people in my area...