Car Dealer Blues.
 

I touched on this story in ZippyT's shitty day thread, but now I've got the whole story, I think.

Prolog~~A coworker owns a black 2002 Volkswagen Jetta VR6 with 81,2xx miles on it. Lots of highway driving. This guy is always well dressed and his desk and car are always impeccable. I mean the jacket on the back seat is carefully folded, now how many of you do that?

Act 1, scene1~~~So anyway the car dies and is towed to Garnet Volkswagen in Chadd’s Ford, PA. They tell him the Mass Airflow sensor crapped out, resulting in too much gasoline going into the catalytic converter, causing it to melt down, constipating the exhaust. Somewhere along the line the oxygen sensor also died, but it’s not clear as to when or why. Could have gone out with the Mass Airflow or as a result of it. Or it could have been caused by the cat meltdown.
Bottom line that will be $2400 please.
Now all these high ticket items are covered under the federally mandated emission system warrantee, right? Sorry pal, that ran out at 80k miles. You’re 1200 over, cash or Visa?

Act 1, scene2~~~Well there’s a silver lining to this cloud of gloom. The VW dealer is a Hertz Rental Car agent and they rent him a spiffy, brand new, arrest-me red, Mustang GT. Hot diggity!
That evening he goes to his brother’s house to show him the Mustang and look at the bro’s brand, spanking, new van.
Backing out of the driveway he massaged the side of the van with the Mustang, resulting in one maybe two chargeable accidents and $1000 total deductible. Oh, and a pissed off brother.

Act 2, scene1~ Back at the dealers he explains the customized Mustang, does the insurance paperwork and pays for his car.
Ouch, but now it’s all over.....heh, heh, heh.
His Jetta, which has not had a rattle or squeak for 81k, now sounds like a handful of silverware in a clothes dryer. U turn!
The service manager says that’s a broken exhaust hanger but they couldn’t replace it because it’s welded to the car. BUT, they are willing to weld it back together for $150. I have to tell you that the victim is easy going and very, very soft spoken....and unarmed. OK, all better now, but driving home it sounds like the mechanic is still under there with a large ball peen hammer.

Act2, scene2~~ Gosh son, you must have hit a whale of a pothole, you have a broken front spring. But it wasn’t broken when I brought it in. Well we didn’t break it...act of God...$500 please.
Driving home the victim notices the steering wheel isn’t straight. Now remember the folded jacket? He would know if the steering wheel had not been straight before, believe me. U turn!

You knocked my front end out of alignment when you replaced the spring. Nonsense, nothing we did could effect the alignment. HOWEVER, we will align the front end for only $250.
Now the victim, although still unarmed, is much less easy going and a whole lot less soft spoken.
Ok, ok, since you’re such a good customer, we’ll align it for free. Care to look at the new models while you wait?

So the car is home at last and the steering wheel is straight. (hopefully the wheels are too?) But it still rattles because whereas the factory exhaust system was as aligned and tight as well as German engineering could make it, the replacement is cobbled together of bits and pieces with lots (?) of clamps and I suspect, not welded.

Epilog~~~Today the victim told me he intends to write a letter to almost everyone in North America and Germany, so watch you mailbox, you may get one too. ;)

Dude needs to go to a different dealer or indepentend mechanic ( PLENTY of VW heads out there IF you look ) , lay out this orgy of hate for the general mngr and the service mngr and get an assment from then if he got fucked , (i suspect he DID ) , get an estement for what it will take to un-fuck his jetta , and get in contact with a lawyer .
Just my 2 cents .
Tell him to be mindfull that he possibly could be sued for slander if he writes said letter , again lawyer time .

I don't think they can sue him if he tells the truth. I was exagerating about the mailing list, just everyone in the VW chain of command and possibly political entities here. ;)

Well I for one am not going to buy another VW and one reason is the local dealers are all CRAP!! One misdiagnosed a major power steering problem on me a few years back. The other is co-branded BMW and charges major buckage for the smallest things.

Uh-oh, my son bought a used Jetta from Garnet Volkswagen.

What do you expect from a car that was originally designed by Nazis?

Oh no, Godwin's Law. :eek:

aren't there other options in the way of VW dealers back there? it sounds like this guy got totally hosed. i recommend he invest in a small arsenal and play hell on the hack mechanics involved. no jury in the world would convict a man for taking out carguys.

Do you want to tell that to LumberJim? :shotgun:

As far as the issue with the rental car, that was the guys fault. When my wife's car went in for service and they gave her a free rental, she paid the extra for the collision insurance. Even though she's the safest driver in the world (the little old lady from Pasedena is a NASCAR champion compared to her), she felt it was prudent.

Considering even a parking lot ding can cost about $100 if the agency gets picky about restoring it, I couldn't argue with her.

As far as alignment goes, I paid $60 for alignment to Garnet Ford even after my car had rods replaced. After thinking about it, I'm not sure that alignment shouldn't be part of the process. I'm not sure, though.

sure - i'm a former carguy myself. we know that the public doesn't like us.

Yes this guy got TOTALLY hosed, but is he clueless? That is the name of the game with car dealers. I'm surprised they didn't push him any further.

I have never met anyone that works for a car dealership that is trust worthy. About a year ago we bought a used Honda Oddysey. 60,000 +- miles, 'certified used' (whatever that means!), the dealer is supposed to do a 100pt inspection, car came with a 100,000 mile warrantee. Now, I love Hondas, I always have, but I HATE car dealers. They are always so slimy they just slide around the showroom like slithering snakes! Well two days AFTER we had the car it is DEAD in the driveway. That's right D E A D. Oh and of course it is a Sunday. I immediately call the dealership and leave a not so in control message and suggest/demand a phone call first thing in the morning on Monday. They didn't call. i call them ask for 'my' salesman, who by the way was about 23 and very anxious to please. Ask him if he got my message, yes he says, why didn't you call , Ah, um, I ah was ah waiting for my Manager to talk to you about it. I told him I was coming down with my two kids and our dog. If he did not replace the battery (thank goodness that is all it was) with a NEW battery IMMEDIATELY I was going to sugar up the kids and let them and the dog loose .

The moral is that the saleman was VERY good, but the maintenance dept. could not drag their feet any slower than if they had cement shoes. They did change the battery but I had to stand their to get them to get them off their asses.

We have an independant mechanic work on the car we are much happier and wealthier for it!!!

Its stories like that which make me want to get fitted for brass knuckles. Dealers suck.

On the sleaze scale, car dealer rate right up there with lawyers.

that doesn't mean we don't exist. by the way, most of our customers lie to us whenever they can because they assume we are lying to them.

we now video and audio record every transaction so we have proof of what was said. more for our protection than the customers.

yes 404 I would agree with you, and all of you car dealers are sleeze (been looking for a tail light for an 87 toyote pickup.... best I've found is 47$ online 10$ shipping. the dealer was 120$ base) anyway, there are always good mechanics if you look for them, my brother and a good friend can work on cars (hell! it might be worth it if you can drive down here!.. the other guy is certified to work on prrches/lamborguinis (no I'l never own one so I don't care to spekk it right :) the really cool italian cars (sorry been drinkin)) let me know though

ps. to that I don't mean you lumberjim

Do you have an auto-salvage operation nearby, cowhead? You could probably halve that price again.

I was talking to a guy yesterday who drove out to a mega-dealer in Big Flats to get a full size Chevy pickup. This guy works long hours and doesn't get much time off, so when he found himself free on New Years Eve he went shopping, except the local dealers were closed. So he drove the extra miles and probably got a better price. Now that he has his lemon, purchased out of town, the local dealers are refusing to service it...

ooops didn't mean to insult anybody. Maybe I should have said 'the majority'?.... :confused:

Not unlike the car dealer lump, at one time in my life of trying to decide what I want to do for a living, I was a real estate agent. I found the same thing to be true, most people found it very hard if not impossible to trust meand they mostly ended up lying or worse not believing me when I told them there was another couple putting in a contract. They would then lose the house and blame who else but me. Needless to say I didn't make much money simply because I was too honest!