What Warranty?So, let me try to sum up today's events. I will be making a full detailing of the dealership's suckage on every review and ratings site I can in the near future to ensure other people are warned away from them. In the meantime, settle in. I know it's long but it's worth the read if for nothing other than to see the bullshit they pulled.
The Backstory:I bought the 1999 Pontiac Grand Am from a Ford dealership on June 10th. It was a trade-in and they offer a 30 day warranty on all their used cars. They stressed how much better it was to buy a car from them as opposed to from a private seller where you had no warranty and if something went wrong you were out of luck.
Turns out I was pretty much out of luck anyway.
One of my co-worker's, Kathy, is married to a man who is a mechanic and owns a actual shop locally. I asked him to look the car over for me and detail anything that needs addressing so I could get any problems fixed while I was under warranty. After a few scheduling conflicts and changes, he inspected it on Friday for me. He found a few troubling problems, most importantly that the seals in my intake manifold were cracked and I had oil getting into my radiator and cooling system. This is a problem of course because it will lead to overheating and eventually head gasket failure. (A very large, very costly repair that renders the car completely inoperable when it fails. I had it happen on my Mustang. Twice actually, but who's counting.)
GM Cars & "Dex-Cool"There is a known issue with GM cars where they use a proprietary antifreeze called "Dex Cool" which is orange in color and very acidic. The seals are made of plastic and are eroded by the corrosive properties of the antifreeze and eventually fail. A massive
Class Action Lawsuit was even filed on behalf of millions of owners. (Sadly, I only found out about this over the weekend and the settlement closed in October 2008.) Getting this fixed is a major priority due to the fact if left untreated, it WILL cause massive engine failure.
Today: The DealershipI called the service center Saturday and was immediately worried. The guy on the phone was very dismissive, demeaning and vague. Sounded like a snake oil salesmen. He even at one point asked me my age! Talk about lack of professionalism! I also called the salesman's cell and left a detailed message telling him I'd be in on Monday and to please alert the service department I DID have a warranty. I never got a call back.
By the time I got up there (it's about an hour drive from me, plus I had to stop by Mom's first so we could go together so I wouldn't have to sit there while they did the work) it was about 10:45am. We went into the service center and gave them the detailed repair list/estimate by my mechanic and asked him how long it'd take. He said he needed authorization and that we could just leave and they'd work on getting the authorization.
But how do we know if we leave that anything will be done? Will they call us? Well, no apparently. So we went off to get the authorization ourselves.
The salesman, Luis pretty much immediately handed us off to a typical, middle-management, stereotype-dealership snake charmer named, Chris. We explained the issues of concern and he basically told us point-blank, that despite the fact that were sold the car as a 30-day warranty, the car was As-Is.
Things went downhill from there.
He was extremely dismissive. He treated us with great contempt. You can tell he's a "good ole' boy" and has zero respect for women. He tried to talk down to us and say that it's a ten year old car and obviously wasn't going to be "perfect." He kept using that word over and over. I told him I didn't expect it to be perfect, but I DID expect it to be safe, drivable and serviced as promised. He just kept saying that they wouldn't cover anything basically - period. NOTHING - short of possibly the engine blowing up. I reminded him that should the oil continue to leak into the radiator and the car start overheating, it WOULD basically explode when the head gaskets went. That they had an obligation to repair the car because it was NOT sold "as-is" but rather, sold with a warranty. He kept saying that it was a ten year old car and basically what did I expect, of course there are minor problems.
The estimate for the repair my mechanic gave me was for around $764. Mainly due to the fact that the seal replacement is a labor-intensive process requiring deconstruction of the intake manifold and a system flush. The estimate did NOT include parts as it was merely to show the
issues that needed addressing, not a full job repair bill. He knew he was merely reporting as a 3rd party, independent, what needed to be fixed under the warranty so he didn't actually give me a quote for the work.
Well, the asshole sales manager, Chris, said he'd offer me $400 towards the work to be done on my own. But that he would not fix a single thing on the list himself as he was in no way obligated to do so.
At that point, I called my mechanic. And I explained to him the absurd situation I was in. I asked him for a rough estimate of how much the actual replacement would be to be done by him and he said, realistically around $500 for me. (He gives a friends/family labor discount to those of us at my work.) I asked him if he would mind speaking with Chris to explain to him the estimate did not include parts and to stress the seriousness of the repair needed. He was more than happy to and I handed my cell to Chris.
My mechanic told me after that he explained to him that they sold me the car with this leak in place and that it was ultimately saving them money since a head gasket replacement would be much more and they needed to take care of this for me. And failing that, they should at
least toss in another $50 towards parts.
Chris said he couldn't authorize that amount and it would need to be approved by his boss who was in a meeting. At this point, we'd been there from 10:45am until about 12:15pm. We left to get poor Mom some lunch because she was starving.
Eventually, we DID get a check for $450. Which isn't the full amount of the work that needs doing. In addition to the seals, there are a few hose problems including a power steering leak and others. The driver's seat is also stuck in the highest "up" position for the electronic lift and it makes it almost too high up for me to fit in it and literally undrivable for Love. His head is pushed into the ceiling. They looked at it, said the gears are shot and didn't do anything to lower it. They were also supposed to treat the front headlight case which was "fogged" over but their attempt at improving it made no difference. It is
something to be sure, but it's complete bullshit that we had to fight for over four hours just to get that little from them. We left there after 3pm.
Moving ForwardI stopped by my bank and cashed the check today. (I wasn't taking any chances.) I now have to schedule with my mechanic and have him do as much of the work as he can do - with priority on the seals of course - with the $450 I received. I do not have anything else to put towards it as I am also making payments on it now and that's a new bill each month I didn't have previously. (Thought things were tight then...) The only saving grace of this entire fiasco is that by taking it to my mechanic, I can be assured the work will actually be done. (We only half-joked that given their shady nature, I could easily believe that they'd simply flush the system,
say it was fixed and let my engine explode on my own time.)
I still feel like I need to address this some how further. They clearly mis-represented their warranty and blatantly pulled a bait-and-switch on my ability to get repairs. The sad fact is that this is the
third vehicle my mom has purchased from this dealership. Apparently even repeat business and tens of thousands of dollars isn't enough to promote honest dealings. It seems to me that I should have some further route to recoup more money for the remainder of the repair costs. But short of going to small claims court, I don't know how else I'd proceed. I just don't feel anywhere near satisfied by this outcome and it really burns my ass that two weeks after purchase they flat-out
lie and say I have no warranty at all.
So by the time I got home after 4pm today, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I'm proud I stuck to my guns enough to get
something from them - and to hold to my dignity even though the Chris guy was a masochistic asshole - but I just feel like it's still not fully acceptable outcome. It's frustrating and I am left unsatisfied by the situation.
Blah. tl;dr? Sorry. There's just so much that had to be said. And even so, even an entry this long doesn't recount every bit of a day as aggravating and long as this one. Still, if anyone has further thoughts, suggestions or courses of action I might consider, I'm all ears.
For now, I'm going to bed. Work tomorrow.
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It's Friday and Love's off for the holiday tomorrow but I'm at work. That's an odd reversal. I'm not here for much longer though. Only 'til 7pm and probably a little earlier than that since once the appointment in now finishes at 6:30pm, we're done for the day.
I was like, I don't want to return the car, I just want it fixed. It got hairy again for awhile there.