When to call "BullSh-t" on a Car Dealership

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife is a very independent woman. She does what she does & explains/rationalizes whatever after. Her car (the only one we have a payment on, and fairly Hellacious mortgage-sized one at that) is a Honda Pilot. Fine, she drives 60+ miles a day round trip to work into a mountainous region of NW NJ that gets snow in November. Her car is her baby, she’d have no other, the car payment was a small price to pay.

3 weeks ago it broke. I was actually in the car when I heard the twang of metal underneath the car snapping. It was the heat shield (good thing she wasn’t in orbit). Off to the dealership (its where she does her repairs, its where she insists it BE repaired; pick/choose your battles, your mutual property may vary) it goes. A dealership where they admit they, in trying to repair it, stripped the metal to the transmission casing where the screws go. Ugh Luckily, we have a back up car (my Subaru).

A week goes by. Nope, not fixed yet, waiting on a part.

Two weeks go by. Nope, not fixed yet, the part is here, but we need a tool from Honda.

Three weeks go by. (Now think about that. Who here car work & pay bills w/o a car for 3 weeks???) I start calling myself. Car will be ready tomorrow. No, the cars not ready. Still waiting on a tool from Fed-Ex. Fed-Ex Tracking number? O wait, we don’t have that. Wouldn’t you know? Our mechanic forgot to ask. I’ll see if we can get one for you. Next week. :dubious:

Now, to be fair, they are offering us a loaner car. my wife could go back/forth to work in a big “Ass-H-le Honda” logo’d lime green loaner. But instead, she’s highway driving a citi-car that has no over-drive gear…the car I Need to still work come January snows or I’m Fired. I guess thats my motivation, but still something about this Doesn’t Seem Right. I’m starting to think that they totaled it while sending Moron Jr to go get lunch and are covering so they can get half-assed repairs done. I’m actually going to drive by the dealership tomorrow to look at it while it sits parked (and to make sure its still there).

OK, I’m paranoid and insulting of all car dealerships. I should be ashamed. Still going tomorrow.

That said, if your dealership was 3 weeks into a repair for something they broke, what would you do? Opinions? Suggestions?
Spock, you look like you want to say something…

2

I couldn’t understand from your rant whether or not you took them up on the offer of the loaner car. If not, you should, although I recommend that you insist that it be a Honda Pilot or better. And make sure that she drives the loaner the sixty plus miles to and from work daily. At least if you’re costing them something (in the form of wear and tear on their loaner fleet), they’ll have an incentive to expedite things.

3

Sorry, pretty pissed. Yeah, its a rant alright. TY for the thoughful input; I think I’ll take them up on it.

4

Call another mechanic who is not a dealer. No way another place that is independent will let a car sit that long without a repair.

5

Color me ignorant here, is this heat sheild needed to drive the car?

If not would paying for a part then coming in when all the parts/tools are available?

6

It sounds like they stripped a thread (over-tightening a bolt) and it needs to be drilled, tapped and a helicoil added. If it’s a straight down hole then any mechanic on the planet should be able to do this in an hour with a kit that can be found everywhere. If they mangled a screw hole in a tight space then holy crap did they open up a can of stupid. I suspect they damaged something that can’t be worked around like a bolt that goes into an oil gallery or a starter bolt that’s snapped off.

Find out what is really going on so you can gauge how long it will really take.

“stripped the metal to the transmission casing where the screws go” could mean you ran over something that dug into the transmission case as well as ripped off the heat shield.

7

TY, people! The heat shield is something that a car can be driven w/o. When they had it to fix that, they broke something else transmission related. They stripped the threads. It can’t hold transmission fluid, its not driveable acording to them (and by their error per phone conversations).

I think Magiver nailed it in one and that they are scrambling to solve the Rubic’s Cube mess now involved.

8

When you stop by to pick up the loaner, smile sweetly and mention that your wife’s new job has her driving 300 miles each day and that they should take their time doing the repair. Yes, it’s a lie, but they will hate the idea that you’re going to put that many miles on their loaner car. (I think that they eventually want to sell these cars as lightly used, and this will greatly reduce their revenues on the car.) At the same time, though, you do want them to do the repair correctly.

9

If it won’t hold tranny fluid, it’s absolutely unwise to drive it. No sense adding a tranny overhaul/ replacement to the mix, things are bad enough already.

This may be one of those situations where things mushroomed. For example, threads stripped on something, then in the attempt to repair the threads the tranny case got cracked and leaks. Now, that’s just a guess, and I don’t have enough info to plausibly explain the whole scenario, but stuff like this happens: things go wrong, and in trying to fix them things go wronger. The situation develops one step at a time, and surprises everyone one step at a time. Someone in the shop has probably been saying, “It’s still not fixed? Now what?” At the beginning no one could predict how long it would take. Might be human error, might be bad luck, most likely a bit of both.

If they’re going absorb the cost of whatever happened while it was in their care, and they’re willing to provide a loaner, I’d say that’s all one can reasonably expect. Sure, three weeks is a rather long time, but it’s not inherently ridiculous. Not all parts (especially, for example, a piece of transmission case) are readily available. Refusing to use a loaner because it’s a little garish strikes me as undue pickiness on your part, not a failure to adequately meet your needs on their part.

In your shoes, I’d politely but firmly ask for an ACCURATE, DETAILED explanation of what has occurred, perhaps gently suggesting that I feel like I’ve been getting the runaround and it has me wondering if I can trust them to be straight with me. Then I’d ask for a best-guess estimate of when the vehicle will be ready for you, AND strongly request (demand?) advisory updates if more delays occur.

10

I assume you’ve spoken to the service manager, but you might try writing to both the owner of the dealership and Honda America. It may or may not get your car fixed faster, but you can be sure that someone will be making sure it gets done right. At this point I’d suspect the chances of you buying another car from these clowns is pretty small, and if they want to have the slightest chance you’ll come back they should take care of you.

11

A couple of questions here:

1 - what does the warranty say about this sort of situation?

2 - what does the finance company say about this situation?

12

Go to Honda America immediately.

Once you become dissatisfied with service (after giving a fair chance) go p the latter. In this case you are absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it being bullshitted. Go over their heads.

13

I got my first brand new car when I was about 26. A week later, a large van backed into the front of it as it sat innocently parked at my place of work. This was a small front wheel drive car. The radiator was mangled, the right side headlight and qtr panel smashed, the hood crumpled. It was a sad and sorry sight. But, since it was literally brand new, my insurance didn’t total it. I took it to get fixed and since the other person was clearly at fault, I was able to get a loaner car. It wasn’t pretty and brand new, but it got me to where I needed to go. I had full insurance on my car so I declined their loaner insurance (which, in MA, you are allowed to do).

SIXTY DAYS LATER…I finally got my car back. They kept telling me it was waiting for a part. I knew the rest of the car was in bad shape and I understood it wouldn’t be quick, but SIXTY DAYS? And what were they waiting for for about half that time? The windshield washer overflow tank. Yes, seriously. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to take the car back in less than perfect condition given the circumstances.

And the fun didn’t end there. When I went to drop off the loaner and finally pick up my car, they tried to charge me nearly $600 for the insurance on the loaner. That was when I really lost it. I had to fight with the girl on the counter and fight more with the company on the phone. I finally won, but it was a hell ride. The whole experience was completely ridiculous.

Stay on top of them, document everything and absolutely call the service manager, the dealer owner and the company and follow up with letters, cc’ed to each.

14

Your wife sounds like mine. She has her car, it is her baby and only the very best service will do - that means the dealer. Like you I hold my tongue. It’s her car and her call on who takes care of it. She has commented favorable a few times on the cleanliness of the service bays and helpfulness of the mechanics there. Those are things that are noticeable and they are important to her. Recently she has started to notice that they always find something else wrong with her car when she brings it in for scheduled service, and sometimes the something else is completely made up bullshit, so she is considering maybe thinking about starting to begin to look into the possibility of using some other place.

When I take my car to my local mechanic on Saturday morning he manages to gather the parts from dealers and/or parts stores, gets the repairs done before he closes at 3:00 and still charges me half of the dealer’s price. His service bays all have oil and dirt on them though, so it is a trade off.

15

Um, I don’t see the problem with the service here, I see a problem with your wife. I have a Master Mechanic work on my car. His rates are half of the dealerships. My parents drive Audis, BMW’s, and Acuras, and their cars post-warranty and for all routine maintenance don’t see the lights of a dealership except to give them the middle finger.

You should really let your wife know that taking a car to a dealership - unless it’s for a warranty issue - is just throwing good money after bad. The mechanics are often less skilled than elsewhere.

My future MIL finally relented when the Hyundai dealership told her her rear taillight would be $60. Cost of the repair shop down the street with no waiting room or coffee? $15.

ETA: It really galls me when “only the best!” for women will do when it comes to cars. Makes the rest of us seem like morons. Clean service bays? This isn’t a steakhouse, you need not eat from them.

16

Is this warranty work? I would think so since there are still payments being made. I’m surprised they didn’t give you a loaner off the lot. When I needed warranty work done on my Mustang that took three days, I got a nicer car (not a sports, but it was nicer - don’t remember the model) for the duration at no charge. The only reason I would go to the dealer would be for warranty work. I go to an independent if the car is out of warranty or it’s not warranty covered work.

Female here.

17

Yeah, and you should have your car towed via AAA or somesuch to your chosen repair shop from the dealer. Don’t pay anything than the $100 or whatever “initial assessment”.

18

Your wife has a Subaru for this time, so that can handle anything in your area with ease. I’d take the loner for you or her for the time being, and at that time speak with the mechanic to have him show you what is happening with ‘her’ car.

19

My “used” cars all go to a local mechanic who does amazing work.

Yup, thats him. :wink: :smiley:

I’m going to lobby Really hard that it doesn’t take ‘Honda Magic’ to reset all her sensors that tell her the % of use of her oil etc.

20

Good thing she doesn’t have a BMW, where a hood costs as much as a decent used car.

Maybe show her some stats or cartalk pieces or somesuch? Anything to get her to see the price differential. Or just wash her car after its in the shop so it “feel” just as nice to her.