There are still plenty of great auto shops out here on the frontier but more money every year is bringing on the bling and along with it the "high end" auto repair shops and the aforementioned "mechanics" . If my cars have something wrong with them that I can't or don't want to fix Chuck tells me how much it will cost and that is most often what it costs unless there was another issue in which case he'll call me to ASK if I would like him to fix it.

The last time I had a Ford factory service technician work on my MINT Superduty he backed it out of the garage with the door open....and then the ford dealership tried to claim it was like that when I brought the truck in, then when it was obvious I wasn;t buying it they had the body shop "fix" it so poorly cold air blew threw the cab at any speed. It finally took legal action for them to do the proper body work....NEVER AGAIN

One of my favourite stories....

Years back this friend of mine called me half hysterical. She had dropped off her nearly new Toyota Paseo to get the snow tires put on at a Canadian Tire store (think Pep Boys with service bays). We call Canadian Tire... Crappy Tire here in Cda. That is the most polite term we have for their automotive department.

This is one of the old style drive-in shops with one large shop door for all the bays. When she arrives to pick up the car, it has a huge dent and is being removed as it's completely off its tracks and hanging.

The service manager literally starts yelling at her, calls her a stupid *****, tells her they are suing her for the damage to their door... for not warning them the brakes were defective and someone could have been killed... yada yada.

Oh really, says I.

I call the local police traffic section and ask to speak to an accident investigator. Bonus: a woman picks up the phone. This will be good. I explain.

Officer turns out to be my kinda girl. She responds as follows: "You have got to be ****ing kidding me."

She tells me to have my friend call her immediately. They meet back at the shop within the hour.

My friend said that when the investigator walked in and flashed her identification, the service manager looked like Wile E. Coyote just as he realizes he's standing on air. Proceeds to stammer and sweat and deny most of what he said earlier, which won't work too well when faced with someone trained to interrogate uncooperative witnesses. Officer more or less quietly reams him a new one. Actually asks if he is the kind of man who gets off on calling women names and making threats.

Yes they paid for my friend's car repairs. Miraculously, the brake problem never appeared again.

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

My Father got a 2010 Ford Ranger brand new. I have serviced it for him pretty well, when I could not he took it in to the local dealer where he bought it. They could NEVER fix anything on it, always overtorqued the wheel bolts (all 4 wheel locks are now broken) to some silly amount, way more then 100lb/ft. They just don't care. I showed up one day and let them have it, this dealer has one service writer plus the manager. They had nothing to respond, gave me silly answers like I was born yesterday. He has never gone back and still outstanding issues. Headlights flicker on the highway after prolonged drives at 2000rpm. Rear end sags with a full tank of gas and people flash their high beams at us. Tires were scalloped before the first service! Still the same after many complaints and wheel alignment. Snow tires were fine though.
The only reason I pushed him towards a Ranger, they have been the same a very long time and simple, but apparently unable to fix them!
I am sure your daughter will be fine in the end, just stop making the payments and battle it out. It used to be the German brands that had problems with warranty, I think they all have problems now and the customer service is really poor everywhere now. You don't have to involve upper management it just pisses off the dealer even more, let them figure it out. I have seen it often, reoccurring problems but nobody will cover the actual time it takes to figure it out

Is this a dealer horror story thread now? Bmw dealers hAve been pretty awful for me but I'll spare the details. And yes, Zach got me right -- there should be an open line of communication with a corporate rep (who handles the entire case). Dealerships are representing the brand but ultimately ford has the last say in what they will pay for. I have heard both horror and success stories from dealings with companies, best of luck to Barry's daughter!

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth