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corvetteguy78

corvetteguy78

Well-Known Member
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So Friday i get a letter for a recall on my car for some engine coil and i made an appointment for monday to have it replaced. Wouldn't you know yesterday my car starts acting wierd...It sorta almost is conking out on me and the check engine light goes on. It feels like its driving on 2 cylinders and when i floor it doesn't really speed up. So something is fucked up....AAA on there way now to have to to hoffman audi...
 
the coil being what gives your car spark..aka whats wrong with your car..aka why your running on less cylinders..
atleast you got the recall
 
What a coincidence...it was related to the recall....car runs 100% fine for over a year then i get the recall letter and the car starts acting funny....called me just now to say its all set...woohooo no OOp money
 
High end cars are programmed to fail at specific intervals. I'm guessing you ended up shelling out at least a couple benjamins on this one.
 
So they gave you the warranty out of the goodness of their hearts? Come on, you know you paid for it at some point. A warranty just forces you to bring it to the dealer and pay for their overpriced service plan. If they weren't making money, they wouldn't be doing it.
 
Nope, didnt pay a thing it was a Emissions Recall, they covered all the costs and even wahsed my car for me :)
 
I also have had warranty work done in the past that cost me absolutely nothing.

Granted, you pay for it in the cost of the car, but there's no further out of pocket expense involved.

Naturally they do their job as salespeople to try and sell you additional services while they have the car, but if you just say no, you're able to escape.
 
I know, I was just letting my conspiracy theory tinfoil hat show.

For Example: a modern vehicle can throw a check engine light for anything, a friend of mine had to take their vehicle in to the dealer so that they could update the firmware in the ECU. All the dealership did was plug in a computer and hit a few buttons. Sure, it was "free" because it was under warranty, but would they have done it for free on a vehicle just outside it's warranty? Hell no. He HAD to take it to the dealer, because only they had the special tool to fix it. He also HAD to take it in because it would have voided his warranty to take it elsewhere. Also, he loses his warranty if he doesn't bring it in at the mileage intervals to replace certain parts whether they're worn out or not. Do they cover these wear items under the warranty? Hell no, but if you don't replace them when they tell you, you'll lose your warranty. Also, there was nothing horribly wrong with the car, it just had a check engine light. It didn't affect power or gas mileage, but say he needs to renew his registration, he needs the check engine light off to pass inspection, to get the CEL off, he's gotta take it to the dealer. If he doesn't pay the dealer to fix it, the government won't let him drive his car on the street.

The system is rigged to fuck you over.
 
klyph said:
I know, I was just letting my conspiracy theory tinfoil hat show.

For Example: a modern vehicle can throw a check engine light for anything, a friend of mine had to take their vehicle in to the dealer so that they could update the firmware in the ECU. All the dealership did was plug in a computer and hit a few buttons. Sure, it was "free" because it was under warranty, but would they have done it for free on a vehicle just outside it's warranty? Hell no. He HAD to take it to the dealer, because only they had the special tool to fix it. He also HAD to take it in because it would have voided his warranty to take it elsewhere. Also, he loses his warranty if he doesn't bring it in at the mileage intervals to replace certain parts whether they're worn out or not. Do they cover these wear items under the warranty? Hell no, but if you don't replace them when they tell you, you'll lose your warranty. Also, there was nothing horribly wrong with the car, it just had a check engine light. It didn't affect power or gas mileage, but say he needs to renew his registration, he needs the check engine light off to pass inspection, to get the CEL off, he's gotta take it to the dealer. If he doesn't pay the dealer to fix it, the government won't let him drive his car on the street.

The system is rigged to fuck you over.
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wat?

The dealership does not have a super secret special tool that resets check engine lights. They have something called an OBD reader.

Lots of cars have random updates, it's not a must do, and if it is, guess what, it's their problem not yours.

If a manual says you must replace the brake pads at 30K miles, you don't and the warn brake pads rip into the rotors, over heat the calipers causing them to fail, you're right, the dealership will charge you for the warranty work. However if you fail to change the brake pads at 30K miles and the tail lights stop working, they CANNOT void your warranty work, If you don't change your engine oil from zero miles, take the car in with 25K miles on the clock with next to no oil in the engine, you take the car in for a bad coil pack, they CANNOT void your warranty for that unless they can prove the low oil caused the coil pack to die. They can only turn down warranty work if whatever you didn't do or did do caused the problem.

Major emission related stuff should be covered by every single US sold car for 80K miles

For 1995 and newer model year vehicles, emission control and emission related parts are warranted for the first 2 years or 24,000 miles of vehicle use. Specified major emission-control components are warranted for the first 8 years or 80,000 miles of vehicle use.
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from epa.gov

If Mercedes put out a firmware update for my car (and they have) its optional, if it's a MUST do firmware update by law they cannot charge for it.

Now if you use a shitty dealership I have zero doubt in my mind they will try to charge you, this is not uncommon for dealerships to try and charge for warranty work or recalls. My Suzuki dealership told me straight out I had to make a service appointment for my 500 mile first service, if I didn't have it done by a Suzuki dealership Suzuki would void my warranty, I laughed and told the guy to show it to me in writing.

He couldn't.

He also HAD to take it in because it would have voided his warranty to take it elsewhere
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Again.... just like that Suzuki dealership, its total bullshit, I already voided my Mercedes warranty because I did my own oil change........
 
Yeah I think in general dealerships have improved over the rep they used to have. Back in the day I had a 02 Grand Prix, less than 3000 miles on it, and it started to run like shit, took it into the dealer, they said I had the famous "bad gas", so they flushed it out and replaced it with their gas. The next day it wouldn't start in the morning. Took it back to them, turns out it was a fouled plug, which in the meantime clogged the cat. They gave me a loaner, ordered the new cat, replaced it, all the plugs, etc. and it cost me zero.

I think the people that have problems or complaints with the dealerships are the ones that take a 15 year old car in for an oil change and then pay for every "routine" service item the techs recommend.
 
D16Civic said:
Yeah I think in general dealerships have improved over the rep they used to have. Back in the day I had a 02 Grand Prix, less than 3000 miles on it, and it started to run like shit, took it into the dealer, they said I had the famous "bad gas", so they flushed it out and replaced it with their gas. The next day it wouldn't start in the morning. Took it back to them, turns out it was a fouled plug, which in the meantime clogged the cat. They gave me a loaner, ordered the new cat, replaced it, all the plugs, etc. and it cost me zero.

I think the people that have problems or complaints with the dealerships are the ones that take a 15 year old car in for an oil change and then pay for every "routine" service item the techs recommend.
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There really is shitty dealerships out there that will try and stick you with anything and everything. When it's clearly covered under warranty. doing as much as just asking why can be enough for the dealership to say oh wait no you're right this is covered, but for the people who dont ask why.........
 
I suppose that I'm generalizing, based upon my experiences with the local dealerships, but it's been enough to make me never want to own a new car, or have any dealership work on mine.
 
klyph said:
I suppose that I'm generalizing, based upon my experiences with the local dealerships, but it's been enough to make me never want to own a new car, or have any dealership work on mine.
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Anytime you can work on your own car it's always a big plus, but when it comes to having a lot of stuff on your plate it's nice to know that when you have a new car you will be taken care of, with no worries of stupid stuff breaking and not being covered. I can pull up in my Mercedes benz for an oil change and when I get there jump right into another Mercedes and go to work, when I'm done go back and drop it off then swap back, all part of the service offered by MB.

The local Lexus dealership will have a Lexus setting in the parking spot running with the door open, you pull up, leave your key in your car, get out and into the loaner Lexus that's already running and drive off, when you go to pick up your car you drive up to your car, get out of the loaner car and get back into your car that is already running and waiting for you, no paper work no nothing, you just have to set the service up with your info, they auto bill you.

If it's not a primary car, then I don't care but when it comes to my daily driver there's no way I'd own any car that could cause me more then 1 hour of down time. having a newer car pretty much guarantees that I wont have any issues and if I do, I don't care, I'm covered.
 
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